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How to re-enable the touchpad ?

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feu
Posts: 3
Joined: 2018-01-21 21:57

How to re-enable the touchpad ?

#1 Post by feu »

Hi, I have the following problem related with the touchpad of my laptop.

I got an Asus R409C in 2015, and got Debian 8 installed on it by some guys from my university. There was a problem with the touchpad, seemingly because it was very new hardware. So they disabled it, and since then I have been using a mouse. But now I would like to finally use the touchpad, and I have no contact with the guys any more. I have tried everything I found online but couldn't make it work again. It looks like every config file is as it should be, but if I look at the settings, the touchpad is not recognized.
Note that I have a dualboot with windows, and that the touchpad works well there.

Any idea of what I should try? I apologize for this fuzzy request. Thank you very much for the help.

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stevepusser
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Re: How to re-enable the touchpad ?

#2 Post by stevepusser »

New hardware, especially touchpads, often needs a newer kernel to get working...especially in an older release like Debian 8. Debian provides newer kernels in jessie-backports (backports.org) for your ease of install.
MX Linux packager and developer

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debiman
Posts: 3063
Joined: 2013-03-12 07:18

Re: How to re-enable the touchpad ?

#3 Post by debiman »

^ that's a guess, but a pretty good guess i think.

can you ask those guys how exactly they disabled the touchpad?
that would be important because it might block all your attempts at fixing it.
if they can't tell you (they should though), you can start investigating with this:

Code: Select all

ls /etc/modprobe.d/
synclient
also, debian 8 (jessie) is now oldstable, stretch is the new stable.
you can still run oldstable for a long while, but it's something to be aware of.
to get a 4.9.x kernel on jessie, your /etc/apt/sources.list should look sth like this:

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deb http://ftp.it.debian.org/debian/ jessie main contrib non-free
deb-src http://ftp.it.debian.org/debian/ jessie main contrib non-free

deb http://security.debian.org/ jessie/updates main contrib non-free
deb-src http://security.debian.org/ jessie/updates main contrib non-free

# jessie-updates, previously known as 'volatile'
deb http://ftp.it.debian.org/debian/ jessie-updates main contrib non-free
deb-src http://ftp.it.debian.org/debian/ jessie-updates main contrib non-free

# Debian backports
deb http://ftp.it.debian.org/debian/ jessie-backports main contrib non-free
deb-src http://ftp.it.debian.org/debian/ jessie-backports main contrib non-free
(please adjust for your own country)

after editing that, you can run

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sudo apt update
sudo apt upgrade <= not required, but might be a good thing to do at this moment anyway
sudo apt-get -t jessie-backports install linux-image-4.9.0-0.bpo.5-xxxxx linux-headers-4.9.0-0.bpo.5-xxxxx
you must install this version for your architecture; your laptop is likely to be 64bit, yes? so it would probably end in -x86_64.
you can check with

Code: Select all

apt search linux-image-4.9.0-0.bpo

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GarryRicketson
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Re: How to re-enable the touchpad ?

#4 Post by GarryRicketson »

can you ask those guys how exactly they disabled the touchpad?
by feu »---snip---and I have no contact with the guys any more.

feu
Posts: 3
Joined: 2018-01-21 21:57

Re: How to re-enable the touchpad ?

#5 Post by feu »

Hi, thank you for the answers. I will check this in details soon. As noted, I have no contact any more with the people who disabled the touchpad. I didn't know about the modprobe thing, and still do not quite understand what it is. Still I can tell you what ls /etc/modprobe returns:
fbdev-blacklist.conf modesetting.conf psmouse-blacklist.conf radeon-kms.conf

Now that I'm thinking of it, even if I understand why the touchpad is disabled, I may want to update the kernel before, to avoid running into the same problem they had when installing the OS back in 2015...

Any way thank you very much for quick answers, I'll give updates of the situation.

shep
Posts: 423
Joined: 2011-03-15 15:22

Re: How to re-enable the touchpad ?

#6 Post by shep »


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debiman
Posts: 3063
Joined: 2013-03-12 07:18

Re: How to re-enable the touchpad ?

#7 Post by debiman »

^ that looks promising indeed.

feu, it's up to you whose and what advice you follow, but if you want mine, please provide the answers to all the questions i asked.

fwiw:
feu wrote:fbdev-blacklist.conf modesetting.conf psmouse-blacklist.conf radeon-kms.conf
i'd be interested to see the content of psmouse-blacklist.conf.

and:
Now that I'm thinking of it, even if I understand why the touchpad is disabled, I may want to update the kernel before, to avoid running into the same problem they had when installing the OS back in 2015...
seems like a good idea.

feu
Posts: 3
Joined: 2018-01-21 21:57

Re: How to re-enable the touchpad ?

#8 Post by feu »

Hi, sorry for the delay.

Now it works(!), thanks to your remarks and advice. I updated the kernel to 4.9, and commented the only line in psmouse-blacklist.conf, that was something like 'blacklist psmouse'.

Thank you again!

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