[ltp] Thinkpad R61 ALPS-pad and trackpointer undetected

[Christian Birchinger]

On Tue, Oct 09, 2007 at 10:01:34PM +0200, Sébastien Mazy wrote:
> 2007/10/9, Christian Birchinger <joker@netswarm.net>:
> > On Mon, Oct 08, 2007 at 01:21:41PM +0200, Sébastien Mazy wrote:
> > > 2007/10/8, Christian Birchinger <joker@netswarm.net>:
> > > > > > > My Thinkpad R61 has an ALPS pad and a trackpointer (UltraNav). The
> > > > > > > devices only get detected as generic PS/2 mouse though.
> > > > >
> > > > http://bugzilla.kernel.org/show_bug.cgi?id=8864
> > > >
> > > If I understand the last comment on bugzilla, this patch only solves
> > > the touchpad issue, right ?
> >
> > No, the Trackpointer is usable. It's just not possible to have
> > any special configuration for it other than generic mouse
> > options. It has dedicated mouseX and eventX devices so you can
> > have your special xorg.conf section for it. However, theres no
> > special hardware config like sensitivity etc.
> >
> Yes, it has always been "usable", but far from being as comfortable as
> under windows (or with the thinkpad linux driver I guess). For
> instance, no press_to_select and above all that impression that the
> cursor is jumping over pixels at low speed, whatever the setting
> chosen for acceleration or sensitivity.
> 
> I bought a thinkpad for its trackpoint and excellent linux support. I
> wonder whether Lenovo screwed T61 buyers with that "new" trackpoint...
> seems not :
> http://www.klabs.be/~fpiat/linux/debian/Etch_on_Thinkpad_T61.html#Trackpoint
> 
> I hope Lenovo know why they made such a difference. Anyway, many
> thanks for the work you've done to make the ALPS touchpad working.

Yes, of course i also hoped for a special trackpointer driven by
a dedicated driver and not the generic ps/2 one, but the final
comment on my bugreport made my hopes vanish.

It should possible to have some special trackpoint features as
i think the windows driver had special stuff. I wiped that
installation after i made sure all the hardware is functional
though.

It could be very well possible that the special functionality
did not require any special hardware driver.
For example you can use the trackpointer as mouse wheel. This
could be done by using normal PS/2 data. The mouse driver should
would have to translate the events, similar to the wheel
emulation on a button press.
In that case it would be the best to ask the Xorg folks if they
could add an option to get permament wheel emulation mode without
any button press.

However for stuff like special sensitifity options, we're out of
luck.

Christian