Activate Touchpad in Control Center HP 2140

[jdnorton]

I am a novice user and have just bought a new HP 2140 with SUSE Linux. I've been unable to activate touchpad in the Control Center. The problem started with the HP 2140 fresh out of the box on Monday. I get the error message:

"GSynaptics couldn't initialize.
You have to set 'SHMConfig" 'true' in xorg.conf or XF86Config to use GSynaptics."

I've searched the forums and help files and found several solutions, but none work for me.

--Following an Ubuntu post, I created an fdi file "shmconfig.fdi" in etc/hal/fdi/policy. That didn't work. I found a follow up post that suggested the need to delete a cache file to get it to work. It should be var/cache/hald/fdi-cache Alas, my system doesn't have that cache file.

--I bought and read a book on SUSE Linux. (by Chris Brown, O'Reilly Press). That instructed me to edit the xorg.conf file, which I did in the way indicated. Although I could successfully edit and save changes as root, on restart the changes were gone. (In any case this doesn't look like a good thing to do since the file indicates it should not be edited by users).

--I've played around endlessly with control center settings. The most promising is the sax2 program, which does recognize a mouse that it identifies as a synaptics touchpad. But nothing I set there turns on the touchpad utility.

No matter what I do, the same error message above appears whenever I try to start the touchpad utility. I did check that the GSynaptics package is installed, but I don't think I even get close to starting it.

I've just run out of ideas. My main worry is to switch off the tap to click feature in the touchpad. I must have heavy fingers since when I move the cursor using the touchpad, the touchpad often interprets a click. It is a riot to watch me using the touchpad--windows are opening wildly all over the screen as the cursor grazes past them. I've managed by plugging in a USB mouse.

Any help gratefully received!

John Norton

[duglambier]

I don't have the solution, but may be you can try to post here :
http://forums.novell.com/novell-prod...sled-hardware/

Seems to be hardware related, so Novell support should give you the appropriate answer

[jdnorton]

Thanks. Good. Thought. First I might try another post here to see if anyone else has the same problem. That would help figuring out if it is just my software installation/hardware.

John N.

[mikez]

"GSynaptics couldn't initialize.
You have to set 'SHMConfig" 'true' in xorg.conf or XF86Config to use GSynaptics."

And what happened when you did the above as directed to do by the message?

[jdnorton]

I am a linux novice, so I wasn't sure just what syntax to use and where in the file to locate statement. I bought a copy of SUSE Linux (by Chris Brown, O'Reilly Press). It has a block of text in it that turns on the Synaptics touchpad features and includes setting SHMConfig for inclusion in xorg.conf. As root I copied that text into the file xorf.conf I thought I'd done everything right, including saving the file. On restart, however, the file had reverted to the original. I presumed that Sax2 might have intervened--the xorg.conf file had a prominent warning not to edit it.

Perhaps I should try again?

John N.

[mikez]

Sounds like some brain-dead automation did you in - - -
Try the SUSE forums/wiki to find out how to turn that off for the xorg.conf file - -
I.E: Put it back into "user maintained" mode.

It will probable be in a file listing other files to protect from user change - I just don't know which one.

[jdnorton]

I think I've now resolved the problem about as well as possible for a novice like me. Alas the solution is to leave SUSE Linux and load Ubuntu instead. There just seemed no other choice. I am pretty new to Linux so detailed fiddling with the set up is really not in my abilities.

I did try HP support, but the experience was bewildering. Over a period of about 3 weeks, I'd be told repeatedly that my "case" had been elevated to higher levels (e.g. "level 2 technicians") and someone would get back to me in one or two days. But I was rarely contacted and no useful information ever made it back to me. The most I learned was that their technicians were unable to replicate the problem. What was odd was that they also told me that they didn't have an HP 2140 to work on.

This seemed a poor response to a problem manifested in a brand new machine, with HP installed software right out of the box. If it is a generic problem with the software supplied to all machines, they should locate it and fix it. If it is some malfunction in just my machine, should they not do something to fix my brand new, not working machine?

Eventually one of the people I talked to just said that I should reinstall the whole system. That rather obvious piece of advice was the only positive suggestion I heard. Fortunately I had bought the restore disk and DVD drive and I did a full restore. Alas it did not solve the problem. I think that there's something in the setup of the version of SUSE Linux supplied that needs to be fixed.

Ubuntu 9.04 solves the problem. In that regard it is a dream and delight. I can now move the cursor across the screen without unintentionally clicking on things, starting applications etc. Phew! Also I've been able to switch on really useful touchpad features like vertical and horizontal scrolling. These were not enabled in SUSE Linux and could not be enabled because of the touchpad utility problem.

For a novice like me. installing Ubuntu was not entirely straightforward. But there is enough information out there to get over humps. Two useful tips:

--To get the system to recognize the USB drive, I needed to set it to second in the boot boot order.

--There's an odd bug that manifests as a failure to boot if you try to boot with the power adapter plugged in. At first I thought that was impossible, but after I tried it, it solved the problem. Booting is still a bit erratic, though.

There are known bugs in Ubuntu 9.04 on the HP 2140: the internal microphone is not recognized and the system is not put into suspend when the lid is closed. I can live with that. Having a touchpad that clicked when I didn't want it to was unbearable. (I survived by using a plug in mouse, which defeats the whole purpose of a mini machine.)

Thanks to all who helped!

John N.

[mikez]

Those "known bugs" are fixable in the various user configuration menus - -
Don't ask me which menus - I don't have a 2140 to play with - I just know it is "somewhere" -
Since it isn't a big deal, just keep them in the back of your mind, you'll stumble on the proper
configuration menu sooner or later - like when setting user desktop/menu/panel preferences.