Tiny Core Linux

General TC => Tiny Core Netbooks => Topic started by: MikeLockmoore on January 21, 2011, 02:23:17 PM

Title: Toshiba Satellite T215D
Post by: MikeLockmoore on January 21, 2011, 02:23:17 PM
The ASUS eeePC 1000 I had been using at work died several months back.  :'( Motherboard got a little flaky... some trace seemed cracked or something... if you pressed on part of the motherboard a little, it would shut down.

Anyway, I was assigned a Toshiba Satellite T215 as a replacement.  Here are some specs:

CPU: 1.7-GHz AMD Athlon II Neo Processor K125
RAM/Upgradeable to: 2GB/8GB
Hard Drive Size/Speed: 250GB/5,400 rpm
Display Size/Resolution: 11.6 inches / 1366 x 768 native resolution
Graphics/Video Memory: ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4225/256MB
Wireless: 802.11b/g/n

This has about 50% to 100% better CPU performance to the Atom in the eeePC 1000, but a shorter battery life. A bit bigger than most netbooks, a bit smaller than most small laptops.  ::)

I shrunk the Windows 7 partition and installed both Fedora 14 and (of course!) TinyCore.  At first, the display was badly stretched by the xvesa graphics (xvesa seems to top out at 1024x768).  I installed Xorg 7.5 "confless" and it was able to open up in the native 1366x768 resolution.  However, there are some issues related to X:

1) I don't have any visible text if I leave X and go to the bare console (black screen).  I can blindly type "startx" and get back into X, but that kind of makes it hard to run a text-only app, such as the xconfig utility.  Adding a vga boot code in my grub menu.lst entry didn't help.  Other ideas?

2) The synaptic touchpad works at a basic level, but in Windows 7 and Fedora 14, if you swipe along the right edge or bottom, you will get vertical and horizontal scrolling, respectively (like two-finger scrolling in the eeePC).  I'd like to get that touchpad feature working in Tinycore.

3) I think the full hardware acceleration is not working:

Code: [Select]
[drm] failed to load kernel module "radeon"
(EE) RADEON(0): [dri] RADEONDRIGetVersion failed to open the DRM
[dri] Disabling DRI.
(II) RADEON(0): using shadow framebuffer

Another issue: battery life in TC is pretty short... not much more than 3 hours.  I think I can get over 4 in Fedora and Windows.  Those other OSes probably use CPU speed management automatically.  I need to try to install the TC extensions to better manage the CPU speed and power consumption.  

If anyone has advice in any of these areas, I'd appreciate hearing about it. Thanks!
--
Mike Lockmoore
Title: Re: Toshiba Satellite T215
Post by: jls on January 21, 2011, 06:18:25 PM
for the touchpad search synaptics in the forum
for the video card try loading firmware.tcz
Title: Re: Toshiba Satellite T215
Post by: MikeLockmoore on January 22, 2011, 01:02:10 PM
@jls_legalize: The firmware.tcz did not help, but thanks for suggesting something.

So, I tried the ati-fglrx.tcz driver.  It requires installation of source, building a required component, then installing the ati-fglrx.tcz and running a command-line configuration tool.  Since I could not see any text in my pure text console, that was a little tricky. :P  But I put the command-line into a little script with a short name that would be easier to type blindly.  That worked!  ;D  But don't forget the last step in the instructions provided in the ati-fglrx.tcz info file... you need to make the /etc/X11/xorg.conf file persistent.  I forgot and needed to backtrack and redo most of it a second time.  :-[

Now I have the ati-fglrx driver running, scrolling in Firefox seems pretty smooth and flash video seems smoother.  I ran glxgears and was getting more than 1600 frames/sec in the default small window, and about 220 frames/sec when the animation window was maximized (1366 x 768 pixels).  I have not benchmarked many other setups, but that seems OK to me.

