touchpad problems in mandrake 10.0

[quip]

I have a Dell Latitude C600 dual booting xp pro and mandrake 9.1. I downloaded and burnt mandy 10.0 and installed it on the laptop alongside the other two, just to try it out before I replaced 9.1 with it. Here's the problem:

The touchpad mouse is much more sensitive in 10 than 9.1. Also, I cannot use it to "click" (tapping it to select an item) The trackstick is fine, the four buttons (two lefts and two rights) are all fine. This is quite annoying since I use the touchpad exclusively while surfing and emailing.

Then it got really strange. I booted back into 9.1, and had the same problem. Then I booted into xp, and had the same problem. Now I am really bewildered. I checked the bios, ran the mouse config tool in mandrake (both 9.1 and 10) to no avail. Then I shut the machine off for a couple of minutes, and when I booted back up, the problem was gone in xp and 9.1, but persists in 10.0.

I also tried copying the entries for keyboard and mouse sections of the XF86Config-4 file from 9.1 to 10.0, but still the mouse exhibits the bad behavior. I searched and glanced at XFree's pages but didn't see anything.

Anyone got any ideas? Sorry if this is familiar ground.
Thanks.

[mdwatts]

I did a G4L search for touchpad sensitivity and found

http://www.rivenstone.net/linux/i2500/

of which has a X config example in the Synaptics Touchpad section that includes lots of tapping options.

[quip]

Thanks, md. I SWEAR I searched G4L and the archives here before posting; I guess I didn't search long enough, since I bet that you found that link pretty fast.;)
I will employ the methods described on that page and report back.

EDIT: One thing I am still wondering, though: Why was xp affected? Or 9.1 (still running a 2.4 kernel)?

[mdwatts]

Originally posted by quip

EDIT: One thing I am still wondering, though: Why was xp affected? Or 9.1 (still running a 2.4 kernel)?

It must have somehow changed the actual hardware settings on the laptop and didn't reset until you powered off and on.

I've had one distro change the clock and then affect XP and the other distros until I reset the clock in the bios. :confused:

[quip]

Originally posted by mdwatts
It must have somehow changed the actual hardware settings on the laptop and didn't reset until you powered off and on.

I've had one distro change the clock and then affect XP and the other distros until I reset the clock in the bios. :confused:
Huh...well, I didn't know that could happen--learn something new every day, I guess.

One last thing--I noticed on the page you linked to that tpconfig is mentioned, among other things. I checked the tpconfig page and it looks like it hasn't been updated for the 2.6 kernel, so I was planning on following the advice to pass a parameter on the kernel command line. Can I add the parameter to my lilo.conf like other things, or do I have to press a key combination (can't remember the combo off the top of my head) to get a cli at the lilo prompt and enter it then?

[mdwatts]

If the parameter is necessary to boot or for your hardware, then you might as well just add it to /etc/lilo.conf.

[quip]

Originally posted by mdwatts
If the parameter is necessary to boot or for your hardware, then you might as well just add it to /etc/lilo.conf.
Cool, just didn't know if I could or if it would be wiser to type it in each time (for some reason that I am unaware of)

[quip]

Got it working! Just thought I would drop a line detailing how I did it, in case anyone seaches this thread in the future.
1. Make sure you have the kernel sources installed.
2. Make sure you have the XFree devel packages installed.
3. Download the synaptics package at http://w1.894.telia.com/~u89404340/touchpad/index.html . (This is linked to from the page mdwatts linked to earlier in this thread) Run make, and put it (the new driver: syanptics_drv.o) in your XFree path (make install could do it, check doc). Some distros have different paths; the install file in the package details it nicely.
4. Make the recommended changes to your XF86Config-4 file. I just cut and pasted the entire mouse section from the included documentation.
5. Kill and restart X. All should be good.

[mdwatts]

Originally posted by quip
Got it working! Just thought I would drop a line detailing how I did it, in case anyone seaches this thread in the future.

Well done !!!