As per summary, the touchpad on my Dell Studio 1747 stopped working after updating to kernel version 3.14.14. After bisecting, I found the offending commit to be commit ff457bde6063b834d878e2bbe38c2a68a5aede07 (i8k: Add support for Dell Studio laptops). Somehow, it causes the touchpad to be completely invisible to the kernel, with no messages in logs or anything. Reverting the commit makes the touchpad work again, and, in fact, in dmesg I have [ 3.501126] psmouse serio1: synaptics: Touchpad model: 1, fw: 7.2, id: 0x1e0b1, caps: 0xd04733/0xa40000/0xa0000, board id: 3655, fw id: 609042 [ 3.637873] input: SynPS/2 Synaptics TouchPad as /devices/platform/i8042/serio1/input/input7 Of course, the touchpad also works fine if I set CONFIG_I8K=n (i.e., setting "Dell laptop support" to no). A comment on the commit states that it was tested with a Dell Studio 1555. As my laptop is a 1747, I assume the origin of the problem is in some difference between the 15 and the 17 series. In i8k.c the module seems to distinguish between different laptop models. Perhaps it may help to introduce a distinction between different series as well?
Portage 2.2.8-r1 (default/linux/amd64/13.0/desktop/kde, gcc-4.7.3, glibc-2.19-r1, 3.14.14-gentoo x86_64) ================================================================= System uname: Linux-3.14.14-gentoo-x86_64-Intel-R-_Core-TM-_i7_CPU_Q_820_@_1.73GHz-with-gentoo-2.2 KiB Mem: 4037024 total, 2765344 free KiB Swap: 4200992 total, 4200992 free Timestamp of tree: Sat, 02 Aug 2014 09:15:01 +0000 ld GNU ld (GNU Binutils) 2.23.2 ccache version 3.1.9 [enabled] app-shells/bash: 4.2_p45 dev-java/java-config: 2.2.0 dev-lang/python: 2.7.6, 3.3.3 dev-util/ccache: 3.1.9-r3 dev-util/cmake: 2.8.12.2-r1 dev-util/pkgconfig: 0.28-r1 sys-apps/baselayout: 2.2 sys-apps/openrc: 0.12.4 sys-apps/sandbox: 2.6-r1 sys-devel/autoconf: 2.69 sys-devel/automake: 1.11.6, 1.12.6, 1.13.4 sys-devel/binutils: 2.23.2 sys-devel/gcc: 4.7.3-r1 sys-devel/gcc-config: 1.7.3 sys-devel/libtool: 2.4.2-r1 sys-devel/make: 3.82-r4 sys-kernel/linux-headers: 3.13 (virtual/os-headers) sys-libs/glibc: 2.19-r1 Repositories: gentoo heather ACCEPT_KEYWORDS="amd64" ACCEPT_LICENSE="* -@EULA dlj-1.1 sun-bcla-java-vm Broadcom skype-eula AdobeFlash-10.1 Oracle-BCLA-JavaSE AdobeFlash-10.3 AdobeFlash-11.x skype-4.0.0.7-copyright" CBUILD="x86_64-pc-linux-gnu" CFLAGS="-march=native -O2 -pipe" CHOST="x86_64-pc-linux-gnu" CONFIG_PROTECT="/etc /usr/share/config /usr/share/gnupg/qualified.txt" CONFIG_PROTECT_MASK="/etc/ca-certificates.conf /etc/env.d /etc/fonts/fonts.conf /etc/gconf /etc/gentoo-release /etc/revdep-rebuild /etc/sandbox.d /etc/terminfo /etc/texmf/language.dat.d /etc/texmf/language.def.d /etc/texmf/updmap.d /etc/texmf/web2c" CXXFLAGS="-march=native -O2 -pipe" DISTDIR="/usr/portage/distfiles" EMERGE_DEFAULT_OPTS="--autounmask=y" FCFLAGS="-O2 -pipe" FEATURES="assume-digests binpkg-logs candy ccache config-protect-if-modified distlocks ebuild-locks fixlafiles merge-sync news parallel-fetch preserve-libs protect-owned sandbox sfperms strict unknown-features-warn unmerge-logs unmerge-orphans userfetch userpriv usersandbox usersync" FFLAGS="-O2 -pipe" GENTOO_MIRRORS="http://www.mirrorservice.org/sites/www.ibiblio.org/gentoo/ http://mirrors.linuxant.fr/distfiles.gentoo.org/ http://gentoo.modulix.net/gentoo/" LANG="en_GB.utf8" LDFLAGS="-Wl,-O1 -Wl,--as-needed" MAKEOPTS="-j8" PKGDIR="/usr/portage/packages" PORTAGE_CONFIGROOT="/" PORTAGE_RSYNC_OPTS="--recursive --links --safe-links --perms --times --omit-dir-times --compress --force --whole-file --delete --stats --human-readable --timeout=180 --exclude=/distfiles --exclude=/local --exclude=/packages" PORTAGE_TMPDIR="/var/tmp" PORTDIR="/usr/portage" PORTDIR_OVERLAY="/var/lib/layman/heather" SYNC="rsync://rsync.uk.gentoo.org/gentoo-portage" USE="X a52 aac acpi alsa amd64 avahi bash-completion branding bzip2 cairo caps cdda cddb cdr cli consolekit cracklib crypt css cups cxx dbus declarative dga directfb djvu dri dts dv dvd dvdr emboss encode exif fam fbcon ffmpeg fftw firefox flac fontconfig fortran gif gimp gphoto2 gpm graphviz handbook iconv icu idn ieee1394 imagemagick ipv6 jit jpeg kde kerberos kipi kontact lapack latex lcms libass libnotify lm_sensors mad mhash mmap mmx mng modules mp3 mp4 mpeg mpi msn mtp multilib musepack musicbrainz mysql ncurses nls nptl nsplugin offensive ogg openal openexr opengl openmp orc oss pam pango pcre pdf phonon plasma png policykit postscript ppds qt4 quicktime raw readline samba sasl sdl semantic-desktop smp sqlite sse sse2 ssl startup-notification svg syslog szip taglib threads tiff truetype udev udisks unicode upower usb v4l v4l2 videos vorbis wifi wmf wxwidgets x264 xcb xcomposite xine xml xmp xv xvid yahoo zeroconf zlib" ABI_X86="64" ALSA_CARDS="ali5451 als4000 atiixp atiixp-modem bt87x ca0106 cmipci emu10k1x ens1370 ens1371 es1938 es1968 fm801 hda-intel intel8x0 intel8x0m maestro3 trident usb-audio via82xx via82xx-modem ymfpci" APACHE2_MODULES="authn_core authz_core socache_shmcb unixd actions alias auth_basic authn_alias authn_anon authn_dbm authn_default authn_file authz_dbm authz_default authz_groupfile authz_host authz_owner authz_user autoindex cache cgi cgid dav dav_fs dav_lock deflate dir disk_cache env expires ext_filter file_cache filter headers include info log_config logio mem_cache mime mime_magic negotiation rewrite setenvif speling status unique_id userdir usertrack vhost_alias" CALLIGRA_FEATURES="kexi words flow plan sheets stage tables krita karbon braindump author" CAMERAS="fuji" COLLECTD_PLUGINS="df interface irq load memory rrdtool swap syslog" ELIBC="glibc" GPSD_PROTOCOLS="ashtech aivdm earthmate evermore fv18 garmin garmintxt gpsclock itrax mtk3301 nmea ntrip navcom oceanserver oldstyle oncore rtcm104v2 rtcm104v3 sirf superstar2 timing tsip tripmate tnt ublox ubx" GRUB_PLATFORMS="pc" INPUT_DEVICES="evdev synaptics" KERNEL="linux" LCD_DEVICES="bayrad cfontz cfontz633 glk hd44780 lb216 lcdm001 mtxorb ncurses text" LIBREOFFICE_EXTENSIONS="presenter-console presenter-minimizer" LINGUAS="en en_GB en_US" OFFICE_IMPLEMENTATION="libreoffice" 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Do you have anything in /sys/class/dmi/id/product_name and /sys/class/dmi/id/sys_vendor ? You would need CONFIG_DMIID in your kernel config. Or, you can install dmidecode and just paste the output of # dmidecode -s system-manufacturer # dmidecode -s system-product-name
Yes, I have "Dell Inc." and "Studio 1747". So, it seems I had not forgotten what laptop I had, and that its model is correctly recognized as well...