Next up... see if I can get the edge-scrolling working with the Synaptics touchpad.
Title: Re: Toshiba Satellite T215
Post by: MikeLockmoore on January 22, 2011, 08:03:04 PM
OK, I got the touchpad edge scrolling to work!  :D

I tried running Xorg -configure outside of X, but that crashed.  I tried to check my Fedora 14 installation, but it is also running confless (no xorg.conf file to reveiw).  I could not get X to _stop_ running in Fedora.  If you kill X, it comes right back, and if you try "telinit 3" is does not seem to work either....

Anyway, I just decided to plow ahead with some generic synapics setup, hoping mine would be fairly standard.  This worked:

Code: [Select]
Section "InputDevice"
Identifier "Touchpad"
Driver   "synaptics"
Option "Device"   "/dev/psaux"
Option "Protocol" "auto-dev"
Option "SHMConfig" "true"
Option "TapButton1" "1"
Option "TapButton2" "2"
Option "TapButton3" "3"
Option "VertEdgeScroll"    "1"
Option "VertScrollDelta"  "45"
Option "HorizEdgeScroll"   "1"
Option "HorizScrollDelta" "45"
EndSection


I'll attach my entire xorg.conf in case it is useful to anyone in the future.

I saw some notes in various web pages I saw about how to disable the touchpad while typing, or completely if there is a mouse plugged in. I'd like to get those to work too, but I think it requires some additional daemon(s) running with who knows what dependencies, so that is not a real high priority right now.

Next, maybe I can try some power management stuff.  I wonder if my AMD Neo is well supported.  :-\

EDIT: The xorg.conf I first posted here only recognized the touchpad, not a USB mouse plugged in. The attached xorg.conf now works with a plugged-in mouse.
Title: Re: Toshiba Satellite T215D
Post by: tinypoodle on January 22, 2011, 10:24:50 PM
Umm, at the risk of stating the obvious, but have you excluded that disabling the touchpad could be achieved with buttons (e.g. Fn+F?)?
Title: Re: Toshiba Satellite T215D
Post by: MikeLockmoore on January 24, 2011, 09:01:06 AM
@tinypoodle: Well, for one thing, the key combo (Fn + F9) does not work in TinyCore 3.4, at least with my current configuration.  Plus, it would be nice if it was more automatic.  It's not so bad if you plug in the mouse and can just press the key combo once to disable the touchpad.  But it would be very annoying to be switching it on and off all the time if I need to use the trackpad for pointing, but also need to type often; say, when participating in this forum, or programming.  Just fer instances.  ;)
Title: Re: Toshiba Satellite T215D
Post by: MikeLockmoore on January 24, 2011, 09:14:08 AM
I have the power management working.  ;D  Now I should be able to squeeze 4+ hours out of this little guy, as I can with Fedora. (Quick update: From a fully charged battery, screen at its dimmest but still-visible setting, not running any active programs besides one aterm, the estimated battery life from Flit is about 5 1/2 hours! Under more realistic scenarios, I'd be happy with a solid 4+ hours.)

I installed cpufreqd.tcz + deps.  For the AMD Athlon II Neo Processor K125, I need to use the "powernow-k8.ko" driver to monitor and adjust the frequency.  I added the following to my /opt/bootlocal.sh file:

Code: [Select]
sudo modprobe /home/tc/bin/powernow-k8.ko
sudo modprobe cpufreq_conservative
sudo modprobe cpufreq_ondemand
sudo modprobe cpufreq_powersave
sudo modprobe cpufreq_userspace
sudo /usr/local/etc/init.d/cpufreqd start

The default cpufreqd.conf file is fairly complex, so I used the following version (I think it was from a Gentoo wiki) :
Code: [Select]
[General]
pidfile=/var/run/cpufreqd.pid
poll_interval=3
enable_plugins=acpi_ac, acpi_battery
enable_remote=1
remote_group=wheel
verbosity=5
[/General]

