touchpad/trackpoint sometimes not working after standby or reboot

English Hardware
1

thinkpad t460p,
since my update from leap 15.0 to 15.1 I have the problem that sometimes after reboot the touchpad/trackpoint are not working
and sometimes this happens also after the notebook was in standby,
very annoying, a reboot fixes this, but this is not a solution

what could cause this problem?

2
  1. Please, check the systemd Journal for any indications as to why the Touchpad driver is sometimes misbehaving.
  2. If you’re using the KDE Plasma GUI, please check ~/.local/share/sddm/xorg-session.log for any issues being reported by the Touchpad driver.
  3. If you’re using the KDE Plasma GUI, there’s some settings associated with the Touchpad and, a Plasmoid and, a Function Key, which you should check:

Can the Touchpad be re-enabled by means of the Function key?

3

I’ve read bug reports describing similar behaviour…
https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=1442699
https://bugzilla.suse.com/show_bug.cgi?id=1090457

Both mention trying this ‘psmouse.synaptics_intertouch=0’ kernel boot option, and some users report success using it. In particular, pay attention to Takashi Iwai’s comments in the latter bug report. Hope this helps.

4

thanks for the links, but the suse bugzilla says that whatever the fix is should be included and that the command line arg for the kernel should not be required

I had some problem like this years ago on a different distro and a different thinkpad, and used
modprobe -r psmouse; sleep 2; modprobe psmouse
to reactivate the mouse without reboot,

but today psmouse seems not to be used ?
what is used?

the sddm log says nothing to my mouse, but tons of
Invalid MIT-MAGIC-COOKIE-1
entries, what is another anoying problem I have but this was also in 15.0 and might deserve an own thread

5

I would give it a try first anyway. If necessary, post a bug report.

I had some problem like this years ago on a different distro and a different thinkpad, and used
modprobe -r psmouse; sleep 2; modprobe psmouse
to reactivate the mouse without reboot,

but today psmouse seems not to be used ?
what is used?

Not sure, but that method can only be used when such a module is built as a module rather than as part of the kernel itself.

the sddm log says nothing to my mouse

It’s a kernel-level issue, so you won’t see such messages in a desktop log.

6

I will try it with the boot option

psmouse.synaptics_intertouch=0

and see how it behaves over time,

however, I am disappointed, having Linux on my desktop since nearly 20 years, now it is 2019, and with problems like these we do not need to wonder that Linux has it hard to be accepted as a desktop operating system, and will never be, and I am so tired of stupid problems like this

7

Let us know how you get on.

however, I am disappointed, having Linux on my desktop since nearly 20 years, now it is 2019, and with problems like these we do not need to wonder that Linux has it hard to be accepted as a desktop operating system, and will never be, and I am so tired of stupid problems like this

I see that as more like hardware manufacturers not testing their products with Linux environments (as they would do with Windows). Vendor device driver support is lacking for many devices, relying on reverse engineering techniques and community effort.

8

If you want another set of problems, try the issues which the Redmond folks have provoked with their latest Office product:

  • It “calls home
    ” with “performance data” «at least that’s what they’re claiming – if you can believe them» it gleaned from the customer’s document you currently have open in “Word” – yes, it is possible to restrict what’s being sent back to Redmond but, the setting is “well hidden” – took me about ½ an hour to find it …

If that’s what you really want, then please …
[HR][/HR]Sometimes, the choice is the Pest or, Cholera … >:)

9

we are talking about a thinkpad t460p that never had any issues, and all the sudden there is this regression bug after the update to 15.1

I value your feedback deano_ferrari, but I think this is a house made problem, I have several thinkpads around me, all with different Linux installations, and except on some, I think it was Slackware where I could reload the modules, this problem never was an issue.
So exotic hardware is not an issue in this case

and dcurtisfra, what you write is pointless, regression problems like this is what people keep away from Linux
and believe me, after nearly 20 years with Linux as my main operating system, and fixing tons of such problems for me and people around me,I a super tired of stupid problems like this, because these are the kind of problems that will make the Windows subsystem for Linux to the main desktop distribution for a lot of people, because they do not care about sending their data, they have also android and or i phones
but this is all an other topic an heavily OT here, sorry

10

Regressions are a part of life with software development in general. I pointed you at just two of several bug reports I found online with some simple research. It’s clearly an uncommon issue, or there would be many more reports here, so all I can suggest is as I’ve already mentioned, and to post a bug report if this doesn’t resolve it for you. Ranting is wasted energy in my book.