Re: laptop touchpad works fine for a while, then stops working

[Jonathan Thornburg]

On Fri, Jan 28, 2022 at 11:09:17PM +0100, Ulf Brosziewski wrote:
> Most likely this means it's a hardware or firmware problem.

Thanks for the diagnosis.  I guess I'll just have to live with the
problem (and hope it doesn't become more frequent).

--
-- "Jonathan Thornburg [remove color- to reply]" 
   on the west coast of Canada, eh?
   "There was of course no way of knowing whether you were being watched
at any given moment.  How often, or on what system, the Thought Police
plugged in on any individual wire was guesswork.  It was even conceivable
that they watched everybody all the time."  -- George Orwell, "1984"

Re: laptop touchpad works fine for a while, then stops working

[Ulf Brosziewski]

Moving a finger in circles on the touchpad produced these log lines?  If
that's the case, they match your description of the problem: they report
a contact that hardly ever moves, with only minimal changes of its position.
Every now and then a second contact is reported, and only once, after a
change of the contact count, a short and fast vertical movement (it might
be the only sequence without stale position data, and if the contact count
is 2, such a case may trigger scroll events).  Only pressure values are
reported regularly.

Most likely this means it's a hardware or firmware problem.


On 1/28/22 09:41, Jonathan Thornburg wrote:
> In , I wrote
>> I'm having a problem with my laptop touchpad under X (7.0-stable/amd64,
>> GENERIC.MP, Lenovo Thinkpad T580, full dmesg and Xorg.0.log given below):
>> When X is first started or restarted the touchpad is fine, but after X
>> has been running for "a while" (anywhere from 2 hours to some days),
>> the touchpad will suddenly stop working. [[...]]
> 
> In ,
> Ulf Brosziewski replied
>> When the touchpad stops working, you could enable wsmouse logging, make
>> one or two movements on the touchpad, and extract and post the relevant
>> part of /var/log/messages.  [[...]]
> 
> The problem has just re-occured (after almost 3 weeks with no occurences;
> at the time I previously wrote to misc@ it had been occuring ~daily)
> and after some fumbling around I was able to enable wsmouse logging
> as Ulf suggested.  After various mouse movements (mostly moving my
> finger around the touchpad in large circles) I restarted the X server
> (Ctrl/Alt/Backspace) but this failed to restore a working touchpad,
> nor did restarting the X server again, so eventually I copied
> /var/log/messages to a spool directory and rebooted.
> 
> Here's the tail (last 705 lines) of the copied /var/log/messages.
> 
> Jan 27 23:55:24 gold apmd: system resumed from sleep
> Jan 27 23:55:24 gold apmd: battery status: high. external power status: 
> connected. estimated battery life 88%
> Jan 28 00:14:20 gold /bsd: [wsmouse0-ev][0732] 11:37 18:0
> Jan 28 00:14:20 gold /bsd: [wsmouse0-in][0752] abs:1932,1163
> Jan 28 00:14:20 gold /bsd: [wsmouse0-ev][0752] 8:1932 9:1163 18:0
> Jan 28 00:14:20 gold /bsd: [wsmouse0-ev][0792] 11:36 18:0
> Jan 28 00:14:20 gold /bsd: [wsmouse0-ev][0812] 11:37 18:0
> Jan 28 00:14:20 gold /bsd: [wsmouse0-ev][0832] 11:36 18:0
