# [SOLVED] Synaptics touchpad not working

## Gear.0

I have a synaptics touchpad on my "HP Compaq nc6320" laptop.

I have followed this guide in trying to get it to work:

http://en.gentoo-wiki.com/wiki/Synaptics_Touchpad

I have the kernel components compiled in that are listed and the INPUT_DEVICES="synaptics" options in my make.conf, and I've emerged the xf86-input-synaptics driver.

I should also say that originally I didn't have either "hal" or "-hal" as a USE flag option, so I guess I had the defaults of whatever, then I added USE="-hal" and re emerged everything without 'hal' support.

But I do have my xorg.conf set up the same way as it is shown in that guide in the link I posted above.

The touchpad does actually seem functional..

if I do any of the following:

cat /dev/input/mice

cat /dev/input/mouse0

cat /dev/input/event6

I can see output to the terminal whenever I move or click my touchpad mouse.

However, it just doesn't seem to work with the XServer. When I run 'startx' which brings up OpenBox, I can't move my mouse unless I plug in an external usb mouse.

I've also tried adding:

Option "Device" "/dev/input/mouse0"

to my xorg.conf (note: I have tried all three of the /dev/input devices I listed above in bold) none of them worked.

I am just at a loss, I have been researching this for a few days, it really seems to me that everything is set up and configured perfectly.. I just don't know where to go from here. I am not getting any error messages or warnings to point me in the right direction. I just don't know what to try next.

Please help.Last edited by Gear.0 on Thu Aug 05, 2010 8:53 pm; edited 1 time in total

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## Gusar

Which xorg-server?

If 1.7, you should use HAL and configure the touchpad in fdi files, though it should already work without configuration, just maybe not exactly how you want.

If 1.8, don't use HAL and configure the touchpad in xorg.conf - but not as it's shown on that page, that's outdated. However, like before, it should work without any configuration.

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## Gear.0

It is 1.7

I am doing emerge --newuse world with the new USE flag 'hal'.

I is emerging the synatpics driver, xorg-server, and vlc.

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## Gear.0

Ok it is done, and I added an fdi file to:

/etc/hal/fdi/policy/11-x11-synaptics.fdi

with the content:

 *Quote:*   

> <?xml version="1.0" encoding="ISO-8859-1"?>
> 
> <deviceinfo version="0.2">
> 
>  <device>
> ...

 

I tried it first without a xorg.conf file. Then again with a xorg.conf file.

Both times when I start xserver nothing works. I have no keyboard no mouse and still no touchpad.

That was the problem I was having a while back and someone suggested to compile everything without HAL so I did, and that allowed me to use the keyboard and external mouses, but just the touchpad didn't work.

Should I re emerge everything without HAL support again?

You mentioned:

 *Gusar wrote:*   

> If 1.8, don't use HAL and configure the touchpad in xorg.conf - but not as it's shown on that page, that's outdated. However, like before, it should work without any configuration.

 

what would need to be changed in the xorg.conf they have on that page?

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## Gusar

To get keyboard and mouse with 1.7 and HAL, you need xf86-input-evdev (you need it for 1.8 too, for that matter). No idea why synaptics doesn't work. Have you restarted HAL after re-emerging stuff? Or possibly simplest method - add HAL to the default runlevel, then reboot.

Another thing to try - is the touchpad working outside of X?

For 1.8, xorg.conf would look like this:

```
Section "InputClass"

   Identifier   "touchpad"

   MatchIsTouchpad   "on"

   Driver      "synaptics"

   Option      "TapButton1"      "1"

EndSection
```

The section is now InputClass and MatchIsTouchpad is the magic keyword for, well, touchpads. Then add other options as desired, the way I've added TapButton1 above.

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## Gear.0

Awesome, it is working now!

I re-emerged hal with the laptop "use" flag (although I'm not sure if this did anything).

and I emerged the evdev driver.

But, yet another stupid mistake... I never started hal.

after doing

/etc/init.d/hald start  everything is working now.

I also added hald to start automatically with rc-update

thank you.

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## LEVIAYAN

be careful. With gnome, there is also System => Preferences => Mouse => touchpad. You need to verify what are the options ...

For synaptics, there are a lot of things : hal and fdi'files, xorg and xf86-input-synaptics, gnome ... And hal will be remplaced by deviceKit ..

Best regards,

Yann

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