Running XFCE on OpenSuse 13.2 on a Dell Latitude E7450. The touchpad is driving me insane. 25% of the time it works fine. The rest of the time it’s selecting/pasting random text, selecting from unrequested popup menus, or other randomness. VERY scary when you work as a sysadmin. Tried turning the touchpad off, but that also turns the nubbin/stick - leaving me with no pointer.
From reading elsewhere, I believe the problem is that the ALPS Glidepoint has been misidentified as a Generic PS/2 wheel mouse.
From dmesg: 1.824184] psmouse serio1: alps: Unknown ALPS touchpad: E7=73 03 0a, EC=88 ba 2a
In the Mouse and Touchbad window, it’s listed as an “ImPS/2 Generic Wheel Mouse”.
No clue how to change that. Everything I find on the web is either for Ubuntu or Gnome.
Would be happy if I could either turn the @#$% touchpad off or find a driver that works.
Since openSUSE 13.2 was released the same year that the Dell Latitude E7450, I would update the kernel.
Normally, openSUSE is very friendly with Dell, HP and Lenovo laptops. When the keyboard, touchpad
or mouse doesn’t work I always look at the kernel first and synaptics driver.
See kernel: http://download.opensuse.org/repositories/Kernel:/stable/standard/
Important info:
Add this code to create a bash script and execute it to set up your Alps touchpad:
#!/bin/bash
synclient -l | grep -i scroll
synclient VertTwoFingerScroll=1
synclient HorizTwoFingerScroll=1
synclient VertEdgeScroll=1
synclient HorizEdgeScroll=1
synclient -l | grep -i scroll
synclient -l | grep -i tap
synclient TapButton1=1
synclient TapButton2=1
synclient TapButton3=1
Type chmod +x alps_scriptname
Use “synclient” to adjust and control the behaviour of your touchpad.
Next ensure that you have installed using zypper: zypper in xinput xev libinput5 xf86-input-synaptics
FYI
http://www.0xf8.org/2016/01/workaround-for-broken-o2-micro-sd-card-reader-support-since-linux-kernel-version-4-1-8/
Good Luck!
Follow Up
While still in openSUSE 13.2 with kernel 3.1.6x, try adding to the kernel boot options:
psmouse.proto=bare
However, I would highly recommend updating the kernel and following the instructions in comment #2
You are indeed a wise penguin/lizard! Updating the kernel did the trick. Appreciate the other suggestions too, but would rather just turn the touchpad off (which I can now do).
Was surprised to learn that the package tool doesn’t update the kernel by default. Also good information. Thanks again.
Dan
You are welcome. Welcome to our openSUSE forum.
There’s nothing more frustrating than a wacky touchpad.
A lot of new laptop models have been added to the kernel 4x series.
I would also recommend that you use synclient to tweak your settings.
The command to turn off the touchpad is:
synclient TouchpadOff=1
To disable scrolling and tapping:
synclient TouchpadOff=2
Good Luck!