touchpad & some function keys no longer working properly

SUSE Product Topics SLED Updates
1

[COLOR="#B22222"]touchpad & some function keys no longer working properly after sled11sp4 update

hi,
i have liked sled11sp4 very much so far, however, i have encountered a couple of problems: the function keys starting from fn+f8 to fn+f12 (and “fn+f13”, which is the mute button) are not working anymore in my laptop dell xps l502x (xmodmap?). also, the touchpad is extremely sensitive and the mouse gesture on the right side of the touchpad (which it behaved like scroll up & down) is not working anymore (missing xorg.conf?).

it’s worth mentioning that the function keys from fn+f2 to fn+f6 work properly. fn+f7 is assigned to nothing in this laptop.

now, when i click on the touchpad application in the control center, it gives the following error message: “gsynaptics couldn’t initialize. You have to set SHMconfig ‘true’ in xorg.conf or xf86config to use gsynaptics”.

but i can’t find the xorg.conf file as i stated above. I found several similar xorg.conf.suffix files in /etc/x11/ but nothing in /etc/ for xorg.conf
within those files, inside the xorg.conf.backup file found in this folder, there was no reference to SHMconfig.

also tried ‘init 3’ → 'sax2 -r -m 0=fbdev" as found in the release notes in order to manually generate a xorg.conf file; however, sax2 could not be initialized, it failed with a bunch of error messages.

i have disabled (set as ‘off’ in bumblebee) the discreet nvidia video card and only using the integrated intel hd3000 video card (the nvidia card consumes a lot of power and makes the laptop very hot)

these features used to work nicely in my sled11sp3. i wonder what happened.
by the way, i did not upgrade from sled11sp3 to sp4, it was a brand new installation.

any help is greatly appreciated. i use a lot of audios and videos and i utilize these keys very frequently, and the mouse gestures on my touchpad are basically out of control.

thanks in advance for your timely response.
Omar

PS: by the way, fn+F1 has never worked (this is the button to switch to presentation mode with a projector) however this is not a big deal, i don’t use this laptop for presentations. Cheers.
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2

Hi Omar,

[COLOR=#B22222]but i can’t find the xorg.conf file as i stated above.

[/COLOR]The system likely has its configuration in /etc/xorg.d. If so, look for a file there that either has “synaptics” in its name, or has a line >>Driver “synaptics”<< in it. Then you might try to modify its section to include

Section "InputClass" Driver "synaptics" [...] [B]Option "SHMConfig" "true"[/B] [...] EndSection
Regards,
Jens

PS: I’m coming from the SLES side and have no running SLED system at hand, so YMMV :-[

3

[COLOR="#B22222"]Hi Jens,
thanks for your input. it seems that in sled11sp4 there is no xorg.conf file created neither a /etc/xorg.d one.

as far as i know, starting from sled11sp1 the xorg.conf file was deprecated and it was then managed by kernel kms.
the topic is, having known this, why does the touchpad application complain then about xorg.conf and xf86config?

unfortunately, when i formatted and installed sled11sp4, i only backed up the /home partition but not critical config files in /

i also tried “init 3 → x -configure”, and it created a minimum xorg.conf file, however this one doesn’t work at all. even though this minimal (and very basic) xorg.conf is now there, touchpad still fails with the same error message. from what i read inside the file, the minimum xorg.conf file generated is all wrong. it not even close to the ones i have seen on the internet after doing some research.

what i would do next week (when i have the time), is to reinstall sled11sp3, make sure everything is proper, then back up some files. then move on to install sled11sp4 again and try to replicate the problem.

do you have any other hints before commencing this tedious task?
thanks again for helping out.

cheers.
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4

Hi Omar,

[COLOR=#B22222]as far as i know, starting from sled11sp1 the xorg.conf file was deprecated and it was then managed by kernel kms[/COLOR]

KMS, as I know it, only influences setting the screen resolution. Other configuration items, especially input devices, either are auto-detected or need their configuration in /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/* files (or in the old /etc/X11/xorg.conf file).

[COLOR=#B22222]do you have any other hints before commencing this tedious task?[/COLOR]

unfortunately, I have no SLED to look at the issue myself… maybe some other user is able to help out?

Regards,
Jens

5

[COLOR="#B22222"]Hi Jens,
i decided to reinstall sled11sp4 and the touch-pad issue is now gone. everything went back to normal which is good.
the new xorg.conf file was found here: /etc/X11/xorg.conf

Section "InputDevice" Driver "synaptics" Identifier "Mouse[1]" Option "Buttons" "4" Option "Device" "/dev/input/mice" Option "Emulate3Buttons" "on" Option "HorizScrollDelta" "0" Option "InputFashion" "Mouse" Option "Name" "Synaptics;Touchpad" Option "Protocol" "explorerps/2" Option "SHMConfig" "on" Option "Vendor" "Sysp" Option "ZAxisMapping" "4 5" EndSection

however, the problem with the function keys is still present. like i mentioned previously the function keys starting from fn+f8 to fn+f12 (and “fn+f13”, which is the mute button) are still not working.
do you have a hint on where to begin researching?
xmodmap? keyboard shortcuts application in control center?

i’ll try to search for a solution in other distributions forums. if i come up with an answer, i’ll post it here as well.

thanks in advance for your timely response.
cheers.
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6

[COLOR="#B22222"]after a lot of reading in several forums (not just the one linked here) and testing several key-mapping programs, i have been able to finally (& partially) solve this issue. the mute function, raise volume, lower volume now work!

the solution: i created the file $HOME/.Xmodmap and put inside the following information after investigating previously the key-codes for those multimedia buttons:

keycode 162 = XF86AudioPlay NoSymbol XF86AudioPlay NoSymbol XF86AudioPlay keycode 164 = XF86AudioStop NoSymbol XF86AudioStop NoSymbol XF86AudioStop keycode 144 = XF86AudioPrev NoSymbol XF86AudioPrev NoSymbol XF86AudioPrev keycode 153 = XF86AudioNext NoSymbol XF86AudioNext NoSymbol XF86AudioNext keycode 176 = XF86AudioRaiseVolume NoSymbol XF86AudioRaiseVolume NoSymbol XF86AudioRaiseVolume keycode 174 = XF86AudioLowerVolume NoSymbol XF86AudioLowerVolume NoSymbol XF86AudioLowerVolume keycode 160 = XF86AudioMute NoSymbol XF86AudioMute NoSymbol XF86AudioMute

then i logged out and logged in, and it worked as before!

now the second step (which is just for fun, not really important anymore) it’s how to set up those remaining keys with xmms (the original xmms1).
i tried setting up the play/pause, next/previous track keys; however, i still haven’t figured how to make them work.
however, this is not my concern anymore. all i wanted was the volume buttons.

this thread is now solved.
cheers!
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