Re: Touchpad problems with latest kernels

Dmitry Torokhov
2006-08-14T15:13:40Z

HI Gene,

On 8/14/06, Gene Heskett <gene.heskett@verizon.net> wrote:
>
> I'm having similar problems with an HP Pavilian dv5220, and with a
> bluetooth mouse dongle plugged into the right side usb port it works just
> fine. What I'd like to do is totally disable that synaptics pad as its
> way too sensitive,

Are you using synaptics X driver? It can be tweaked to adjust
sensitivity and lots of other things.

> making it impossible to type more than a line or 2
> without the cursor suddenly jumping to someplace else in the message,
> often highliteing several lines of text as it goes, and the next keystroke
> then deletes wholesale quantities of text, thoroughly destroying any
> chance of actually writing a cogent, understandable email response to
> anyone.
>

Have you tried synclient utility? It temporarily disables the touchpad
when you start typing and re-enables it when you done.

> Unforch, my questions along those lines have been treated as the ravings of
> a lunatic and ignored. The bios has no place to disable it, dumbest bios
> I've seen in quite a while, and it has been updated in the last 3 months.
>
> I don't *think* I'm a lunatic, but I'm equally sure that the synaptics is a
> pain in the ass and should be capable of being totally disabled somehow,
> hopefully short of opening the lappy up and unplugging or cutting every
> lead to it until such time as it can be made to behave instead of
> responding to every thumb waved 1/2 to 3/4" above it. I've gotten hand
> cramps trying to hold my thumbs far enough away from that abomination to
> stop such goings on.
>
> So count this as a vote FOR doing something about the synaptics touchpad
> situation.
>

There are ways to disable it:

echo -n "manual" > /sys/bus/serio/devices/serioX/bind_mode
echo -n "none" > /sys/bus/serio/devices/serioXdrvctl

This should disable it completely.

--
Dmitry