# Alienware m17x Synaptics Touchpad problems

## volumen1

So, I'm having problems getting the touchpad to work in X.  So, I thought I would take a step back and make sure all is well with the kernel.  Here is what I'm seeing.

```
stranger ~ # dmesg | grep -i synaptic

[    2.838468] Synaptics Touchpad, model: 1, fw: 7.0, id: 0x25c0b1, caps: 0xd04711/0xa00000/0x20000

[    2.883865] input: SynPS/2 Synaptics TouchPad as /devices/platform/i8042/serio2/input/input4

```

So, the kernel seems to see the touchpad.  Then I did a cat of /proc/bus/input/devices and I see the following chunk in there

```

I: Bus=0011 Vendor=0002 Product=0007 Version=25b1

N: Name="SynPS/2 Synaptics TouchPad"

P: Phys=isa0060/serio2/input0

S: Sysfs=/devices/platform/i8042/serio2/input/input4

U: Uniq=

H: Handlers=mouse0 event4 

B: PROP=1

B: EV=b

B: KEY=420 30000 0 0 0 0

B: ABS=11000003

```

However, if I do cat /dev/input/mouse0 or /dev/input/event4 and move around on the touchpad and/or click the buttons, nothing appears on the screen.

So, I don't really want to mess with X configuration yet, until I know this isn't a problem.  Shouldn't I be seeing gibberish when I try to cat /dev/input/mouse0 or /dev/input/event4?

I followed this guide http://en.gentoo-wiki.com/wiki/Synaptics_Touchpad as far as kernel configuration goes.  And, I'm running 2.6.39-gentoo-r3 for a kernel.

----------

## volumen1

Hmm... So, I rebooted into the liveCD and it was exhibiting the same behavior.  However, my external USB mouse (which is a whole nother ball of worms) was working when I did a cat /dev/input/mouse1.  Then I rebooted back into my Gentoo installation and my touchpad is working fine in X now.  However, the USB mouse is broken.

So, let me get this to the point where I can easily recreate the problem and I'll follow-up.

----------

## archenroot

Hi,

my touchpad on alienware m17r3 works just fine even I don't define it it directly in xorg.conf, when I defined it in xorg.conf the X server always told me that there is an error when starting up.

```
prokyon ~ # dmesg | grep -i synaptic

input: PS/2 Synaptics TouchPad as /devices/platform/i8042/serio1/input/input13
```

in auto generated /etc/X11/xorg.conf I commented out:

```
#Section "InputDevice"

#       Identifier      "Synaptics Touchpad"

#        Driver          "synaptics"

#        Option          "SendCoreEvents"        "true"

#        Option          "Device"                "/dev/psaux"

#        Option          "Protocol"              "auto-dev"

#        Option         "HorizScrollDelta"      "0"

#EndSection
```

Instead of this the touchpad seems is defined here:

```
prokyon ~ # cat /usr/share/X11/xorg.conf.d/10-evdev.conf

#

# Catch-all evdev loader for udev-based systems

# We don't simply match on any device since that also adds accelerometers

# and other devices that we don't really want to use. The list below

# matches everything but joysticks.

Section "InputClass"

        Identifier "evdev pointer catchall"

        MatchIsPointer "on"

        MatchDevicePath "/dev/input/event*"

        Driver "evdev"

EndSection

Section "InputClass"

        Identifier "evdev keyboard catchall"

        MatchIsKeyboard "on"

        MatchDevicePath "/dev/input/event*"

        Driver "evdev"

EndSection

Section "InputClass"

        Identifier "evdev touchpad catchall"

        MatchIsTouchpad "on"

        MatchDevicePath "/dev/input/event*"

        Driver "evdev"

EndSection

Section "InputClass"

        Identifier "evdev tablet catchall"

        MatchIsTablet "on"

        MatchDevicePath "/dev/input/event*"

        Driver "evdev"

EndSection

Section "InputClass"

        Identifier "evdev touchscreen catchall"

        MatchIsTouchscreen "on"

        MatchDevicePath "/dev/input/event*"

        Driver "evdev"

EndSection
```

Also the FN + F12 key shortcut is fully functional. After I installed also some of X and KDE packages it works really great.

----------