> Jan 28 00:14:20 gold /bsd: [wsmouse0-ev][0842] 11:38 18:0
> Jan 28 00:14:20 gold /bsd: [wsmouse0-ev][0852] 11:36 18:0
> Jan 28 00:14:20 gold /bsd: [wsmouse0-ev][0862] 11:37 18:0
> Jan 28 00:14:20 gold /bsd: [wsmouse0-ev][0872] 11:36 18:0
> Jan 28 00:14:20 gold /bsd: [wsmouse0-ev][0892] 11:37 18:0
> Jan 28 00:14:20 gold /bsd: [wsmouse0-ev][0902] 11:40 18:0
> Jan 28 00:14:20 gold /bsd: [wsmouse0-ev][0912] 11:36 18:0
> Jan 28 00:14:20 gold /bsd: [wsmouse0-ev][0922] 11:38 18:0
> Jan 28 00:14:20 gold /bsd: [wsmouse0-ev][0942] 11:37 18:0
> Jan 28 00:14:20 gold /bsd: [wsmouse0-ev][0952] 11:36 18:0
> Jan 28 00:14:20 gold /bsd: [wsmouse0-ev][0962] 11:37 18:0
> Jan 28 00:14:21 gold /bsd: [wsmouse0-ev][0982] 11:36 18:0
> Jan 28 00:14:21 gold /bsd: [wsmouse0-ev][1012] 11:38 18:0
> Jan 28 00:14:21 gold /bsd: [wsmouse0-ev][1022] 11:37 18:0
> Jan 28 00:14:21 gold /bsd: [wsmouse0-ev][1032] 11:36 18:0
> Jan 28 00:14:21 gold /bsd: [wsmouse0-ev][1042] 11:37 18:0
> Jan 28 00:14:21 gold /bsd: [wsmouse0-ev][1062] 11:35 18:0
> Jan 28 00:14:21 gold /bsd: [wsmouse0-ev][1072] 11:36 18:0
> Jan 28 00:14:21 gold /bsd: [wsmouse0-ev][1082] 11:35 18:0
> Jan 28 00:14:21 gold /bsd: [wsmouse0-ev][1092] 11:36 18:0
> Jan 28 00:14:21 gold /bsd: [wsmouse0-ev][1112] 11:37 18:0
> Jan 28 00:14:21 gold /bsd: [wsmouse0-ev][1132] 11:36 18:0
> Jan 28 00:14:21 gold /bsd: [wsmouse0-ev][1142] 11:37 18:0
> Jan 28 00:14:21 gold /bsd: [wsmouse0-ev][1162] 11:36 18:0
> Jan 28 00:14:21 gold /bsd: [wsmouse0-ev][1172] 11:37 18:0
> Jan 28 00:14:21 gold /bsd: [wsmouse0-ev][1182] 11:36 18:0
> Jan 28 00:14:21 gold /bsd: [wsmouse0-ev][1192] 11:35 18:0
> Jan 28 00:14:21 gold /bsd: [wsmouse0-ev][1202] 11:37 18:0
> Jan 28 00:14:21 gold /bsd: [wsmouse0-ev][1222] 11:36 18:0
> Jan 28 00:14:21 gold /bsd: [wsmouse0-ev][1232] 11:35 18:0
> Jan 28 00:14:21 gold /bsd: [wsmouse0-ev][1242] 11:37 18:0
> Jan 28 00:14:21 gold /bsd: [wsmouse0-ev][1252] 11:36 18:0
> Jan 28 00:14:21 gold /bsd: [wsmouse0-in][1272] abs:1934,1162
> Jan 28 00:14:21 gold /bsd: [wsmouse0-ev][1272] 8:1934 9:1162 11:35 18:0
> Jan 28 00:14:21 gold /bsd: [wsmouse0-ev][1282] 11:36 18:0
> Jan 28 00:14:21 gold /bsd: [wsmouse0-ev][1292] 11:35 18:0
> Jan 28 00:14:21 gold /bsd: [wsmouse0-ev][1302] 11:36 18:0
> Jan 28 00:14:21 gold /bsd: [wsmouse0-ev][1312] 11:35 18:0
> Jan 28 00:14:21 gold /bsd: [wsmouse0-ev][1342] 11:36 18:0
> Jan 28 00:14:21 gold /bsd: [wsmouse0-ev][1352] 11:35 18:0
> Jan 28 00:14:21 gold /bsd: [wsmouse0-ev][1362] 11:36 18:0
> Jan 28 00:14:21 

Re: laptop touchpad works fine for a while, then stops working

[Jonathan Thornburg]

In , I wrote
> I'm having a problem with my laptop touchpad under X (7.0-stable/amd64,
> GENERIC.MP, Lenovo Thinkpad T580, full dmesg and Xorg.0.log given below):
> When X is first started or restarted the touchpad is fine, but after X
> has been running for "a while" (anywhere from 2 hours to some days),
> the touchpad will suddenly stop working. [[...]]

In ,
Ulf Brosziewski replied
> When the touchpad stops working, you could enable wsmouse logging, make
> one or two movements on the touchpad, and extract and post the relevant
> part of /var/log/messages.  [[...]]

