Kubuntu vs Lenovo ThinkPad L480 Touchpad

[Smarcy]

Hello,

I'm new to Kubuntu, switching over from MSWIN, so my wordchoices may not always be completely accurate.

I'm having trouble with my ThinkPad L480's touchpad. Although google searches told me that many, many others do have that trouble as well, I'm here to ask if there is already any kind of workaround.

First of all I'll describe my exact problem:

When I installed the latest Kubuntu yesterday, my touchpad worked just fine with all the two-finger-scrolling features and all.
It all worked like a charm, until I updated my kernel.
I ran the usual sudo apt-get update/upgrade and rebooted my machine.

Now the touchpad is not working at all. No response, not even usual point & click.

This is my current kernel version (uname -r): 4.18.0-13-generic

From here on I started my searches. What I was able to figure out was that:

The ThinkPad L480 does not have the usual synaptics touchpad, moreover it is one of those fancy "ELAN" pads, which seem to be not supported by the kernel.

Neither xinput nor libinput detects it as a touchpad, or detect it at all. (Both just do not list it).

My current workaround is unloading the psmouse driver and loading it again, which lets xinput detect the touchpad as a generic mouse.

xinput list output:

⎡ Virtual core pointer id=2 [master pointer (3)]
⎜ ↳ Virtual core XTEST pointer id=4 [slave pointer (2)]
⎜ ↳ PS/2 Generic Mouse id=11 [slave pointer (2)]
⎣ Virtual core keyboard id=3 [master keyboard (2)]
↳ Virtual core XTEST keyboard id=5 [slave keyboard (3)]
↳ Power Button id=6 [slave keyboard (3)]
↳ Video Bus id=7 [slave keyboard (3)]
↳ Sleep Button id=8 [slave keyboard (3)]
↳ Integrated Camera: Integrated C id=9 [slave keyboard (3)]
↳ AT Translated Set 2 keyboard id=10 [slave keyboard (3)]
↳ ThinkPad Extra Buttons id=12 [slave keyboard (3)]So I am able to use the touchpad as a mouse with point&click features, but I can not use the two-finger-scrollen, the zooming or any of those handy features. But I would really like to use those.

I hope I described my problem well enough. If this is post is lacking any informations, just request them, I'll deliver asap!

Thank you for your time guys!

[Snowhog]

I ran the usual sudo apt-get update/upgrade and rebooted my machine.

Try:
Open a konsole and type: sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install dkms
After that finishes, type: sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get dist-upgrade
When that finished, exit konsole and logout/reboot.

[oshunluvr]

This might apply: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+s...x/+bug/1803600

Looks like firmware upgrade can help also.

[Smarcy]

Try:
Open a konsole and type: sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install dkms
After that finishes, type: sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get dist-upgrade
When that finished, exit konsole and logout/reboot.

Since I already tried several "fixes", I just noticed that dkms was already installed and dist-upgrade also outputted that there is nothing to upgrade.
I'm still grateful for your time!

[Smarcy]

This might apply: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+s...x/+bug/1803600

Looks like firmware upgrade can help also.

If I try this temporary fix, it tells me that directory does not exist.

sh: 1: cannot create /sys/bus/serio/devices/seriol/protocol: Directory nonexistent

I'm stressing again that I'm just switching over.

EDIT: Nevermind, I didn't realize its serio1, not seriol.
It indeed enables the multitouch features! But how do I make this solution permanent, apart from running the command every time I use my machine?

[oshunluvr]

Why not run it every time? Open System Settings, go to Startup and Shutdown, Autostart, click "Add Program" and enter the command that works in the open bar at the top. Then at the bottom, click "Terminal Options" and check "Run in terminal" and the save with the "OK" button.

This will create a file in your user startup folder and run it every time you log in.

While I agree this isn't a "fix" but it is a usable workaround. The "fix" will come when the bug is resolved.

BTW, Welcome to KFN and Linux!

[Smarcy]

Why not run it every time? Open System Settings, go to Startup and Shutdown, Autostart, click "Add Program" and enter the command that works in the open bar at the top. Then at the bottom, click "Terminal Options" and check "Run in terminal" and the save with the "OK" button.

This will create a file in your user startup folder and run it every time you log in.

While I agree this isn't a "fix" but it is a usable workaround. The "fix" will come when the bug is resolved.

Yaass, that one does the trick!

Thank you guys, you saved me a lot of further anger.

BTW, Welcome to KFN and Linux!

Thanks mate, I'm aiming to stay awhile, and listen.