3 votes

Fixing pointing stick on thinkpad

Posted by everyone_is_butiful
Tags: ask.advice, hardware, thinkpad, tech support

I bought my thinkpad T480 back in like 2017-2018 (I think) and there have been ups and downs to my time with it. but one thing that has always bugged me is the pointing stick.

Apparently Debian and the Thinkpad T480 pointing stick really don't work well together.

if I have just booted up my computer, its OK enough and I dont feel any wrist strain.

But often, when I wake my computer up from sleep, it is SOOOO SLOW, I develop wrist pain trying to get the bloody mouse to move and just give up and use an external mouse.

I have done some investigation and set these as a result

echo 255 | sudo tee -a /sys/devices/platform/i8042/serio1/subsystem/devices/serio2/speed
echo 255 | sudo tee -a /sys/devices/platform/i8042/serio1/subsystem/devices/serio2/sensitivity

xinput set-prop 'TPPS/2 IBM TrackPoint' 'libinput Accel Speed' 1

but it doesn't help 100%

I tried to see if gemini could help but it went down some path that involved modifying some matrix and didnt quite seem to understand the issue.

I will openly admit to being a novice to these hardware-level issues, although I am always happy to learn but feel completely out of my depth and need a pointer or 2.

my system info

 $ echo $XDG_CURRENT_DESKTOP
X-Cinnamon
 $ echo $DESKTOP_SESSION
cinnamon
 $ cat /etc/*release
PRETTY_NAME="Debian GNU/Linux 13 (trixie)"
NAME="Debian GNU/Linux"
VERSION_ID="13"
VERSION="13 (trixie)"
VERSION_CODENAME=trixie
DEBIAN_VERSION_FULL=13.7
ID=debian
HOME_URL="https://www.debian.org/"
SUPPORT_URL="https://www.debian.org/support"
BUG_REPORT_URL="https://bugs.debian.org/"

3 comments

  1. vord
    Link
    Have you been down the Thinkwiki Trackpoint confirmation rabbithole? There may be dragons, given Ubuntu 9.10 is labelled as "more recent."

    Have you been down the Thinkwiki Trackpoint confirmation rabbithole?

    There may be dragons, given Ubuntu 9.10 is labelled as "more recent."

  2. [2]
    Promonk
    Link
    Is it specifically whenever you wake the system from sleep that you get this issue? If so, it's likely a problem with putting the USB hub that trackpoint runs through into a low-power state. I...

    Is it specifically whenever you wake the system from sleep that you get this issue? If so, it's likely a problem with putting the USB hub that trackpoint runs through into a low-power state.

    I assume there's a dotfile somewhere or other that handles power management for individual hubs and devices. I would start by trying to bar the system from putting the trackpoint into a low power state. In Windows that is handled through Device Manager or the registry, but things work differently in Linux Land, so I'd consult the Wizards at the Arch Wiki for guidance.

    1. arch
      Link Parent
      To start why don't you try reinitializing the device after resume to see if it helps. From the ThinkWiki /u/vord posted: rmmod psmouse && modprobe psmouse If that works just make it permanent by...

      To start why don't you try reinitializing the device after resume to see if it helps. From the ThinkWiki /u/vord posted:

      rmmod psmouse && modprobe psmouse

      If that works just make it permanent by creating /etc/pm/config.d/01reload_mouse with the following content:

      # reload psmouse to reactivate trackpoint scrolling SUSPEND_MODULES="${SUSPEND_MODULES:+$SUSPEND_MODULES }psmouse"

      https://www.thinkwiki.org/wiki/How_to_configure_the_TrackPoint#Reactivate_Scrolling_after_suspend.2Fresume