Synaptics Driver on Lenovo in TW

I’m on a Lenovo T14 (AMD) with Tumbleweed 20210105 and having issues with the touchpad. It’s not the OEM touchpad, which worked fine.

I switched it out for a glass-topped one, with the hope it would provide a smoother finger experience. That did not happen (yet).

I’ve installed the xf86-input-synaptics package, as that seems to be the only one I can find with “synaptics” and libinput is not in the repositories.

xinput sees all the devices correctly:


~$ xinput list 
⎡ Virtual core pointer                          id=2    [master pointer  (3)] 
⎜   ↳ Virtual core XTEST pointer                id=4    [slave  pointer  (2)] 
⎜   ↳ Logitech B330/M330/M331                   id=16   [slave  pointer  (2)] 
⎜   ↳ TPPS/2 Elan TrackPoint                    id=14   [slave  pointer  (2)] 
⎜   ↳ SynPS/2 Synaptics TouchPad                id=13   [slave  pointer  (2)] 
⎣ Virtual core keyboard                         id=3    [master keyboard (2)] 
    ↳ Virtual core XTEST keyboard               id=5    [slave  keyboard (3)] 
    ↳ Power Button                              id=8    [slave  keyboard (3)] 
    ↳ Power Button                              id=6    [slave  keyboard (3)] 
    ↳ Integrated Camera: Integrated C           id=10   [slave  keyboard (3)] 
    ↳ Video Bus                                 id=7    [slave  keyboard (3)] 
    ↳ Integrated Camera: Integrated I           id=11   [slave  keyboard (3)] 
    ↳ Sleep Button                              id=9    [slave  keyboard (3)] 
    ↳ AT Translated Set 2 keyboard              id=12   [slave  keyboard (3)] 
    ↳ Logitech B330/M330/M331                   id=17   [slave  keyboard (3)] 
    ↳ ThinkPad Extra Buttons                    id=15   [slave  keyboard (3)]

But when I have the xinput --watch-props 13 [Synaptics] it looks like it is being turned off and on multiple times?


~$ xinput --watch-props 13 
Device 'SynPS/2 Synaptics TouchPad':
        Device Enabled (164):   1
        Coordinate Transformation Matrix (166): 1.000000, 0.000000, 0.000000, 0.000000, 1.000000, 0.000000, 0.000000, 0.000000, 1.000000
        Device Accel Profile (292):     1
        Device Accel Constant Deceleration (293):       2.500000
        Device Accel Adaptive Deceleration (294):       1.000000
        Device Accel Velocity Scaling (295):    12.500000
        Synaptics Edges (296):  1574, 5368, 1409, 4447
        Synaptics Finger (297): 25, 30, 0
        Synaptics Tap Time (298):       180
        Synaptics Tap Move (299):       246
        Synaptics Tap Durations (300):  180, 180, 100
        Synaptics ClickPad (301):       1
        Synaptics Middle Button Timeout (302):  0
        Synaptics Two-Finger Pressure (303):    282
        Synaptics Two-Finger Width (304):       7
        Synaptics Scrolling Distance (305):     113, 113
        Synaptics Edge Scrolling (306): 0, 0, 0
        Synaptics Two-Finger Scrolling (307):   1, 0
        Synaptics Move Speed (308):     1.000000, 1.750000, 0.035398, 0.000000
        Synaptics Off (309):    2
        Synaptics Locked Drags (310):   0
        Synaptics Locked Drags Timeout (311):   5000
        Synaptics Tap Action (312):     0, 0, 0, 0, 1, 3, 2
        Synaptics Click Action (313):   1, 3, 2
        Synaptics Circular Scrolling (314):     0
        Synaptics Circular Scrolling Distance (315):    0.100007
        Synaptics Circular Scrolling Trigger (316):     0
        Synaptics Circular Pad (317):   0
        Synaptics Palm Detection (318): 0
        Synaptics Palm Dimensions (319):        10, 200
        Synaptics Coasting Speed (320): 20.000000, 50.000000
        Synaptics Pressure Motion (321):        30, 160
        Synaptics Pressure Motion Factor (322): 1.000000, 1.000000
        Synaptics Grab Event Device (323):      0
        Synaptics Gestures (324):       1
        Synaptics Capabilities (325):   1, 0, 0, 1, 1, 1, 1
        Synaptics Pad Resolution (326): 54, 45
        Synaptics Area (327):   0, 0, 0, 0
        Synaptics Soft Button Areas (328):      3471, 0, 4058, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0
        Synaptics Noise Cancellation (329):     28, 28
        Device Product ID (288):        2, 7
        Device Node (287):      "/dev/input/event1"
Property 'Synaptics Off' changed.
        Synaptics Off (309):    0

I’d love to figure out a way around this not-working, because I appreciate the new trackpad. But of course, I can abandon it if it is hopeless and go back to the already-worn plastic one.

Thank you for any help or pointers!

Libinput support is installed by default, and with an Xorg wrapper for use with the Xorg server when required. However if the Xorg synaptics package is installed it will take precedence (due to the /etc/X11/Xorg.conf.d/ config file included).

It would seem that the new trackpad does not work in BIOS either (funny to me that there is a mouse there). I think fundamentally the hardware is not compatible, and will be reverting to the original pad.

Thank you for the assistance! I was able to see the Trackpad and properties with libinput, even if no settings made it work.