[Profile]
name=ondemand
minfreq=0%
maxfreq=100%
policy=ondemand
[/Profile]

[Profile]
name=conservative
minfreq=0%
maxfreq=100%
policy=conservative
[/Profile]

[Profile]
name=powersave
minfreq=0%
maxfreq=100%
policy=powersave
[/Profile]

[Profile]
name=performance
minfreq=0%
maxfreq=100%
policy=performance
[/Profile]

[Rule]
name=battery
ac=off
profile=conservative
[/Rule]

[Rule]
name=battery_low
ac=off
battery_interval=0-10
profile=powersave
[/Rule]

[Rule]
name=ac
ac=on
profile=ondemand
[/Rule]

Now, when running with light loads (most of the time), the CPU runs at 800 MHz, but will ramp up to 1.7 GHz when needed.
Title: Re: Toshiba Satellite T215D
Post by: MikeLockmoore on January 28, 2011, 09:47:40 PM
Touchpad:  The suggestion I read to set up udev rules to handle managing the touchpad when a mouse plug/unplug event is detected did not work for me.  :P  So I wrote my own script.   ;D  At least the udev suggestion gave me the awareness of the synclient (Synaptics Client) utility so I can better manage this stuff.

Here is the script:
Code: [Select]
#!/bin/sh

old_have_mouse=0
while [ 1 ]; do
have_mouse=`cat /proc/bus/input/devices | grep -c "USB Optical Mouse"`
echo "have_mouse=$have_mouse"
if [ $have_mouse -eq 1 ]; then
if [ $old_have_mouse -ne $have_mouse ]; then
echo "Disabling touchpad"
# Disable the touchpad now, since there is now a mouse
synclient TouchpadOff=1
fi
else
if [ $old_have_mouse -ne $have_mouse ]; then
echo "Enabling touchpad"
# Re-enable the touchpad now, since the mouse is gone
synclient TouchpadOff=0
fi
fi
old_have_mouse=$have_mouse
sleep 3
done
Title: Re: Toshiba Satellite T215D
Post by: andriscom on March 05, 2011, 06:00:16 AM
Hi,

 I have a similar problem. When I try to load the kernel module for my CPU:

sudo /sbin/modprobe powernow-k8
modprobe: can't load module powernow-k8 (kernel.tclocal/arch/x86/kernel/cpu/cpufreq/powernow-k8.ko.gz): No such device

 So actually it's not in the kernel.
 Where did you get the powernow-k8.ko from? I have a remastered MicroCore with 64bit kernel, so I think I cannot use the x86 version of this driver.

Edit: I have found out that hwmon-2.6.33.3-tinycore64.tcz should be the solution. I have extracted the file:
/usr/local/lib/modules/2.6.33.3-tinycore64/kernel/arch/x86/kernel/cpu/cpufreq/powernow-k8.ko.gz

And tried to modprobe it:
sudo modprobe powernow-k8.ko
modprobe: can't load module powernow-k8.ko (kernel.tclocal/arch/x86/kernel/cpu/cpufreq/powernow-k8.ko.gz): No such file or directory

What am I missing here?
Title: Re: Toshiba Satellite T215D
Post by: curaga on March 05, 2011, 06:30:15 AM
The module message is very clear, the module is there, but you don't have such hardware.

edit: Maybe it's disabled in the bios. Maybe it's not supported by your bios. There are a lot of reasons why it would not detect a supported device.
Title: Re: Toshiba Satellite T215D
Post by: tinypoodle on March 05, 2011, 06:32:49 AM
Use microcore64.gz with 64bit kernel?
Title: Re: Toshiba Satellite T215D
Post by: andriscom on March 05, 2011, 06:43:09 AM
The CPU Freq scaling is working under Ubuntu, so it's supported and enabled in BIOS.

