Acer switch 5 Linux mint, touchpad not working

2

Answers

  • maalfarob
    maalfarob Member Posts: 18 Troubleshooter
    JackE said:
    @maalfarob   Please answer. Did you install Mint alongside Win10? Jack E/NJ

    Sorry for not answering before. I erased windows and installed mint instead
  • maalfarob
    maalfarob Member Posts: 18 Troubleshooter
    Gawain said:
    what is the make and model of the trackpad?
    I'll check this afternoon and I'll write about it. But is the trackpad that cames with the tablet
  • maalfarob
    maalfarob Member Posts: 18 Troubleshooter
    Well, the keyboard is a 0knm-2 g2ui12 acer
  • Gawain
    Gawain Member Posts: 373 Seasoned Practitioner WiFi Icon
    and the trackpad?  Look in device manager in win 10

  • maalfarob
    maalfarob Member Posts: 18 Troubleshooter
    Gawain said:
    and the trackpad?  Look in device manager in win 10

    Well in device manager, you can see only show up as synaptic hid touchpad.

    It didn't say anything else
  • Gawain
    Gawain Member Posts: 373 Seasoned Practitioner WiFi Icon
    with ubuntu or mint (and a network connection)- at the command prompt try:
    sudo apt-get xserver-xorg-xinput-synaptic
  • JackE
    JackE ACE Posts: 44,330 Trailblazer
    Also unplug the USB mouse dongle to see how the touchpad responds. Also try clicking the left touchpard button area to see if it responds better. Jack E/NJ

    Jack E/NJ

  • Gawain
    Gawain Member Posts: 373 Seasoned Practitioner WiFi Icon
    edited April 2018
    there's a USB mouse dongle plugged in? (21 April - " Also, if you press the windows key, type touchpad, enter on that option, then go to the enable/disable touchpad option, is  "disable touchpad when mouse is plugged in" ticked? if so, untick and apply.")
  • JackE
    JackE ACE Posts: 44,330 Trailblazer
    @Gawain I just assumed a mouse was plugged in since the touchpad isn't working. Jack E/NJ

    Jack E/NJ

  • maalfarob
    maalfarob Member Posts: 18 Troubleshooter
    Nothing yet...
  • JackE
    JackE ACE Posts: 44,330 Trailblazer
    @maalfarob   >>>I erased windows and installed mint instead>>>

    Are you 100% sure the touchpad worked properly with Win10? Jack E/NJ

    Jack E/NJ

  • JackE
    JackE ACE Posts: 44,330 Trailblazer
    maalfarob said:
    JackE said:
    @maalfarob   Please answer. Did you install Mint alongside Win10? Jack E/NJ

    Sorry for not answering before. I erased windows and installed mint instead

    maalfarob said:
    Gawain said:
    and the trackpad?  Look in device manager in win 10

    Well in device manager, you can see only show up as synaptic hid touchpad.

    It didn't say anything else
    @maalfarob  If you erased Win10, then how did you answer @Gawain 's question? Jack E/NJ

    Jack E/NJ

  • maalfarob
    maalfarob Member Posts: 18 Troubleshooter
    JackE said:
    maalfarob said:
    JackE said:
    @maalfarob   Please answer. Did you install Mint alongside Win10? Jack E/NJ

    Sorry for not answering before. I erased windows and installed mint instead

    maalfarob said:
    Gawain said:
    and the trackpad?  Look in device manager in win 10

    Well in device manager, you can see only show up as synaptic hid touchpad.

    It didn't say anything else
    @maalfarob  If you erased Win10, then how did you answer @Gawain 's question? Jack E/NJ
    well, after everything. I had to go back to windows, because the touchpad
  • Gawain
    Gawain Member Posts: 373 Seasoned Practitioner WiFi Icon
    edited April 2018
    ubuntu has just released 18.04 last week, might be worth making a stick and live booting to see.  I doubt it would work, but you never know until you know...or one of the spins... (https://www.ubuntu.com/download/flavours)
  • maalfarob
    maalfarob Member Posts: 18 Troubleshooter
    Gawain said:
    ubuntu has just released 18.04 last week, might be worth making a stick and live booting to see.  I doubt it would work, but you never know until you know...or one of the spins... (https://www.ubuntu.com/download/flavours)

    I downloaded and I tried... Not luck with it. I think m the problem is all so recognize the laptop as a tablet and not as a computer, so they don't know that the attached keyboard has a touchpad in it.
  • JackE
    JackE ACE Posts: 44,330 Trailblazer
     @maalfarob  I  suggest that you register and post your problem on the Mint forum here https://forums.linuxmint.com/index.php?sid=f63f6b686d2f4b7e900344b6819f2bf4    Try to get a Mint forum contributor who goes by the name of "Altair4" to help you with this touchpad issue. I have found Altair4 to be very straightforward and knowledgable on these driver issues. If you are able to get it fixed via the Mint forum, please let us know how it was done. Jack E/NJ

    Jack E/NJ

  • maalfarob
    maalfarob Member Posts: 18 Troubleshooter
    JackE said:
     @maalfarob  I  suggest that you register and post your problem on the Mint forum here https://forums.linuxmint.com/index.php?sid=f63f6b686d2f4b7e900344b6819f2bf4    Try to get a Mint forum contributor who goes by the name of "Altair4" to help you with this touchpad issue. I have found Altair4 to be very straightforward and knowledgable on these driver issues. If you are able to get it fixed via the Mint forum, please let us know how it was done. Jack E/NJ
    Im on that... we'll see what happens. Thank you all for your help!
  • GitOut
    GitOut Member Posts: 2 New User
    I appear to have run into the same issue on Arch Linux (using a 4.16 kernel), but looking into the dmesg errors a bit, it turns out that blacklisting the `hid-rmi` module seems to get the touchpad working with no other ill effects as far as I can tell. It also for me fixed the keyboard not working after reattaching it.
  • JackE
    JackE ACE Posts: 44,330 Trailblazer
    @GitOut Well thanks for the report. For the benefit of us dualbooters, could you briefly outline your steps taken to blacklist the hid-rmi module in your distribution. Thanks. Jack E/NJ

    Jack E/NJ

  • GitOut
    GitOut Member Posts: 2 New User
    JackE said:
    @GitOut Well thanks for the report. For the benefit of us dualbooters, could you briefly outline your steps taken to blacklist the hid-rmi module in your distribution. Thanks. Jack E/NJ
    In order to blacklist the module it is enough to for example add a file (you need root/sudo/sudoedit to create it of course) like `/etc/modprobe.d/30-touchpad-fix.conf` (the filename does not matter a lot, just make sure to not overwrite existing files) and adding the line `blacklist hid-rmi
    ` into it. The location should be the same on other distributions.

    A word of warning, sadly whilst the touchpad "works", it only works as a relative input mouse, so no multi-touch features work (including scrolling, middle-clicks etc.), so even though the device is somewhat useable, it's extremely basic. (I only noticed that after a bit)

    I'm currently trying to collect more info on this bug (in order to decide if I can keep to the device or need to return it), in particular https://bugzilla.kernel.org/show_bug.cgi?id=9585 appears to be the very same problem (minus the touchpad still "working" with hid-rmi blacklisted),
    although that report seems to be rather dead sadly.