[vox-tech] Synaptics driver problem on Lenovo Thinkpad e455

[Bill Kendrick]

On Mon, Apr 27, 2015 at 01:21:17AM -0700, Bill Kendrick wrote:
> 
> My wife just picked up a used Thinkpad e455 laptop and it's
> working fairly well with Kubuntu 14.04 (trusty).
> 
> One big problem is: we're unable to get KDE to disable the
> touchpad while she types (or, like, at all).  The KDE
> control center's "Touchpad" module complains that the
> Synpatics driver is not loaded.

So it turns out the device is an ALPS, which includes both
the Trackpoint and its physical buttons, and the Touchpad.
But it's some newer version, so wasn't being recognized
as anything other than an "unknown PS/2" device.

So Synaptics didn't recognize it, and therefore gestures
didn't work (but who cares, neither of us like touchpads),
and more importanlty the pad itself couldn't be disabled.

A random ref from my winding twisty maze of notes:
http://askubuntu.com/questions/505633/alps-touchpad-detected-as-ps-2-corrected-with-psmouse-dkms-alpsv7-but-reset-aft


Doing that DKMS stuff helped, but now it's difficult to
actually click using the physical buttons.  Turns out there's
a story that goes something along the lines of:

  * Trackpoint had physical buttons
  * Lenovo decided to remove physical buttons, force people
    to use the top section of the touchpad to click
  * People hated that
  * Lenovo put the physical buttons back
  * But internally they're set up to route through the
    touchpad.  LOL!!!

At this point I'm saying F it all and trying Linux Kernel 4.0.x
(this is on an Ubuntu 14.04 LTS currently running 3.16.x)

I hate proprietary hardware, and I hate that Dell used it,
since they apparently (on & off) sell devices w/ Linux on them. :(

-bill!