I have the proper CPU for powernow-k8 driver:

cat /proc/cpuinfo
processor       : 0
vendor_id       : AuthenticAMD
cpu family      : 15
model           : 107
model name      : AMD Athlon(tm) Dual Core Processor 5050e
Title: Re: Toshiba Satellite T215D
Post by: tinypoodle on March 05, 2011, 06:54:36 AM
I have extracted the file:
/usr/local/lib/modules/2.6.33.3-tinycore64/kernel/arch/x86/kernel/cpu/cpufreq/powernow-k8.ko.gz

And tried to modprobe it:
sudo modprobe powernow-k8.ko
modprobe: can't load module powernow-k8.ko (kernel.tclocal/arch/x86/kernel/cpu/cpufreq/powernow-k8.ko.gz): No such file or directory

What am I missing here?

depends:        freq_table?
'depmod -a'?
Title: Re: Toshiba Satellite T215D
Post by: andriscom on March 05, 2011, 07:21:48 AM
I have extracted the file:
/usr/local/lib/modules/2.6.33.3-tinycore64/kernel/arch/x86/kernel/cpu/cpufreq/powernow-k8.ko.gz

And tried to modprobe it:
sudo modprobe powernow-k8.ko
modprobe: can't load module powernow-k8.ko (kernel.tclocal/arch/x86/kernel/cpu/cpufreq/powernow-k8.ko.gz): No such file or directory

What am I missing here?

depends:        freq_table?
'depmod -a'?


Oh... you were right. freq_table was missing.
Now I have modprobed freq_table and I've got the No Such device again for powernow-k8... :(

sudo /sbin/modprobe powernow-k8
modprobe: can't load module powernow-k8 (kernel.tclocal/arch/x86/kernel/cpu/cpufreq/powernow-k8.ko): No such device
Title: Re: Toshiba Satellite T215D
Post by: Juanito on March 05, 2011, 08:25:39 AM
you don't need to extract powernow-k8.ko.gz, it will modprobe as it is
Title: Re: Toshiba Satellite T215D
Post by: MikeLockmoore on February 17, 2012, 09:25:24 AM
Hi folks.  I've tested Tiny Core 4.2 and 4.3rc2 on this Toshiba now.  I have Xorg 7.6 working, which sets the optimal display resolution.  However, I would like to have a custom xorg.conf file so I can better configure and control the touchpad with the synaptic driver, as I did in Tiny Core 3.8.

When I try to run the Xorg -configure command I see an error:

Code: [Select]
_XSERVTransSocketOpenCOTSServer: Unable to open socket for inet6
_XSERVTransOpen: transport open failed for inet6/box:0
_XSERVTransMakeAllCOTSServerListeners: failed to open listener for inet6

X.Org X Server 1.11.0
Release Date: 2011-08-26
X Protocol Version 11, Revision 0
Build Operating System: Linux 3.0.3-tinycore i686
Current Operating System: Linux box 3.0.3-tinycore #90210 SMP Thu Aug 18 11:28:07 EEST 2011 i686
Kernel command line: laptop tce=sda8/tclinux_4_3/tce restore=sda8/tclinux_4_3/data nodhcp laptop
Build Date: 23 September 2011  05:05:20PM
 
Current version of pixman: 0.22.2
Before reporting problems, check [url=http://www.tinycorelinux.com]www.tinycorelinux.com[/url]
to make sure that you have the latest version.
Markers: (--) probed, (**) from config file, (==) default setting,
(++) from command line, (!!) notice, (II) informational,
(WW) warning, (EE) error, (NI) not implemented, (??) unknown.
(==) Log file: "/var/log/Xorg.0.log", Time: Fri Feb 17 12:13:10 2012
List of video drivers:
xgixp
xgi
dummy
apm
ark
ast
radeon
ati
chips
cirrus
ztv
geode
glint
i128
i740
intel
mach64
mga
neomagic
newport
nv
openchrome
r128
rendition
s3
s3virge
savage
siliconmotion
sis
sisusb
tdfx
tga
trident
tseng
v4l
vmwlegacy
vmware
voodoo
fbdev
vesa
Xorg: symbol lookup error: /usr/local/lib/X11/modules/drivers/xgixp_drv.so: undefined symbol: LoaderReqSymLists