The problem has just re-occured (after almost 3 weeks with no occurences;
at the time I previously wrote to misc@ it had been occuring ~daily)
and after some fumbling around I was able to enable wsmouse logging
as Ulf suggested.  After various mouse movements (mostly moving my
finger around the touchpad in large circles) I restarted the X server
(Ctrl/Alt/Backspace) but this failed to restore a working touchpad,
nor did restarting the X server again, so eventually I copied
/var/log/messages to a spool directory and rebooted.

Here's the tail (last 705 lines) of the copied /var/log/messages.

Jan 27 23:55:24 gold apmd: system resumed from sleep
Jan 27 23:55:24 gold apmd: battery status: high. external power status: 
connected. estimated battery life 88%
Jan 28 00:14:20 gold /bsd: [wsmouse0-ev][0732] 11:37 18:0
Jan 28 00:14:20 gold /bsd: [wsmouse0-in][0752] abs:1932,1163
Jan 28 00:14:20 gold /bsd: [wsmouse0-ev][0752] 8:1932 9:1163 18:0
Jan 28 00:14:20 gold /bsd: [wsmouse0-ev][0792] 11:36 18:0
Jan 28 00:14:20 gold /bsd: [wsmouse0-ev][0812] 11:37 18:0
Jan 28 00:14:20 gold /bsd: [wsmouse0-ev][0832] 11:36 18:0
Jan 28 00:14:20 gold /bsd: [wsmouse0-ev][0842] 11:38 18:0
Jan 28 00:14:20 gold /bsd: [wsmouse0-ev][0852] 11:36 18:0
Jan 28 00:14:20 gold /bsd: [wsmouse0-ev][0862] 11:37 18:0
Jan 28 00:14:20 gold /bsd: [wsmouse0-ev][0872] 11:36 18:0
Jan 28 00:14:20 gold /bsd: [wsmouse0-ev][0892] 11:37 18:0
Jan 28 00:14:20 gold /bsd: [wsmouse0-ev][0902] 11:40 18:0
Jan 28 00:14:20 gold /bsd: [wsmouse0-ev][0912] 11:36 18:0
Jan 28 00:14:20 gold /bsd: [wsmouse0-ev][0922] 11:38 18:0
Jan 28 00:14:20 gold /bsd: [wsmouse0-ev][0942] 11:37 18:0
Jan 28 00:14:20 gold /bsd: [wsmouse0-ev][0952] 11:36 18:0
Jan 28 00:14:20 gold /bsd: [wsmouse0-ev][0962] 11:37 18:0
Jan 28 00:14:21 gold /bsd: [wsmouse0-ev][0982] 11:36 18:0
Jan 28 00:14:21 gold /bsd: [wsmouse0-ev][1012] 11:38 18:0
Jan 28 00:14:21 gold /bsd: [wsmouse0-ev][1022] 11:37 18:0
Jan 28 00:14:21 gold /bsd: [wsmouse0-ev][1032] 11:36 18:0
Jan 28 00:14:21 gold /bsd: [wsmouse0-ev][1042] 11:37 18:0
Jan 28 00:14:21 gold /bsd: [wsmouse0-ev][1062] 11:35 18:0
Jan 28 00:14:21 gold /bsd: [wsmouse0-ev][1072] 11:36 18:0
Jan 28 00:14:21 gold /bsd: [wsmouse0-ev][1082] 11:35 18:0
Jan 28 00:14:21 gold /bsd: [wsmouse0-ev][1092] 11:36 18:0
Jan 28 00:14:21 gold /bsd: [wsmouse0-ev][1112] 11:37 18:0
Jan 28 00:14:21 gold /bsd: [wsmouse0-ev][1132] 11:36 18:0
Jan 28 00:14:21 gold /bsd: [wsmouse0-ev][1142] 11:37 18:0
Jan 28 00:14:21 gold /bsd: [wsmouse0-ev][1162] 11:36 18:0
Jan 28 00:14:21 gold /bsd: [wsmouse0-ev][1172] 11:37 18:0
Jan 28 00:14:21 gold /bsd: [wsmouse0-ev][1182] 11:36 18:0
Jan 28 00:14:21 gold /bsd: [wsmouse0-ev][1192] 11:35 18:0
Jan 28 00:14:21 gold /bsd: [wsmouse0-ev][1202] 11:37 18:0
Jan 28 00:14:21 gold /bsd: [wsmouse0-ev][1222] 11:36 18:0
Jan 28 00:14:21 gold /bsd: [wsmouse0-ev][1232] 11:35 18:0
Jan 28 00:14:21 gold /bsd: [wsmouse0-ev][1242] 11:37 18:0
Jan 28 00:14:21 gold /bsd: [wsmouse0-ev][1252] 11:36 18:0
Jan 28 00:14:21 gold /bsd: [wsmouse0-in][1272] abs:1934,1162
Jan 28 00:14:21 gold /bsd: [wsmouse0-ev][1272] 8:1934 9:1162 11:35 18:0
Jan 28 00:14:21 gold /bsd: [wsmouse0-ev][1282] 11:36 18:0
Jan 28 00:14:21 gold /bsd: [wsmouse0-ev][1292] 11:35 18:0
Jan 28 00:14:21 gold /bsd: [wsmouse0-ev][1302] 11:36 18:0
Jan 28 00:14:21 gold /bsd: [wsmouse0-ev][1312] 11:35 18:0
Jan 28 00:14:21 gold /bsd: [wsmouse0-ev][1342] 11:36 18:0
Jan 28 00:14:21 gold /bsd: [wsmouse0-ev][1352] 11:35 18:0
Jan 28 00:14:21 gold /bsd: [wsmouse0-ev][1362] 11:36 18:0
Jan 28 00:14:21 gold /bsd: [wsmouse0-ev][1422] 11:35 18:0
Jan 28 00:14:21 gold /bsd: [wsmouse0-ev][1472] 11:36 18:0
Jan 28 00:14:21 gold /bsd: [wsmouse0-ev][1502] 11:37 18:0
Jan 28 00:14:21 gold /bsd: [wsmouse0-ev][1512] 11:36 18:0
Jan 28 00:14:21 gold /bsd: [wsmouse0-ev][1522] 11:35 18:0
Jan 28 00:14:21 gold /bsd: [wsmouse0-ev][1562] 11:36 18:0
Jan 28 00:14:21 gold /bsd: [wsmouse0-ev][1602] 11:35 18:0
Jan 28 00:14:21 gold /bsd: [wsmouse0-ev][1612] 11:36 18:0
Jan 28 00:14:21 gold /bsd: [wsmouse0-ev][1722] 11:35 18:0
Jan 28 00:14:21 gold /bsd: [wsmouse0-ev][1732] 11:36 18:0
Jan 28 00:14:21 gold /bsd: [wsmouse0-ev][1742] 11:35 18:0
Jan 28 00:14:21 gold /bsd: [wsmouse0-ev][1772] 11:36 18:0
Jan 28 00:14:21 gold /bsd: [wsmouse0-ev][1802] 11:35 18:0
Jan 28 00:14:21 gold /bsd: [wsmouse0-ev][1812] 

