Touchpad isn't working on CentOS 8

[mgoblue0970]

Hi all:

The title says it all. I just installed CentOS 8 on my laptop and the touchpad isn't working. Like many, I hate the touchpad but for times like when I'm on an airplane there often isn't room for a mouse.

Speaking of a mouse, my USB mouse works just fine... just don't have the same luck with the touchpad. I tried running

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synclient -l

and got

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command not found...

So I ran

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yum search synaptics

and got

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No matches found.

Grr.

Attaching the output from hwinfo to this post.

xinput:

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⎡ Virtual core pointer                    	id=2	[master pointer  (3)]
⎜   ↳ Virtual core XTEST pointer              	id=4	[slave  pointer  (2)]
⎜   ↳ xwayland-pointer:16                     	id=6	[slave  pointer  (2)]
⎜   ↳ xwayland-relative-pointer:16            	id=7	[slave  pointer  (2)]
⎣ Virtual core keyboard                   	id=3	[master keyboard (2)]
    ↳ Virtual core XTEST keyboard             	id=5	[slave  keyboard (3)]
    ↳ xwayland-keyboard:16                    	id=8	[slave  keyboard (3)]

less /proc/bus/input/devices | grep -i touch:

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N: Name="ELAN1300:00 04F3:3057 Touchpad"

A ha! Perhaps we are on to something here.

So I ran the following five commands and didn't get any output:

lspci | grep -i elan
lspci | grep -i touch
lsusb | grep -i elan
lsusb | grep -i touch
lsmod | grep -i elan

Are there any other commands I should run which would shed some light on what is going on?

When I Google "elan touchpad linux driver" I cannot find squat. Is there a driver/package/etc., out there for this device?

Thanks in advance for any assistance you can provide.

[TrevorH]

Does it work if you use xorg instead of wayland?

[mgoblue0970]

Thanks for the reply. But I don't understand it
How does one specify xorg over wayland. I don't know the difference quite honestly.

[sml]

On your login screen when it shows the input field for password there's a gear symbol to the left of the Sign In button:

Click on the gear and select the line with X11 and/or Xorg in it (the image above is for Arch Linux, not for CentOS, so your options will be named differently).

On another note,

less /proc/bus/input/devices | grep -i touch:

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N: Name="ELAN1300:00 04F3:3057 Touchpad"

A ha! Perhaps we are on to something here.

So I ran the following five commands and didn't get any output:

lspci | grep -i elan
lspci | grep -i touch
lsusb | grep -i elan
lsusb | grep -i touch

You've got the Vendor:Device pair shown, so it's

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lspci -d 04f3:3057
lsusb -d 04f3:3057

Although that wouldn't give you anything. Linux Hardware lists it neither as PCI nor as USB, but as PS/2 . In fact, it's I2C, so try to install i2c-tools:

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dnf install i2c-tools
modprobe i2c-dev
i2cdetect -l

Does it show up in the output of libinput list-devices (on Wayland)?

Also, from ArchWiki:

If it is an Elantech Touchpad not being detected and you are getting the following line in your journalctl -k:

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elan_i2c 5-0015: 5-0015 supply vcc not found, using dummy regulator

it is related to an issue with the psmouse module trying to use a secondary bus for the touchpad device, and elan_i2c failing to do so. The fix is to force it to use the primary one. Just create the file below and reload the psmouse module or reboot:

/etc/modprobe.d/psmouse.conf

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options psmouse elantech_smbus=0

There're also some arcane kernel boot parameters for the i8042 controller like i8042.noaux, i8042.noloop, i8042.nomux, i8042.nopnp, i8042.reset that are discussed here.

[mgoblue0970]

Thanks for the detailed reply. Much appreciated!

I ran:

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dnf install i2c-tools
modprobe i2c-dev
i2cdetect -l

as you mentioned... and

Does it show up in the output of libinput list-devices (on Wayland)?

here's the notable output:

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Device:           ELAN1300:00 04F3:3057 Touchpad
Kernel:           /dev/input/event13
Group:            8
Seat:             seat0, default
Size:             103x69mm
Capabilities:     pointer gesture
Tap-to-click:     disabled
Tap-and-drag:     enabled
Tap drag lock:    disabled
Left-handed:      disabled
Nat.scrolling:    disabled
Middle emulation: disabled
Calibration:      n/a
Scroll methods:   *two-finger edge 
Click methods:    *button-areas clickfinger 
Disable-w-typing: enabled
Accel profiles:   none
Rotation:         n/a

So I guess that's something.

I ran:

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journalctl -k | grep -i elan

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Feb 06 03:28:11 localhost.localdomain kernel: input: ELAN1300:00 04F3:3057 Mouse as /devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:15.1/i2c_designware.1/i2c-6/i2c-ELAN1300:00/0018:04F3:3057.0004/input/input14
Feb 06 03:28:11 localhost.localdomain kernel: input: ELAN1300:00 04F3:3057 Touchpad as /devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:15.1/i2c_designware.1/i2c-6/i2c-ELAN1300:00/0018:04F3:3057.0004/input/input15
Feb 06 03:28:11 localhost.localdomain kernel: hid-generic 0018:04F3:3057.0004: input,hidraw3: I2C HID v1.00 Mouse [ELAN1300:00 04F3:3057] on i2c-ELAN1300:00
Feb 06 03:28:12 localhost.localdomain kernel: input: ELAN1300:00 04F3:3057 Touchpad as /devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:15.1/i2c_designware.1/i2c-6/i2c-ELAN1300:00/0018:04F3:3057.0004/input/input24
Feb 06 03:28:12 localhost.localdomain kernel: hid-multitouch 0018:04F3:3057.0004: input,hidraw3: I2C HID v1.00 Mouse [ELAN1300:00 04F3:3057] on i2c-ELAN1300:00

Rebooting did not work

Creating /etc/modprobe.d/psmouse.conf with options psmouse elantech_smbus=0 in the file did not work.

Changing the server from wayland to xorg did not work.