At this point in time, I'm not trying to run the ATI accelerated driver (that seems to require the Xorg 7.5 version).  I'm not sure I can use my previous xorg.conf file with Xorg 7.6 to load the synaptic driver.  My current Xorg log file is attached below.
Title: Re: Toshiba Satellite T215D
Post by: Rich on February 17, 2012, 09:35:29 AM
Hi MikeLockmoore
For the first 3 errors, maybe you need  ipv6-2.6.33.3-tinycore.tcz?
Title: Re: Toshiba Satellite T215D
Post by: Juanito on February 17, 2012, 10:04:08 AM
I guess the best place to start would be the xorg.conf from tc-3.x - I'm not sure how you'd go about adding just a section for the touchpad under Xorg-7.6 (but I'd like to know since I have one too).

Edit: This worked for me:
Code: [Select]
Section "ServerLayout"
Identifier "X.org Configured"
InputDevice "DualPoint Stick" "CorePointer"
InputDevice "Alps Touchpad"  "SendCoreEvents"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
Identifier  "DualPoint Stick"
Driver      "evdev"
# Option     "Protocol" "auto"
Option     "Device" "/dev/input/event4"
# Option     "ZAxisMapping" "4 5 6 7"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
Identifier "Alps Touchpad"
Driver  "synaptics"
Option "Device"  "/dev/input/event5"
# Option "Protocol" "auto-dev"
Option "SHMConfig" "true"
Option "GuestMouseOff" "false"
Option "TouchpadOff" "1"
EndSection
..note that the above are the only contents of xorg.conf
Title: Re: Toshiba Satellite T215D
Post by: MikeLockmoore on February 17, 2012, 01:03:53 PM
Rich: the ipv6 extension did remove the initial errors, but did not help with the symbol error, unfortunately.

Juanito: First attempt to make my 3.x xorg.conf look similar to yours resulted in _no_ pointers working.  :( 
Title: Re: Toshiba Satellite T215D
Post by: Juanito on February 17, 2012, 09:05:07 PM
First attempt to make my 3.x xorg.conf look similar to yours resulted in _no_ pointers working.

The drawback of my conf file is explicitly naming the events (eg /dev/input/event4) corresponding to the touchpad and pointing stick as on reboot they somethimes change.

If you try with your minimalist xorg.conf, then delete it and startx again, Xorg.0.log.old might provide some pointers as to what needs adjusting
Title: Re: Toshiba Satellite T215D
Post by: curaga on February 17, 2012, 11:59:02 PM
Anyway, if you have no xgi hardware, just remove those from video-all.dep so they don't obstruct the -configure.
Title: Re: Toshiba Satellite T215D
Post by: Juanito on February 18, 2012, 04:25:18 AM
This has some useful hints on adding xorg.conf "snippets" to an xorg confless setup:

https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Xorg

The following seems to work:
Code: [Select]
Section "InputClass"
Identifier "Alps Touchpad"
MatchIsTouchpad "on"
Driver "synaptics"
EndSection

..but I haven't yet figured out how to modify this to suit:
Code: [Select]
Section "ServerLayout"
Identifier "xorg configured"
InputDevice "DualPoint Stick" "CorePointer"
InputDevice "Alps Touchpad"  "SendCoreEvents"
EndSection
Title: Re: Toshiba Satellite T215D
Post by: MikeLockmoore on February 20, 2012, 11:10:09 AM
Curaga, Juanito: Thanks for the suggetions.  I've not had time to explore them yet.  I've been struggling with my old ACX wireless adapter in my much-older laptop.  >:(

I'll have to try again.  I'm not sure I like the new-style piecemeal configuration in Xorg 7.6.  :-\
Title: Re: Toshiba Satellite T215D
Post by: MikeLockmoore on February 21, 2012, 06:50:40 AM
With Xorg 7.6, I cannot get the touchpad settings to take effect.  If I modify /usr/local/share/X11/xorg.conf.d/50-synaptics.conf file by adding some extra settings for edge scrolling, nothing changes. 

