Ubuntu 13.04: Finally Fixing my Touchpad

On my Ubuntu 13.04 installation, I have had trouble getting the touchpad to work.  The driver just wouldn’t install.  I finally figured it out.

So, here’s where I left off:

Ubuntu 13.04 and the Fight for the Mouse

The error message now is:

too few arguments to function ‘input_mt_init_slots’

Dave Turvene has his driver published on GitHub:

GitHub: dkms module for psmouse

It’s easy to install if you have git already installed:

git clone https://github.com/emmanuelthome/psmouse-alps.git

Removing the Previously Installed Versions

First, I had tried earlier.  I had to get rid of my other tries before I could get a fix in.  To see what has already been loaded, I used the dkms status command to list what had already been added:

skp@pecan:~/app/github/psmouse-alps$ sudo dkms status | grep -i psmouse
psmouse, custom-1.2: added

So, the “custom-1.2” version was in the list.  I removed it like this:

skp@pecan:~/app/github/psmouse-alps$ sudo dkms remove psmouse/custom-1.2 --all

------------------------------
Deleting module version: custom-1.2
completely from the DKMS tree.
------------------------------
Done.

Fixing the error

GitHub Issue: work with kernels > 3.5

The problem is the input_mt_init_slots() function.  It now has 3 parameters.  I had to add “0” as the 3rd parameter.

So, I changed this:

input_mt_init_slots(dev, 2);

to this:

input_mt_init_slots(dev, 2, 0);

I had to update it in multiple files.  Here are all of the files:

skp@pecan:~/app/github/psmouse-alps$ grep input_mt_init_slots src/*
src/alps.c: input_mt_init_slots(dev1, 2);
src/alps.c: input_mt_init_slots(dev1, 2);
src/alps.c: input_mt_init_slots(dev1, 2);
src/elantech.c: input_mt_init_slots(dev, 2);
src/elantech.c: input_mt_init_slots(dev, ETP_MAX_FINGERS);
src/sentelic.c: input_mt_init_slots(dev, 2);
src/synaptics.c: input_mt_init_slots(dev, 2, 0);
src/synaptics.c: input_mt_init_slots(dev, 2, 0);

Installing Fixed

Now that it is fixed, I installed with these commands from the readme:

 $ dkms add .
 $ modprobe -r psmouse
 $ dkms build -m psmouse -v custom-1.2 --all
 $ dkms autoinstall --force
 $ modprobe psmouse

Here’s what it looked like:

skp@pecan:~/app/github/psmouse-alps$ sudo dkms add .
Creating symlink /var/lib/dkms/psmouse/custom-1.2/source ->
 /usr/src/psmouse-custom-1.2

DKMS: add completed.
skp@pecan:~/app/github/psmouse-alps$ sudo modprobe -r psmouse
skp@pecan:~/app/github/psmouse-alps$ sudo dkms build -m psmouse -v custom-1.2 --all
skp@pecan:~/app/github/psmouse-alps$ sudo dkms autoinstall --force

Kernel preparation unnecessary for this kernel. Skipping...

Building module:
cleaning build area....
make KERNELRELEASE=3.8.0-31-generic -C /lib/modules/3.8.0-31-generic/build M=/var/lib/dkms/psmouse/custom-1.2/build/src psmouse.ko.....
cleaning build area....

DKMS: build completed.

psmouse.ko:
Running module version sanity check.
 - Original module
 - Installation
 - Installing to /lib/modules/3.8.0-31-generic/updates/dkms/

depmod....

DKMS: install completed.
skp@pecan:~/app/github/psmouse-alps$ sudo modprobe psmouse

Now, I have the touchpad settings, and I could enable 2-finger scrolling: