Re: [SOLVED] Re: Acer Aspire 5 A515-45 touchpad suddenly stopped working on debian 12.5
On Sun, 7 Jul 2024, at 01:56, David Wright wrote: > To answer the question in the rant, "why the f* does this button > exist"... A more fundamental issue can be that some machines have an option in the BIOS that dictates whether keys (mostly but not exclusively the F1-F12 ones) which have alternate "Fn+" actions will either - by default issue the F1-F12 action, but need you to press "Fn" as well to get the other action - the opposite People who are not programmers typically want the brightness, volume, play, rewind etc actions most of the time and rarely if ever want F1-F12 codes. -- Jeremy Nicoll - my opinions are my own.
Re: [SOLVED] Re: Acer Aspire 5 A515-45 touchpad suddenly stopped working on debian 12.5
On 6/7/24 16:39, Steinar Bang wrote: Steinar Bang : Sometime (a day or so maybe) before <2024-06-26 Wed 19:59> the touchpad stopped working on my Acer Aspire 5 with a MATE desktop on debian 12.5. At the time the laptop had gone 50 days since the last reboot so I figured something had gone wrong during the time and a reboot would fix it. So in <2024-06-29 Sat 18:07> I did a reboot as a result of "apt full-upgrade" to debian 12.5 and the touchpad still wasn't working. I have been thinking that the cause may be 1. A hardware failure? 2. I accidentially pressed a keyboard combination that disables the touchpad? 3. I have accidentially made some configuration change that disables the touchpad? The cause was number 2 and the key is F7 (without pressing the Fn key). Pressing F7 gave me the touchpad back. I decided to give this yet another try this morning and googled combinations of "acer aspire 5 fn key disable touchpad" I was told that Fn+F6 and Fn+F7 is supposed to toggle the touchpad on many Acer laptops. But pressing Fn+F6 or Fn+F7 had no more effect than anything else I had tried. But one thing I discovered was that many people have had the disappearing touchpad problem on Acer laptopns, also on Windows, and have tried everything around upgrading drivers and even upgrading from Windows 10 to Windows 11. So this is not a debian or GNU/linux specific issue. I am always reluctant to reboot but I decided I had to bite the bullet and boot into BIOS and see what I could find there. But I always, before doing anything, I do a quick google to see what I can find, search string "acer aspire touchpad bios", and there I found this thread: https://www.reddit.com/r/AcerOfficial/comments/ug3xks/touchpad_not_working_at_all_for_my_aspire_5_tried/ Specifically this posting: https://www.reddit.com/r/AcerOfficial/comments/ug3xks/comment/l1iia93/?utm_source=share_medium=web3x_name=web3xcss_term=1_content=share_button So I tried F6 without Fn and the screen went black. One more press on F6 and I had the desktop back. Then I tried F7 without Fn... nd touchpad was back. I fully supports the rants in the posting linked to above. Couldn't said it better myself. Have you considered changing the bios so that the Fn keys need the Fn key to alter the screen and touchpad and for that matter sound settings etc accidently. It means the Fn keys will also function what was considered normally for decades. -- All the best Keith Bainbridge keithr...@gmail.com keith.bainbridge.3...@gmail.com +61 (0)447 667 468 UTC + 10:00
Re: [SOLVED] Re: Acer Aspire 5 A515-45 touchpad suddenly stopped working on debian 12.5
On Sat 06 Jul 2024 at 08:39:57 (+0200), Steinar Bang wrote: > > Steinar Bang : > > > Sometime (a day or so maybe) before <2024-06-26 Wed 19:59> the touchpad > > stopped working on my Acer Aspire 5 with a MATE desktop on debian 12.5. > > > At the time the laptop had gone 50 days since the last reboot so I > > figured something had gone wrong during the time and a reboot would fix > > it. > > > So in <2024-06-29 Sat 18:07> I did a reboot as a result of "apt > > full-upgrade" to debian 12.5 and the touchpad still wasn't working. > > > I have been thinking that the cause may be > > 1. A hardware failure? > > 2. I accidentially pressed a keyboard combination that disables the > > touchpad? > > 3. I have accidentially made some configuration change that disables > > the touchpad? > > The cause was number 2 and the key is F7 (without pressing the Fn key). > > Pressing F7 gave me the touchpad back. > > I decided to give this yet another try this morning and googled > combinations of "acer aspire 5 fn key disable touchpad" > > I was told that Fn+F6 and Fn+F7 is supposed to toggle the touchpad on > many Acer laptops. But pressing Fn+F6 or Fn+F7 had no more effect than > anything else I had tried. > > But one thing I discovered was that many people have had the > disappearing touchpad problem on Acer laptopns, also on Windows, and > have tried everything around upgrading drivers and even upgrading from > Windows 10 to Windows 11. So this is not a debian or GNU/linux specific > issue. > > I am always reluctant to reboot but I decided I had to bite the bullet > and boot into BIOS and see what I could find there. > > But I always, before doing anything, I do a quick google to see what I > can find, search string "acer aspire touchpad bios", and there I found > this thread: > > https://www.reddit.com/r/AcerOfficial/comments/ug3xks/touchpad_not_working_at_all_for_my_aspire_5_tried/ > > Specifically this posting: > > https://www.reddit.com/r/AcerOfficial/comments/ug3xks/comment/l1iia93/?utm_source=share_medium=web3x_name=web3xcss_term=1_content=share_button > > So I tried F6 without Fn and the screen went black. One more press on F6 > and I had the desktop back. > > Then I tried F7 without Fn... nd touchpad was back. > > I fully supports the rants in the posting linked to above. > > Couldn't said it better myself. The advice I follow whever I acquire a "new" computer¹ (all mine are cast-offs) is to download any manuals (quickstart, user, service etc) I can find from sites like www.manualslib.com, check them out, and archive them. (I also keep any reviews I find.) These particular buttons have been around for years. The attached is from the service manual for my Acer TravelMate 3201XCi, manufactured and documented in 2004, but wrested from my partner in 2014 after being our only working CorelDraw installation for a couple of years. To answer the question in the rant, "why the f* does this button exist": for the same reason that some people set a touchpad timeout each time a key is struck, to prevent the cursor careering around the screen when typing, thanks to the ball of the thumb rubbing the touchpad. ¹ or any other technology items or components. Cheers, David.
[SOLVED] Re: Acer Aspire 5 A515-45 touchpad suddenly stopped working on debian 12.5
> Steinar Bang : > Sometime (a day or so maybe) before <2024-06-26 Wed 19:59> the touchpad > stopped working on my Acer Aspire 5 with a MATE desktop on debian 12.5. > At the time the laptop had gone 50 days since the last reboot so I > figured something had gone wrong during the time and a reboot would fix > it. > So in <2024-06-29 Sat 18:07> I did a reboot as a result of "apt > full-upgrade" to debian 12.5 and the touchpad still wasn't working. > I have been thinking that the cause may be > 1. A hardware failure? > 2. I accidentially pressed a keyboard combination that disables the > touchpad? > 3. I have accidentially made some configuration change that disables > the touchpad? The cause was number 2 and the key is F7 (without pressing the Fn key). Pressing F7 gave me the touchpad back. I decided to give this yet another try this morning and googled combinations of "acer aspire 5 fn key disable touchpad" I was told that Fn+F6 and Fn+F7 is supposed to toggle the touchpad on many Acer laptops. But pressing Fn+F6 or Fn+F7 had no more effect than anything else I had tried. But one thing I discovered was that many people have had the disappearing touchpad problem on Acer laptopns, also on Windows, and have tried everything around upgrading drivers and even upgrading from Windows 10 to Windows 11. So this is not a debian or GNU/linux specific issue. I am always reluctant to reboot but I decided I had to bite the bullet and boot into BIOS and see what I could find there. But I always, before doing anything, I do a quick google to see what I can find, search string "acer aspire touchpad bios", and there I found this thread: https://www.reddit.com/r/AcerOfficial/comments/ug3xks/touchpad_not_working_at_all_for_my_aspire_5_tried/ Specifically this posting: https://www.reddit.com/r/AcerOfficial/comments/ug3xks/comment/l1iia93/?utm_source=share_medium=web3x_name=web3xcss_term=1_content=share_button So I tried F6 without Fn and the screen went black. One more press on F6 and I had the desktop back. Then I tried F7 without Fn... nd touchpad was back. I fully supports the rants in the posting linked to above. Couldn't said it better myself.
Re: Acer Aspire 5 A515-45 touchpad suddenly stopped working on debian 12.5
On 3/7/24 04:15, Steinar Bang wrote: CToID : https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Touchpad_Synaptics#Touchpad_not_recognized_after_shutdown_from_Arch Certain touchpads (Elantech in particular) will fail to be recognized as a device of any sort after a standard shutdown from Arch Linux. This seems to fit your problem description. Interesting. Is this a new thing or has the problem been there for a while? I can't tell from the above description. The laptop has been running more or less continously, execpt for nightly suspends, since I bought it in the summer of 2022, and I haven't noticed anything strange with the touchpad before. Also I don't have any windows to boot into. I scrubbed that when I installed debian. https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Touchpad_Synaptics#MATE MATE will by default overwrite various options for your touchpad. Maybe your problem has something to do with MATE? Could be. I tried disabling MATE config writing as outloned in the above URL and logged out of the desktop and back in again. But the touchpad still isn't working, unfortunately? I do not know whether this is of any use to you, but I have an Acer Aspire 5750G running Linux Mint Mate 21.3, on which, I run an external monitor, keyboard, and mouse, and, after reading the first post in the thread, I tried the keypad on that computer, and, it worked okay. So, I think that it is not a Mate thing. Perhaps, you could download the images for Ubuntu Mate 22.04 (and/or, 24.04) and Linux Mint Mate 21.3, and boot and run them as live images (rather than installing them), to find how your keypad works with them. This is where using a Ventoy drive is useful. .. Bret Busby Armadale West Australia (UTC+0800) ..
Re: Acer Aspire 5 A515-45 touchpad suddenly stopped working on debian 12.5
> CToID : > https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Touchpad_Synaptics#Touchpad_not_recognized_after_shutdown_from_Arch > Certain touchpads (Elantech in particular) will fail to be > recognized as a device of any sort after a standard shutdown from > Arch Linux. > This seems to fit your problem description. Interesting. Is this a new thing or has the problem been there for a while? I can't tell from the above description. The laptop has been running more or less continously, execpt for nightly suspends, since I bought it in the summer of 2022, and I haven't noticed anything strange with the touchpad before. Also I don't have any windows to boot into. I scrubbed that when I installed debian. > https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Touchpad_Synaptics#MATE > MATE will by default overwrite various options for your touchpad. > Maybe your problem has something to do with MATE? Could be. I tried disabling MATE config writing as outloned in the above URL and logged out of the desktop and back in again. But the touchpad still isn't working, unfortunately?
Re: Acer Aspire 5 A515-45 touchpad suddenly stopped working on debian 12.5
https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Touchpad_Synaptics#Touchpad_not_recognized_after_shutdown_from_Arch > Certain touchpads (Elantech in particular) will fail to be recognized as a device of any sort after a standard shutdown from Arch Linux. This seems to fit your problem description. https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Touchpad_Synaptics#MATE > MATE will by default overwrite various options for your touchpad. Maybe your problem has something to do with MATE? -- Best, ID
Acer Aspire 5 A515-45 touchpad suddenly stopped working on debian 12.5
Sometime (a day or so maybe) before <2024-06-26 Wed 19:59> the touchpad
stopped working on my Acer Aspire 5 with a MATE desktop on debian 12.5.
At the time the laptop had gone 50 days since the last reboot so I
figured something had gone wrong during the time and a reboot would fix
it.
So in <2024-06-29 Sat 18:07> I did a reboot as a result of "apt
full-upgrade" to debian 12.5 and the touchpad still wasn't working.
I have been thinking that the cause may be
1. A hardware failure?
2. I accidentially pressed a keyboard combination that disables the
touchpad?
3. I have accidentially made some configuration change that disables
the touchpad?
But I need help debugging and figuring things out, because all the
guides and error reports I find are old (typically 2016/2017 or older).
Are there any good diagnostics tools that work with the current stack?
(everything I have found has been too old to be useful)
Does anyone know of touchpad disabling keyboard key combinations on Acer
Aspire laptops?
Can the touchpad be switched off without me being in there to do so
(remember the laptop hadn't been rebooted in 50 days when I discovered
the touchpad had gone AWOL, so I haven't been in there to switch things
off)?
So here is what I know:
1. The touchpad worked from day 1 without me having to do anything when
I installed debian 11 on this laptop in 2022
https://steinar.bang.priv.no/2022/07/31/installing-debian-11-bullseye-using-pxe-boot-on-an-acer-aspire-5-a515-45-laptop/
2. The config is untouched by me and uses the libinput driver (which
google has told me has been the standard since 2017)
https://gist.github.com/steinarb/95beb9010d1d8be5c9c9e9e2cbcc1513#file-40-libinput-conf-L33
3. The libinput driver is installed
https://gist.github.com/steinarb/5e606993f01f70c2f3d1a715b0706add
4. The touchpad is an ElanTech touchpad that show up in Xorg.0.log, but
have some suspicious lines at the end ("No input driver specified,
ignoring this device" and "This device may have been added with
another device file.")
https://gist.github.com/steinarb/74016c347396a9f29a437f592c4c43d0#file-xorg-0-log-L386
5. The touchpad shows up as a tab in the "Mouse preferences" dialog of
debian:
https://www.bang.priv.no/screenshots/debian12-touchpad-screenshot-2024-07-02_20-09-20.png
6. I am currently using a logitech MX mastere 3S bluetooth mouse (shows
up in Xorg.0.log as well)
Thanks!
- Steinar