I'm also seeing an error in the Xorg log that the ATI radeon r600_dri.so cannot be found and loaded.  I saw in some googling that this may be part of a MESA DRI package in other distros.  Not sure the best way to get it for Tiny Core.

Maybe it would be better for me to revert to Xorg 7.5 and use the ati-fglrx.tcz driver.  Hopefully the touchpad stuff would still work as I had working in TC 3.6 / 3.8.  I'm not sure if the Linux kernel 3.0.3 in TC 4.x will work the same way for the graphics and touchpad.  Any observations from others who have migrated to the TC 4.x series?  I suppose I'll see when I have some more time I can spare for it.
Title: Re: Toshiba Satellite T215D
Post by: vinnie on February 21, 2012, 08:53:47 AM
Also I continue to use xorg 7.5, when I tried the 7.6 gave me problems (I have an intel gma do not remember what).
as long as 7.5 works I'm not going to change (although the transition to linux 3 I have lost the ability to configure the touchscreen and xinpu_calibrator I did not detect)
Title: Re: Toshiba Satellite T215D
Post by: Juanito on February 21, 2012, 09:45:38 AM
The touchpad works in much the same way for me with tc-4/xorg-7.6
Title: Re: Toshiba Satellite T215D
Post by: Juanito on February 21, 2012, 09:54:59 AM
I'm also seeing an error in the Xorg log that the ATI radeon r600_dri.so cannot be found and loaded.  I saw in some googling that this may be part of a MESA DRI package in other distros.  Not sure the best way to get it for Tiny Core.

This is in xorg-7.6-3d, no?
Title: Re: Toshiba Satellite T215D
Post by: MikeLockmoore on February 21, 2012, 11:03:33 AM
Quote
This is in xorg-7.6-3d, no?

Yes, so it is.  Thanks for the pointer.  When I have time, I'll try it.

But not having good control over the touchpad is a significant usability issue.  Before I could use the touchpad for scrolling, and I could temporarily disable the touchpad entirely (as when a mouse was plugged in after X was up) using synclient.  X isn't loading the synaptic driver so that I can use synclient... it just seems to merge the touchpad events into the mouse events and treats both as generic mice.
Title: Re: Toshiba Satellite T215D
Post by: MikeLockmoore on February 22, 2012, 07:38:25 PM
I installed the Xorg-7.6-3d extension and got the hardware rendering working.  glxgears reports about 60 fps fullscreen.  YouTube is running fairly nice with Flash11.  The ATI graphics seems to relieve the AMD Neo K125 single-core CPU quite a bit... CPU load running 40 to 50%.  Not bad!  :D
Title: Re: Toshiba Satellite T215D
Post by: MikeLockmoore on February 28, 2012, 02:05:37 PM
Still no joy with the synaptic touchpad in TC 4.x.  :'(

I copied all of the xorg.conf.d snippets from a working Fedora distribution and rebooted into Tiny Core 4.3.  The config snippets had no effect on the behavior of the touchpad configuration under Xorg 7.6 on TC 4.3.  The synaptics driver is still not loaded (even though the file is present in my system) and the touchpad works with the default, very basic, settings. 

