Re: [PATCH] Add a quirk for the Dell XPS 13 (2015) when in PS/2 mode.

[Benjamin Tissoires]

On Fri, Feb 20, 2015 at 4:21 PM, Mario Limonciello
<mario_limonciello@xxxxxxxx> wrote:
>
> On 02/20/2015 02:41 PM, Pali RohÃr wrote:
>>
[snipped]
>
>> There is problem with some synaptics touchpad on some laptops
>> (probably not dell). Windows driver loads own firmware into
>> synaptics touchpad which use different protocol (as original
>> firmware in touchpad). And that loaded firmware is active until
>> laptop is not shut down. When you reboot from Windows to Linux
>> then linux kernel driver refuse to identify & use touchpad
>> because it does not support that new firmware loaded by
>> Windows... I do not know lot of about this problem, I just heard
>> about it from other people. I did not see any laptop "in action".
>>
> Ah, so it's a special interface that's implemented in the Synaptics Windows
> driver.  As described above this sounds like a stop gap type solution to
> resolve a field problem until the firmware can be implemented into
> manufactured parts.  I'd suspect that people who purchased the same model of
> this computer later might run into problems without warm booting as the
> firmware got updated into the manufacturer's factory.
>
>

What is most likely happening is that the synaptics driver switches
the touchpad into the i2c/hid protocol. And yes Synaptics told us that
only a reset re-enables the touchpad in the PS/2 mode.
Kernels 3.11 and later know how to deal with this mode (through
hid-rmi), so we should not see these problems in the future unless
hid-rmi is not compiled in the running kernel.

Fortunately, we can deal with the Dell/Synaptics touchpads, the Lenovo
ones are using SMBus, and we have never been able to talk to the
devices with SMBus :(

Cheers,
Benjamin
--
To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-kernel" in
the body of a message to majordomo@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
More majordomo info at  http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html
Please read the FAQ at  http://www.tux.org/lkml/