Re: laptop touchpad works fine for a while, then stops working

[Jonathan Thornburg]

Hi Ulf,

On Fri, Jan 07, 2022 at 10:52:20PM +0100, Ulf Brosziewski wrote:
> When the touchpad stops working, you could enable wsmouse logging, make
> one or two movements on the touchpad, and extract and post the relevant
> part of /var/log/messages.  It might help to determine where the problem
> is.

I will try this the next time the touchpad stops working.


In the meantime...
> Does the problem persist when you throw away your xorg.conf?

I can't easily tell because without xorg.conf the system is unusable
due to the "cursor jumps to left or top of screen" problem.


> And BTW,
> you have different hardware now, is it still necessary to avoid those
> cursor jumps?

Yes, xorg.conf is still necessary on both my T530 and my T580 to avoid
the cursor jumps, at least for twm and ctwm.  xorg.conf is NOT necessary
for fvwm on either machine.

All the best, keep safe and COVID-free, -- Jonathan

Re: laptop touchpad works fine for a while, then stops working

[Ulf Brosziewski]

When the touchpad stops working, you could enable wsmouse logging, make
one or two movements on the touchpad, and extract and post the relevant
part of /var/log/messages.  It might help to determine where the problem
is.

# Enable logging
$ doas wsconsctl mouse0.param=256:1,257:1

# Disable logging
$ doas wsconsctl mouse0.param=256:0,257:0

# grep the output
$ grep wsmouse0- /var/log/messages

With regular input and output, log lines look like:
... [wsmouse0-in][3993] abs:650,560
... [wsmouse0-ev][3993] 6:-5 7:-1 18:0
... [wsmouse0-in][4003] abs:644,558
... [wsmouse0-ev][4003] 6:-4 7:-1 18:0
... [wsmouse0-in][4003] abs:636,558
... [wsmouse0-ev][4003] 6:-5 18:0


Does the problem persist when you throw away your xorg.conf?  And BTW,
you have different hardware now, is it still necessary to avoid those
cursor jumps?


