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I just got a X1 5th gen and when I try any flavor of Ubuntu, the Trackpoint device (TPPS/2 IBM TrackPoint) does not show up:

ubuntu-mate@ubuntu-mate:~$ xinput -list
⎡ Virtual core pointer                        id=2    [master pointer  (3)]
⎜   ↳ Virtual core XTEST pointer                  id=4    [slave  pointer  (2)]
⎜   ↳ Lenovo Laser Wireless Mouse                 id=9    [slave  pointer  (2)]
⎜   ↳ SynPS/2 Synaptics TouchPad                  id=12    [slave  pointer  (2)]
⎣ Virtual core keyboard                       id=3    [master keyboard (2)]
↳ Virtual core XTEST keyboard                 id=5    [slave  keyboard (3)]
↳ Power Button                                id=6    [slave  keyboard (3)]
↳ Video Bus                                   id=7    [slave  keyboard (3)]
↳ Sleep Button                                id=8    [slave  keyboard (3)]
↳ Integrated Camera                           id=10    [slave  keyboard (3)]
↳ AT Translated Set 2 keyboard                id=11    [slave  keyboard (3)]
↳ ThinkPad Extra Buttons                      id=13    [slave  keyboard (3)]
ubuntu-mate@ubuntu-mate:~$

The trackpoint works fine under Windows so I know the hardware is OK. Things I have done to troubleshoot are:

  • Upgraded bios to 1.2
  • Tried with ubuntu-mate 16.04, xbuntu 16.04, 17.04, arch (latest), ubuntu-budgie 17.04 -- all have the same problem.
  • Tried running from USB or installing on hard disk
  • ubuntu versions using UEFI bios, arch used legacy bios
  • disabled and enabled the trackpad - no difference
  • enabled and disabled intel virtual machine options in bios
  • compared with my older thinkpad that works fine and see that no trackpoint device shows up in /sys/devices/platform/i8042 or in /dev/input while they do show up in my older thinkpad.

Any ideas on how to get Linux to see/create the trackpoint device?

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4
  • I ran dmidecode 3.0 and the trackpoint does show up:Handle 0x0031, DMI type 21, 7 bytes Built-in Pointing Device Type: Track Point Interface: PS/2 Buttons: 3 Handle 0x0032, DMI type 21, 7 bytes Built-in Pointing Device Type: Touch Pad Interface: PS/2 Buttons: 2
    – ski98033
    Jun 12, 2017 at 5:00
  • modprobe psmouse bare, imps, exps make no difference
    – ski98033
    Jun 12, 2017 at 5:02
  • Ok modprobe proto=bare does work - it sets up a generic mouse device, but at least it works Now to fine tune it.
    – ski98033
    Jun 12, 2017 at 5:21
  • Would you mind posting exactly what you did to fix this?
    – BPS
    Jul 15, 2017 at 20:07

2 Answers 2

Reset to default
1

I run Xubuntu and was able to workaround the problem by:

  • disabling the trackpad in the BIOS (I only use the track point)

  • editing /etc/default/grub to have the line:

    GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet splash psmouse.proto=bare"

More information can be found here on the Arch wiki.

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2
  • Above works only if I disable trackpoint and trackpad. I only use trackpad, not trackpoint not essential for me, might be a way of enabling trackpoint
    – GAV
    Jan 13, 2019 at 12:19
  • my change was GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet splash psmouse.synaptics_intertouch=1"
    – GAV
    Jan 13, 2019 at 12:27
1

Funny: I disabled the trackPOINT in the bios and now my trackPAD runs fine for some months now. No changes in /etc/default/grub were necessary.

Ubuntu 16.04 LTS / Kernel 4.13

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