Ubuntu
gnome-control-center package

gnome-control-center and gnome-settings-daemon hardcode "Synaptics Touchpad", which breaks without xorg.conf

Bug #207781 reported by Harvey Muller on 2008-03-27

Affects		Status	Importance	Assigned to	Milestone
	gnome-control-center (Ubuntu)	Fix Released	Low	William Grant
	gnome-settings-daemon (Ubuntu)	Fix Released	Low	William Grant

Bug Description

Binary package hint: gnome-control-center

Background:

User must modify /etc/X11/xorg.conf due to insufficient X autoconfiguration created during install (separate issue). If user modifies autoconfigured touchpad entry in xorg.conf, i.e. renames InputDevice "Synaptics Touchpad" to say "Alps Glidepoint", "Touchpad0", etc., then the touchpad tab in gnome-mouse-properties is not displayed.

Steps to reproduce problem:

1. Prior to modification, open gnome-mouse-properties on an X autoconfigured laptop with a Synaptics or Alps touchpad and observe that the touchpad tab is present.

2. Modify the touchpad entry in xorg.conf, rename InputDevice "Synaptics Touchpad" to "Touchpad0" and modify the related ServerLayout entry to match.

3. Open gnome-mouse-properties and observe that the touchpad tab is now NOT present.

Workaround:

Simply, do not rename the autoconfigured "Synaptics Touchpad" InputDevice and ServerLayout entries.

Research:

On 2008-02-14, a debian patch (26_add_touchpad_to_mouse_settings.patch) was applied. The patch indicates that the find_synaptics function hardcodes "Synaptics Touchpad". This means that any other touchpad InputDevice identifier name will not trigger the touchpad tab in gnome-mouse-properties.

Recommendations:

1. Short term: Make a note in xorg.conf to inform the user that until the situation is otherwise resolved, that they should not modify the "Synaptics Touchpad" identifier name.

2. Medium term: Perhaps the code could search for the synaptics driver name instead of the identifier name In the InputDevice section. Then no matter what you modify the identifier name to, the touchpad tab would still be triggered.

3. Long term: Let's just say I'm becoming a fan of HAL and D-BUS as solutions to just "make hardware work".

HTH,

Harvey

See original description

Related branches

lp:ubuntu/lucid/gnome-settings-daemon

lp:ubuntu/lucid/gnome-control-center

Harvey Muller (hlmuller) on 2008-03-27

description:

updated

Sebastien Bacher (seb128) on 2008-03-28

Changed in gnome-control-center:
assignee:	nobody → desktop-bugs
importance:	Undecided → Low

Revision history for this message

Juan Pablo Salazar Bertín (snifer) wrote on 2008-08-17:

xorg.conf Edit (1.2 KiB, text/plain)

The touchpad tab is also not displayed in an up to date Intrepid alpha 4 clean install.

xorg.conf doesn't include a Synaptic input device (it's auto-detected).

Revision history for this message

Juan Pablo Salazar Bertín (snifer) wrote on 2008-08-17:

Xorg.0.log Edit (35.3 KiB, text/plain)

snifer@snifer-laptop:~$ grep ynaptics /var/log/Xorg.0.log
(II) config/hal: Adding input device SynPS/2 Synaptics TouchPad
(II) LoadModule: "synaptics"
(II) Loading /usr/lib/xorg/modules/input//synaptics_drv.so
(II) Module synaptics: vendor="X.Org Foundation"
(II) Synaptics touchpad driver version 0.14.6 (1406)
(--) SynPS/2 Synaptics TouchPad auto-dev sets device to /dev/input/event8
(--) SynPS/2 Synaptics TouchPad touchpad found
(**) SynPS/2 Synaptics TouchPad: always reports core events
(II) XINPUT: Adding extended input device "SynPS/2 Synaptics TouchPad" (type: MOUSE)
(--) SynPS/2 Synaptics TouchPad auto-dev sets device to /dev/input/event8
(--) SynPS/2 Synaptics TouchPad touchpad found

Revision history for this message

William Grant (wgrant) wrote on 2008-08-30:

This breaks on clean installations now. Setting it to "SynPS/2 Synaptics TouchPad" works fine, but there must be a better way to do it.

Changed in gnome-control-center:
status:	New → Confirmed

Revision history for this message

William Grant (wgrant) wrote on 2008-08-30:

gnome-settings-daemon has 4 instances of the old name in debian/patches/08_extra_touchpad_options.patch. Fixing those as well gets the Touchpad tab working fine, even with the new Synaptics driver.

Changed in gnome-settings-daemon:
importance:	Undecided → Low
status:	New → Confirmed

Revision history for this message

William Grant (wgrant) wrote on 2008-08-31:

I've a fixed gnome-control-center and gnome-settings-daemon in my PPA. They both check for the existence of the "Synaptics Off" XInput device property. gnome-settings-daemon also sets everything via XInput properties, meaning that awfulness can be dropped from -synaptics.

Revision history for this message

Juan Pablo Salazar Bertín (snifer) wrote on 2008-08-31:

I can confirm that William's packages fix this bug. Many thanks for your work!

snifer@snifer-laptop:~$ dpkg -l | grep gnome-control-center
ii gnome-control-center 1:2.23.90-0ubuntu4~wgrant1 utilities to configure the GNOME desktop
snifer@snifer-laptop:~$ dpkg -l | grep gnome-settings-daemon
ii gnome-settings-daemon 2.23.90-0ubuntu2~wgrant1 GNOME settings daemon

Revision history for this message

William Grant (wgrant) wrote on 2008-09-01:

gnome-control-center patch Edit (3.2 KiB, text/plain)

Revision history for this message

Bryce Harrington (bryce) wrote on 2008-09-01:

These patches look appropriate to me.
@Juan, thanks for testing them.

Changed in gnome-control-center:
status:	Confirmed → Triaged
Changed in gnome-settings-daemon:
status:	Confirmed → Triaged

William Grant (wgrant) on 2008-09-01

Changed in gnome-settings-daemon:
assignee:	nobody → wgrant
Changed in gnome-control-center:
assignee:	desktop-bugs → wgrant

Revision history for this message

William Grant (wgrant) wrote on 2008-09-01:

#10

new gnome-settings-daemon patch Edit (10.3 KiB, text/plain)

A new gnome-settings-daemon was uploaded a few hours ago. Here's an updated debdiff.

Revision history for this message

Launchpad Janitor (janitor) wrote on 2008-09-03:

#11

This bug was fixed in the package gnome-settings-daemon - 2.23.91-0ubuntu2

---------------
gnome-settings-daemon (2.23.91-0ubuntu2) intrepid; urgency=low

  * debian/patches/08_extra_touchpad_options.patch:
    - Look for the "Synaptics Off" XInput property to determine whether
      a given device is a touchpad, rather than hardcoding the device
      name. (LP: #207781)
    - Use XInput device properties to set touchpad settings.

-- William Grant <email address hidden> Tue, 02 Sep 2008 09:07:34 +1000

Changed in gnome-settings-daemon:
status:	Triaged → Fix Released

Revision history for this message

Launchpad Janitor (janitor) wrote on 2008-09-03:

#12

This bug was fixed in the package gnome-control-center - 1:2.23.90-0ubuntu4

---------------
gnome-control-center (1:2.23.90-0ubuntu4) intrepid; urgency=low

  * debian/patches/28_fixup_touchpad_config.patch: Check for the
    "Synaptics Off" XInput property to determine if a device is a
    touchpad. (LP: #207781)

-- William Grant <email address hidden> Sun, 31 Aug 2008 17:06:55 +1000