Maybe the new 3.0.21 kernel in TC 4.4 will make things work differently?  I'll need to recompile acx-mac80211.ko again.   :P
Title: Re: Toshiba Satellite T215D
Post by: Rich on February 28, 2012, 06:00:59 PM
Hi MikeLockmoore
And the Xorg.0.log file doesn't report trying to load the Synaptics  driver or why it failed?
Title: Re: Toshiba Satellite T215D
Post by: MikeLockmoore on February 29, 2012, 07:53:02 AM
Rich: Short answer: no.  The Xorg log file does not mention synaptics or touchpad at all. (Copy of it is attached).  However, I do see the touchpad in /proc/bus/input/devices:

Code: [Select]
...
I: Bus=0011 Vendor=0002 Product=0007 Version=01b1
N: Name="SynPS/2 Synaptics TouchPad"
P: Phys=isa0060/serio1/input0
S: Sysfs=/devices/platform/i8042/serio1/input/input5
U: Uniq=
H: Handlers=mouse0 event5
B: PROP=9
B: EV=b
B: KEY=6420 0 30000 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
B: ABS=2608000 11000003
...

Here is the output of xinput:
Code: [Select]
Virtual core pointer                    id=2 [master pointer  (3)]
Virtual core XTEST pointer              id=4 [slave  pointer  (2)]
<default pointer>                        id=6 [slave  pointer  (2)]
Virtual core keyboard                    id=3 [master keyboard (2)]
Virtual core XTEST keyboard              id=5 [slave  keyboard (3)]
<default keyboard>                      id=7 [slave  keyboard (3)]

This is all from a session where I booted with no external mouse... and the touchpad is working in the basic mouse-emulation mode.

My /usr/local/share/X11/xorg.conf.d contains:
Code: [Select]
10-evdev.conf
10-quirks.conf
50-fpit.conf
50-synaptics.conf
50-vmmouse.conf
50-wacom.conf

10-evdev.conf contains:
Code: [Select]
#
# Catch-all evdev loader for udev-based systems
# We don't simply match on any device since that also adds accelerometers
# and other devices that we don't really want to use. The list below
# matches everything but joysticks.

Section "InputClass"
        Identifier "evdev pointer catchall"
        MatchIsPointer "on"
        MatchDevicePath "/dev/input/event*"
        Driver "evdev"
EndSection

Section "InputClass"
        Identifier "evdev keyboard catchall"
        MatchIsKeyboard "on"
        MatchDevicePath "/dev/input/event*"
        Driver "evdev"
EndSection

Section "InputClass"
        Identifier "evdev touchpad catchall"
        MatchIsTouchpad "on"
        MatchDevicePath "/dev/input/event*"
        Driver "evdev"
EndSection

Section "InputClass"
        Identifier "evdev tablet catchall"
        MatchIsTablet "on"
        MatchDevicePath "/dev/input/event*"
        Driver "evdev"
EndSection

Section "InputClass"
        Identifier "evdev touchscreen catchall"
        MatchIsTouchscreen "on"
        MatchDevicePath "/dev/input/event*"
        Driver "evdev"
EndSection

50-synaptics.conf contains:
Code: [Select]
Section "InputClass"
        Identifier "touchpad catchall"
        Driver "synaptics"
        MatchIsTouchpad "on"
        MatchDevicePath "/dev/input/event*"
EndSection


# Quirks for special touchpads

# Some devices have the buttons as part of the lower edge of the
# touchpad.  Pressing a button moves the cursor, causing cursor jumps and
# erroneous clicks.
# Use the synaptics area property to work around this, udev labels these
# devices for us as touchpad_button_overlap.
# Affected: Dell Mini
Section "InputClass"
        Identifier "touchpad button overlap"
        MatchIsTouchpad "on"
        MatchTag "touchpad_button_overlap"
        Option "AreaBottomEdge" "4000"
EndSection

