Bug#522920: ELANTECH and lenny xorg
I think the synaptics driver doesn't work in either of these
combinations on elantech hardware:
1) no kernel driver, unpatched synaptics driver
2) with kernel driver, unpatched synaptics driver from lenny (I tried
this)
So having the option on shouldn't change backward compatibility, since
it doesn't work anyway.
However, users of the hardware can use the evdev driver for Xorg and get
most of the features of the synaptics driver that way (like taps and
2 finger vertical scrolling.)
In Debian the patched synaptics driver is currently only in
experimental.
More details on this in the debian eee pc wiki:
http://wiki.debian.org/DebianEeePC/HowTo/ElantechTouchpad
On Tue, Apr 07, 2009 at 12:25:59PM -0700, Matt Taggart wrote:
> Regarding turning on CONFIG_MOUSE_PS2_ELANTECH...
>
> According the kernel help text,
>
> Note that if you enable this driver you will need an updated
> X.org Synaptics driver that does not require ABS_PRESSURE
> reports from the touchpad (i.e. post 1.5.0 version). You can
> grab a patch for the driver here:
>
> http://userweb.kernel.org/~dtor/synaptics-no-abspressure.patch
>
> The lenny version does not contain this patch.
>
> As long as being able to backport a newer kernel to lenny is a goal, this
> driver shouldn't be turned on.
>
> If there is a "lenny and a half" release that updates xorg drivers to a
> level where this patch is included, then the kernel team could consider
> turning on this driver in a newer provided kernel.
>
> I have started a "lenny and a half" page on the wiki and added this issue
> to it
>
> http://wiki.debian.org/LennyAndAHalf
>
> --
> Matt Taggart
> taggart@debian.org
Reply to: