Bug 354887 – x11-drivers/xf86-input-synaptics should check for CONFIG_MOUSE_PS2_SYNAPTICS

• Status: RESOLVED INVALID
• Product: Gentoo Linux

[Description Christian Schmitt 2011-02-14 16:30:47 UTC]

The option CONFIG_MOUSE_PS2_SYNAPTICS has to be enabled (at least) to make use of the driver. In recent kernels (i'm using 2.6.36-gentoo-r5) this option depends on CONFIG_EMBEDDED, so it is not always visible.
The synaptics ebuild should check for it, too and notify the user if it is disabled.
Now that I enabled it I can finally use my touchpad in a proper way.

[Comment 1 Chí-Thanh Christopher Nguyễn 2011-02-15 05:00:47 UTC]

Enabling CONFIG_EMBEDDED allows you to disable features that applications usually expect to be present in a kernel. Quoting kernel developers, "only expert users who understand the impact of the configuration changes they are making should enable it."

[Comment 2 Christian Schmitt 2011-02-15 10:03:25 UTC]

That noone should disable options in CONFIG_EMBEDDED is clear, yet I don't understand why the kernel devs made an not-so-much-expert option like synaptics depend on that and why it's hidden like that. Maybe a bugreport should be filed against kernel.org?

[Comment 3 Chí-Thanh Christopher Nguyễn 2011-02-15 16:46:32 UTC]

As long as you have CONFIG_EMBEDDED disabled it should all work.

[Comment 4 Christian Schmitt 2011-02-15 17:21:22 UTC]

Ok, this actually works without problems. Was just me not properly configuring synaptics and I also missed the synaptics output in dmesg.