Created attachment 382790 [details, diff] Patch for Studio 1747 Can you tell me if this patch makes a difference? Do you currently monitor your fan on this laptop? This applies to 3.14.16.
Hold off on that patch until I confirm it's safe.
So, should I try it? BTW, wouldn't it be better to specify two different identities? For instance you could call the new one "Dell Studio 17". Also, probably the DMI product name will not be the same for other Studio 17 laptops (i.e., not 1747s), and those will require a specific match too. Finally, how about the fan multiplier override that is present for the other Studios (I guess the 15 series) and the XPS M140? Probably that needs checking too...
So, I've got some extra. One other effect is that the laptop randomly freezes when using the touchpad scrolling feature with this kernel. Now, of course this could be unrelated to this bug, since to have the touchpad working in the first place I need to revert the bad commit. Also, I can't find a sure way to reproduce this effect, as it always happens when scrolling with the touchpad, but otherwise it appears to trigger entirely randomly. Anyway, since it's still touchpad-related and it does not happen with previous versions of the kernel, I thought to include it here as potentially relevant additional information.
Can you test 3.17.0 and let us know the outcome, please?
Tried 3.17.1, the problem persists.
(In reply to Charo del Genio from comment #9) > Tried 3.17.1, the problem persists. Can you try the patch from comment 4 and let me know if it helps?
Problem still there, with the patch.
Created attachment 392224 [details, diff] Patch for Dell Studio 1747 (applies to 3.17.7)
It seems to be working now with the attached patch. The touchpad is correctly recognized, and also the sensors that had "disappeared" work again. I guess this solves the problem...
Great news. Can you point me to where you found this?
Actually I wrote it...
Nice job. Not sure if there is a mailing list to submit this but the maintainers information is below. Could you please email him this patch and ask for his comment? It could go to lkml.org with the maintainer CC'd, but I don't want it to get lost in the mass. DELL LAPTOP SMM DRIVER M: Guenter Roeck <linux@roeck-us.net> F: drivers/char/i8k.c F: include/uapi/linux/i8k.h
So, Günter hasn't yet replied, but I have noticed one more thing, namely that the SMM bios must be probed *after* the touchpad is recognized, or it just won't work. Also, as long as the touchpad is up, if one does not turn off the laptop, it will keep working no matter what. So, for example, I can boot into an old kernel (<3.14.14), with working touchpad, and from there reboot (*not halt*) into an unpatched 3.17.7, the touchpad will still work. However, if I actually halt the machine and then turn it on again to boot into an unpatched 3.17.7, the touchpad will not work. Moreover, if I build i8k into the kernel, rather than as a module, the touchpad will also not work. All this feels like there is some minor but substantial difference in the SMM bios between the Studio 15 and the Studio 17 series, and the probing could be what causes the problem.
I tested with a Studio 1737, but I can not reproduce the problem. Kernel version in my case was 3.17.8. The 1737 doesn't seem to have the Synaptics touchpad, which may explain why the problem doesn't show up there. Essentially we have two options: Add the patch as suggested (though I have no idea why it works), or replace the generic "Studio" entry with explicit "Studio 1737" and "Studio 1555" (and possibly "Studio 1747"). Any suggestions ? Guenter
Some more data: Turns out my Studio 1555 does have the Synaptics touchpad. However, it does not experience the problem; 3.17.8 works just fine even if the (unpatched) i8k driver is built into the kernel. I suspect the 1747 may have some firmware/BIOS bug. Wonder if the problem can be solved by installing the latest BIOS version (A14). Do the affected users have this version of the BIOS installed ? Thanks, Guenter
Charo, please tell us what BIOS version you have on your laptop.
Hi, just checked. It's A14.
is this still a problem ?
