Ubuntu 13.04 and the Fight for the Mouse

The mouse is something that should just work.  Is it a bad sign when your mouse won’t work at all?  You can see my problems with UNetbootIn on my previous post.

Even after I got it installed correctly, I still had trouble with all of my mouse input types.  I still haven’t figured out how to get the Touchpad features working (like multi-touch) or the USB to reliably work.  If you have any ideas, please comment.

Touchpad

The touchpad works as far as normal mouse features.  The pointer moves and the right and left clicks work.  The problem is that it isn’t recognized as a touchpad.  Therefore, the scrolling and multi-touch features work.  In the mouse settings, you’ll notice that all of the touchpad features are gone.

I tried a couple of quick searches, and I didn’t find anything new.  So, I just followed the same instructions that I used on 12.10.  I used this download link.  Then, I extracted and installed with…

sudo tar -xf ~/Downloads/psmouse-alps-dst-0.4.tar -C /usr/src/
sudo bash /usr/src/psmouse-alps-dst-0.4/install.sh

Unfortunately, the build failed with this message in the middle of it:

cleaning build area....
make KERNELRELEASE=3.8.0-22-generic -C /lib/modules/3.8.0-22-generic/build M=/var/lib/dkms/psmouse/alps-dst-0.4/build/src psmouse.ko....(bad exit status: 2)
Traceback (most recent call last):
 File "/usr/share/apport/package-hooks/dkms_packages.py", line 22, in <module>
 import apport
ImportError: No module named apport
Error! Bad return status for module build on kernel: 3.8.0-22-generic (x86_64)
Consult /var/lib/dkms/psmouse/alps-dst-0.4/build/make.log for more information.
Build failed

I tried installing the linux-source package.  That didn’t fix the error at all, so I tried installing the python-apport package.  That one fixed one of the errors, but it still didn’t completely compile.

Next, I found the driver on Git Hub: psmouse-alps.  I downloaded the zip file from the front page, and I extracted it to the /usr/src directory:

sudo unzip psmouse-alps-master.zip -d /usr/src/
cd /usr/src/psmouse-alps-master/
sudo dkms add .
sudo modprobe -r psmouse
sudo dkms build -m psmouse -v custom-1.2 --all
sudo dkms autoinstall --force
sudo modprobe psmouse

I got closer, but the autoinstall wouldn’t work.  It couldn’t find the directory.  So, I took the install script from the other directory and updated it to this:

DLKM=alps-master
KERN=$(uname -r)
echo "MAIN: Driver source files by Dave Turvene. Install script by garyF."
echo "MAIN: Install script updated by Stephen Phillips."
echo "MAIN: Removing previous versions of psmouse-alps-dst..."
sudo dkms remove psmouse/$DLKM --all
echo "MAIN: Building current driver from source files..."
sudo dkms build psmouse/$DLKM
if [[ $? == 0 ]]; then
echo "MAIN: Installing the driver"
sudo dkms install psmouse/$DLKM
sudo rmmod -v psmouse
sudo modprobe -v psmouse
echo "MAIN: Done installing. Go to System Settings > Mouse and Touchpad to configure :-)"
else
printf "Build failed\n"
cat /var/lib/dkms/psmouse/$DLKM/build/make.log
fi

I found this error message:

/usr/src/linux-headers-3.8.0-22-generic/arch/x86/Makefile:103: CONFIG_X86_X32 enabled but no binutils support

Update: I finally fixed it.

Bluetooth Mouse

My first attempt didn’t work on my bluetooth mouse.  My second attempt ended up working with no problem.

I went to the bluetooth icon by the clock and clicked Bluetooth settings.  I made sure that it was on.  I don’t think that the visible was necessary, but I turned it on just in case.  Then, I hit the bluetooth button on the bottom of my mouse.  The power light flash green and red to show it was broadcasting.

On the settings dialog, I hit the plus sign to add a device.

The first time I tried, it wouldn’t find any devices.  I gave up.  Several updates and reboots later, I tried again, and this time, my mouse was in the list:

I selected the device and clicked Continue.  It was that simple:

USB Mouse

In previous versions, my USB mouse had stopped working.  I did some research and found a few bugs, but I never found a solution.  This time it worked at first, but after a minute or two, it just stopped working.  It seems to be hit or miss for some reason.

Here’s the dmesg output:

[12571.959955] usb 3-3: new full-speed USB device number 2 using xhci_hcd
[12571.978603] usb 3-3: New USB device found, idVendor=046d, idProduct=c52f
[12571.978610] usb 3-3: New USB device strings: Mfr=1, Product=2, SerialNumber=0
[12571.978614] usb 3-3: Product: USB Receiver
[12571.978617] usb 3-3: Manufacturer: Logitech
[12572.024103] input: Logitech USB Receiver as /devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:14.0/usb3/3-3/3-3:1.0/input/input14
[12572.024384] hid-generic 0003:046D:C52F.0002: input,hidraw1: USB HID v1.11 Mouse [Logitech USB Receiver] on usb-0000:00:14.0-3/input0
[12572.026241] input: Logitech USB Receiver as /devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:14.0/usb3/3-3/3-3:1.1/input/input15
[12572.026434] hid-generic 0003:046D:C52F.0003: input,hiddev0,hidraw2: USB HID v1.11 Device [Logitech USB Receiver] on usb-0000:00:14.0-3/input1
[12572.026479] usbcore: registered new interface driver usbhid
[12572.026483] usbhid: USB HID core driver

I’ll have to research this more later.