Thinkpads Forum

Hello,

I am currently trying to set up a T60 laptop with Debian Etch Stable. I have installed the OS alright, but for some unknown reason, both the trackpoint and touchpad are not working. I am able to plug in an external USB mouse, and this works. I have searched this forum and also done some looking on ThinkWiki (the general consensus seems to be that after installing Etch, the touchpad and trackpoint should work "out of the box", so I guess I'm just lucky), but nothing I have tried yet has worked.

the relevant section of my xorg.conf looks like this:
I have tried changing the device from /dev/input/mice to /dev/psaux, also tried changing the protocol from imPS/2 to PS/2, for the trackpoint but no joy. I have also checked in the BIOS that the touchpad and trackpoint are set to "automatic" rather than "disabled".

I have yet to do anything with the touchpad as I thought I'd try and get the trackpoint working first.

I'm hoping that it's not a hardware issue, and I'm wondering if there is any way I can test whether it is or not without installing Windows or something.

Any help much appreciated... Not really sure where to go from here.

Is there anything suspicious looking in /var/log/Xorg.0.log?

Your Xorg.conf looks like mine. Mind you, I am using an X40, so conceivably there is some T60 specific issue.

Did you try running xev to look for events?

[edit, added:]

Do you have a server layout section?
e.g.

Section "ServerLayout"
Identifier "Default Layout"
Screen "Default Screen"
InputDevice "Generic Keyboard"
InputDevice "Configured Mouse"
InputDevice "Synaptics Touchpad"
EndSection

Thanks for the reply MeaninglessNick, I'll look into the things you mention and see what I can find.

I'm thinking maybe I should just do a temporary install of Windows XP, and see if the input devices are working with it, just so that I can rule out that it's a hardware issue. The T60 is second hand, so I'm a little worried that something may be stuffed at the hardware level.

Would I be right in assuming that the trackpoint and touchpad should definitely work with Windows XP without having to manually install drivers? Does the trackpoint/touchpad usually work during the Windows XP install?

Sorry, I don't know much about Windows. But along the same lines, you could try booting from a Knoppix CD. Knoppix has a very good reputation for hardware detection.

Yeah, sometimes I wish I didn't know much about Windows.

I do indeed have a ServerLayout section that looks exactly like yours.

No worries, thanks for your help. I shall push on and get this issue sorted out one way or another.

The trackpoint should work fine using most live cds. The live cds I booted my T60 with were gentoo 2007.0, sabayon linux and ubuntu 6.06, and it worked with all of them.

Anyway, I also have etch installed, and the trackpoint worked without any additional configuration.