# Synaptics Touchpad goes out of sync

## desolation

It worked fine when i had just installed gentoo on my notebook, but then i noticed when i had the notebook on for a long time dmesg would output

psmouse.c: TouchPad at isa0060/serio4/input0 lost sync at byte 1

psmouse.c: TouchPad at isa0060/serio4/input0 lost sync at byte 1

psmouse.c: TouchPad at isa0060/serio4/input0 lost sync at byte 1

psmouse.c: TouchPad at isa0060/serio4/input0 lost sync at byte 1

psmouse.c: TouchPad at isa0060/serio4/input0 lost sync at byte 1

psmouse.c: TouchPad at isa0060/serio4/input0 lost sync at byte 1

psmouse.c: TouchPad at isa0060/serio4/input0 lost sync at byte 1

psmouse.c: TouchPad at isa0060/serio4/input0 lost sync at byte 1

psmouse.c: TouchPad at isa0060/serio4/input0 lost sync at byte 1

....

now when i boot up the system it doesn't even work, though when i plug in a usb mouse that works just fine

i followed the Gentoo-wiki synaptics guide but that doesn't help too

any known solutions ?

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## fredgt

What kernel are you using? What notebook is it? 

I had that problem with the 2.6.5 kernel. Before that it worked and after that it worked to. I'm not 100% certain that it was the kernel but upgrading did solve the problem.

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## desolation

It's an Asus L2000 notebook (SIS based Mobile Athlon XP-M)

I'm using 2.6.11 if i'm not mistaken, i installed it 4 days ago with a fresh and sparkly gentoo-sources

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## fredgt

I had the same problem on a Asus M6700R. The problem stopped when i updated the kernel. It could also have been something else but i don't know.

I did notice that the "Preemtible kernel" option in the "Processor type and features" in my kernel .config fixed al lot of problems with ACPI , frequency scaling etc. You could give that a try.

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## desolation

Thx for the advice

updating to 2.6.12 did the trick, let's hope it holds  :Smile: 

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## desolation

And it doesn't, after a while it goes out of sync again

i'll try using that kernel option

//edit : just noticed they were on  :Mad: 

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## desolation

when i use the liveCD it works fine, until i chroot to my gentoo install, then it goes out of sync

So it works for a little while when i boot up now, but after like10 minutes is borked again

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## desolation

anyone else got an idea ?

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## miscdebris

Try passing psmouse.proto=imps on the kernel command line or proto=imps on the psmouse module command line.

If that doesn't work, try psmouse.proto=bare (kernel) or proto=bare (module)

I forget this every time I rebuild my laptop and I have to google it.  You'd think I would write it down or something.

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## miscdebris

Ohh, and here's where I found it (and cut some text from)

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## desolation

how do i pass these commands to the kernel ?

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## miscdebris

In your /etc/modules.autoload.d/kernel-2.6 or /etc/modules.autoload.d/kernel-2.6, add one of these lines:  

```
psmouse proto=imps
```

or

```
psmouse proto=bare
```

or you can put this in grub on end of the kernel line as:

```
psmouse.proto=imps
```

or

```
psmouse.proto=bare
```

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## dgaffuri

 *miscdebris wrote:*   

> Ohh, and here's where I found it (and cut some text from)

 

Where, exactly?  :Very Happy: 

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## miscdebris

I just noticed it didn't link it. heh  And now I don't remember.  I remember googling psmouse and proto to find it though.

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## phate

Having same problem. Did you ever solve this??  :Rolling Eyes: 

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## desolation

Nope, never solved it  :Sad: 

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## miscdebris

the proto=imps didn't help?

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## phate

No, when I did this, Xorg didn't even start, since I have set my touchpad as my core pointer - And the synaptics driver couldn't find a synaptics device.

When I switched to the default "mouse" driver while having "proto=imps" set, it was like the old story: the pointer jumping arround and this "psmouse.c: TouchPad at ... lost sync at byte 1" output  :Sad: 

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## miscdebris

how about proto=bare?

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## phate

Same results.

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## wpegden

I know this thread is old, but if you guys are still around, try disabling your battery applets (if you have any).  In my case, the problem was my xfce4 battery applet.  Post here whether or not this works.

-Wes

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## phate

I have none  :Very Happy: 

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## wpegden

 *phate wrote:*   

> I have none 

 

Okay, well here was the source of that idea for me: http://kerneltrap.org/node/2199

Here's the rest of his suggestions:

Problem:

~~~~~~~~

I'm getting these:

	psmouse.c: PS/2 mouse at serio0 lost synchronization, throwing 2 bytes away.

Solution:

~~~~~~~~~

Check your mouse cable. If this only happens when you move your mouse in a

certain way, fix the mouse cable or replace the mouse.

Check your kernel and harddisk settings. This message can also happen when

the mouse interrupt is delayed more than one half of a second. Make sure DMA

is enabled for your harddrive and CD-ROM. Kill your ACPI/APM battery

monitoring applet. Try disabling ACPI, frequency scaling. Make sure your

time is ticking correctly, often with frequency scaling it gets unreliable.

Even if you're using the ACPI PM Timer as a clock source - actually this

often leads to the above problem.

By the way, what kind of machine is this?  Basic setup, etc?  We should list these and see if we can find a common element in the machines that have this problem.  The problem here was on an amd64 laptop (this one: http://www.linuxcertified.com/linux-laptop-lc2464.html)

-Wes

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