On 1/7/22 07:21, Jonathan Thornburg wrote:
> I'm having a problem with my laptop touchpad under X (7.0-stable/amd64,
> GENERIC.MP, Lenovo Thinkpad T580, full dmesg and Xorg.0.log given below):
> When X is first started or restarted the touchpad is fine, but after X
> has been running for "a while" (anywhere from 2 hours to some days),
> the touchpad will suddenly stop working.  In the "touchpad not working"
> state: * horizontal finger motions on the touchpad have no effect on
> the X cursor ("pointer")
> * vertical finger motions on the touchpad usually have no effect, but
>   on some "touchpad not working" events vertical finger motions cause
>   vertical scrolls of the current window (e.g., an xterm or within a
>   web page being viewed with firefox); I haven't been able to figure out
>   what determines whether vertical motions are no-ops or scrolls in any
>   given "touchpad not working" event
> * the "trackpoint" (a.k.a "nipple") located between the G, H, and B keys
>   on the keyboard works (i.e., moves the X cursor) normally
>   [I don't normally use the trackpoint, and have in fact
>   removed the red plastic "nipple" so as to avoid hitting it
>   accidentally when typing.  But the underlying 4-way switch
>   is still present, and can still be pressed with a fingernail.]
> * if I plug in a USB mouse, it works (i.e., moves the X cursor) normally
> * apart from the non-functioning touchpad, everything else about X continues
>   to work normally: existing windows continue to update as usual, keyboard
>   input into whichever window has the focus is normal, and if the X cursor
>   is stuck at a location with several overlapping windows, I can change
>   the stacking order of these windows (and hence which of these windows
>   has the focus) using function keys which I have bound to window-raise
>   and window-lower commands in my window manager (ctwm)
> * if I switch to a virtual console with CTRL/ALT/F[1-4] I can login
>   normally, and 'top -S' doesn't show anything obviously wrong
> * I don't see anything amiss in /var/log/messages, /var/log/daemon, or
>   /var/log/Xorg.0.log (I give /var/log/Xorg.0.log below).
> 
> Once X is in the "touchpad not working" state I can find no way of
> restoring normal touchpad operation other than either restarting the X
> server (CTRL/ALT/BACKSPACE) (which usually works) or rebooting (which
> has been necessary once or twice).  I have never had restart/reboot
> fail to restore normal touchpad operation.
> 
> In the "touchpad not working" state, neither switching to a virtual
> console and then back to X, nor suspending/resuming (which works
> perfectly) have any effect on the touchpad problem.
> 
> So... questions:
> * is this a known bug?
> * if not,
>   - should I file a bug report with sendbug?
>   - is there any extra logging or debug information I could gather
> which would be useful in trying to track down the bug?
> * is there any known solution or workaround?
> 
> 
> Some other information which may be relevant:
> 
> I track -stable via syspatch; currently syspatches 001-008 are installed.
> 
> The system normally runs X, started from xenodm.
> 
> X autoconfigures fine, but (for reasons described below) I have an
> /etc/xorg.conf as follows:
> % cat /etc/xorg.conf
> Section "InputClass"
> Identifier "wsmouse touchpad"
> Driver "synaptics"
> MatchIsTouchpad "on"
> EndSection
> % 
> 
> The reason I have an /etc/xorg.conf is to work around a different X
> touchpad problem (which occurs for twm and ctwm window managers, but
> not for fvwm), described in
>   
> This /etc/xorg.conf as a workaround was suggested by Ulf Brosziewski in
>   
> 
> --- begin dmesg ---
> OpenBSD 7.0 (GENERIC.MP) #3: Wed Dec 15 13:14:26 MST 2021
> 
> r...@syspatch-70-amd64.openbsd.org:/usr/src/sys/arch/amd64/compile/GENERIC.MP
> real mem = 16755720192 (15979MB)
> avail mem = 16231866368 (15479MB)
> random: good seed from bootblocks
> mpath0 at root
> scsibus0 at mpath0: 256