[gentoo-user] Re: Why did Synaptics touchpad stop working?

[Grant Edwards <grant.b.edwards@gmail.com>]

On 2024-09-09, Jack <ostroffjh@users.sourceforge.net> wrote:
> On 9/8/24 10:20 PM, Grant Edwards wrote:
>
>> This morning when I booted my Thinkpad T580, the Synaptics touchpad
>> buttons didn't work at all, and the "pointer" function just barely
>> worked: the response was slow and jerky with a noticeable delay.
>>
>> In order to get it working again, I had to enable some rmi4 stuff in
>> my kernel config:
>>[...]
>> Apparently, it used to work as a PS/2 mouse, but then it "just quit",
>> and I hand to enable rmi4 SMBus support.
>>[...]
>> As I said, I've got it working again, but I'm baffled what caused it
>> to stop working.
>
> Any chance some internal connection has come loose?  How old is the 
> laptop?  I'd probably suspect hardware before software, but I wouldn't 
> put money on anything.

It's a bit less than 5 years old and has been very lightly used. It
only leaves the house maybe a half-dozen times a year.  I'd probably
put my money down on the spot marked "Microsoft's Fault", but I've got
no real theory as to why that would be unless a recent Windows update
somehow changed a BIOS setting for Synaptics PS/2 compatiblity.  [I
never got to the point of messing with BIOS settings.]

--
Grant