Ideas of extra things to try or check would be appreciated.
Title: Re: Toshiba Satellite T215D
Post by: Rich on February 29, 2012, 09:00:31 AM
Hi MikeLockmoore
Personally I find this Xorg stuff confusing, so all I can offer is a few observations.
The log file indicates that Xorg is aware of the  /usr/local/share/X11/xorg.conf.d  directory, but don't you need to tell it
to use one or more of those files?
Alternatively, maybe you need to copy the contents of those files to xorg.conf, since the syntax appears to be the same.
I also notice that  evdev  is not mentioned in the log file, but is listed as driver in 10-evdev.conf. Just a shot in the dark,
but maybe adding the following to xorg.conf will help, or at least provide more information in the log file.
Code: [Select]
Section "InputClass"
        Identifier "evdev touchpad catchall"
        MatchIsTouchpad "on"
        MatchDevicePath "/dev/input/event*"
        Driver "evdev"
EndSection

Section "InputClass"
        Identifier "touchpad catchall"
        Driver "synaptics"
        MatchIsTouchpad "on"
        MatchDevicePath "/dev/input/event*"
EndSection
It may try to act on one or both sections and then lodge its complaints in the log file.

Title: Re: Toshiba Satellite T215D
Post by: MikeLockmoore on February 29, 2012, 10:37:05 AM
Rich: I understand "conf-less" Xorg 7.6 tries to self-configure, but if it detects certain devices, it will check for a matching configuration element stored in a file in the ... /xorg.conf.d directory and use it.  Somehow, the Xorg 7.6 self-configuration in my installation of Tiny Core does not seem to "see" the touchpad as a touchpad and configure it according to the 50-synaptics.conf file, but in Fedora it does.

I tried to use your example.  It still does not load the synaptics driver for the touchpad.  The only significant difference in the Xorg.0.log file is that the log shows that Xorg is "using" the xorg.conf file.  Maybe a complete xorg.conf that has all the sections would work, but I don't have one that would be compatible with Xorg 7.6.  My Fedora installation is conf-less and generating an xorg.conf file in Fedora (using Xorg :1 -configure) resulted in a xorg.conf that did not refer to the touchpad either.  :(

Thanks for a suggestion, but I think there is still a missing piece to this puzzle.

EDIT:  My Xorg.0.log file in TC has lines like this:
[    20.486] (==) Not automatically adding devices
[    20.486] (==) Not automatically enabling devices


But my Xorg.0.log file in Fedora has lines like this:
[    26.165] (==) Automatically adding devices
[    26.165] (==) Automatically enabling devices

WHY???  ???
Title: Re: Toshiba Satellite T215D
Post by: Rich on February 29, 2012, 11:22:57 AM
Hi MikeLockmoore
I found the following at this wiki  http://en.gentoo-wiki.com/wiki/Synaptics_Touchpad (http://en.gentoo-wiki.com/wiki/Synaptics_Touchpad)
Code: [Select]
Section "InputDevice"
    Driver         "synaptics"
    Identifier "TouchPad"
    Option         "SendCoreEvents"
    Option         "Protocol" "auto-dev"
    Option         "SHMConfig" "on"
 EndSection
They also give the following advice:
Quote
If you use a mouse in parallel, you should only have one "CorePointer". For the other device put "SendCoreEvents". Add an input device section for the touchpad:
Title: Re: Toshiba Satellite T215D
Post by: MikeLockmoore on March 29, 2012, 10:51:20 AM
Rich:  I think I tried experimenting with the SendCoreEvents adn CorePointer attributes but did not come up with a combo that worked in TC 4.3 in Xorg or Xvesa.

All: Created a Tiny Core 4.4 installation on the Toshiba.  Replaced all my kernel -3.0.3- specific extensions with their -3.0.21- counterparts, and updated all the other extensions using AppsAudit (not many).  Xvesa worked the same as before: no 1366x768 graphics mode.  915resolution.tcz did not help.  Xorg 7.6 works with the VESA driver, but now the Xorg-7.6-3d extension does not work, just get a black screen.  Same for the Xorg 7.5 and the Xorg-7.5-3d combo.  I think sound is problematic too.

Seems like Tiny Core 3.8 is the best option for this Toshiba T215.   :-\