Odd synclient (xf86-input-synaptics) error "Xlib: extension "XInputExtension"

[Rudock1]

I have a MacBook Pro running rEFId TC7.0 Core64 Xorg Xfbdev flwm_topside with xf86-input-synaptics.tcz

As many have said for various distros, the MacBook Pro trackpad mouse is annoyingly over-sensitive.
https://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=2143313
http://uselessuseofcat.com/?p=74
ftp://www.x.org/pub/X11R7.5/doc/man/man4/synaptics.4.html

xf86-input-synaptics includes the tool /usr/local/bin/synclient which allows real-time fine tuning adjustments to the touchpad.

Here is my issue du jour: When I invoke synclient I get:

Xlib: extension "XInputExtension" missing on display ":0.0"
Segmentation fault

I have the Xorg-7.7-bin tool xinput available and it has a similar error:
X Input extension not available.

Also, I do have evdev loaded and I uncommented the line MatchDevicePath as recommended in the 50-synaptics.conf file

Section "InputClass"
        Identifier "touchpad catchall"
        Driver "synaptics"
        MatchIsTouchpad "on"
# This option is recommend on all Linux systems using evdev, but cannot be
# enabled by default. See the following link for details:
# http://who-t.blogspot.com/2010/11/how-to-ignore-configuration-errors.html
       MatchDevicePath "/dev/input/event*"
EndSection

=================================

I did ldd synclient and ldd xinput but didn't see anything I recognized as an error. I have other TC USB flash drives that have these input tools working, but for the life of me, I cannot identify why this particular USB stick won't run synclient. 

I hoping somebody might have suggestions as to how I should troubleshoot this kind of problem?  I'm getting cross-eyed comparing dep's and versions etc between working and non-working sticks.

thx in advance
Billy

[Juanito]

Does the same thing happen when you use Xorg-7.7 instead of Xfbdev?

[Rudock1]

Hi Juanito,

Your question makes me realize I have a fundamental misunderstanding about Xfbdev usage.  I actually have both Xorg-7.7 and Xfbdev.  Using a bootable USB flash drive, I started with Xorg on a Dell notebook and got it stable.  I then worked and worked to get the MacBook Pro running but had no luck until I added the Xfbdev, and then only if it was loaded after Xorg, so I've left them together in the onboot.lst.  It got that way organically and didn't cause any issues on the Dell.

I will go off into the forum posts and try to learn more about Xfbdev theory, and try your troubleshooting ideas of separating the two.  Do I still load all of the Xorg deps separately?

Back to my original Mac track pad issue with Synaptics synclient not running, I found that if I load in this order 'Xfbdev Xorg-7.7' then synclient works (but the MacBook Pro won't start X, it will boot to text).  However,  if I load in this order 'Xorg-7.7 Xfbdev' then that breaks synclient (but the MacBook Pro starts X beautifully).  At this point, I think my alternative is to build a 60-synaptics.conf to hold my preferred touch pad settings.

thx
Billy

[Juanito]

When Xvesa, Xfbdev or Xorg-7.7 are loaded they set /etc/sysconfig/Xserver to Xvesa, Xfbdev or Xorg and it is this that determines which X server runs.

If you load more than one X server, it is the one that is loaded last that will be used unless you change /etc/sysconfig/Xserver manually.

In the case of your mac, if it is like my mac mini, you will need to load graphics-KERNEL and xf86-video-intel before Xorg-7.7 will work.

[Rudock1]

Thanks, Juanito, you're very kind in sharing your time.  I appreciate it.

I think my MacBook Pro is a bit different.  After loading graphics-KERNEL and xf86-video-intel before Xorg-7.7 OK, it gets into the startx and freezes with the cursor in the upper LH corner.  I see a quick glimpse of what looks like the 'nohup: redirecting stderr to stdout' message.  And that's it.  I tried adding "text" to the kernel boot time parameters and running startx on my own but still freezes.

I am intrigued by your suggestion to change /etc/sysconfig/Xserver manually.  I tried loading Xorg before Xfbdev to boot the MacBook and then I ran:
echo "Xorg" | sudo tee /etc/sysconfig/Xserver
which did change the file. 
I also made backup copies of working Xorg and Xfbdev .xsession files and copied it back to the Xorg flavor after Xfbdev booted the Mac.

I restarted with startx but the MacBook freezes in the same way.

thx
Billy

[Juanito]

It would be good to check what graphics hardware your mac has using lspci (pciutils).

[Rudock1]

Hi Juanito, good morning.

I ran lspci and the report is below.  It appears that I have two VGA controllers listed:
00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation Core Processor Integrated Graphics Controller (rev 18)
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: NVIDIA Corporation GT216M [GeForce GT 330M] (rev a2)

I've been loading the xf86-video-intel driver.  I added loading xf86-video-nv but the MacBook still freezes if Xorg is the server.

May I also ask a stupid question?  If I load Xorg followed by Xfbdev, will I still enjoy the benefits of the Xorg .conf files?  This MacBook exercise started as an inability to run the Synaptics synclient tool or xinput under Xfbdev. (I'd be curious to know if anybody has done this and not get Xlib: extension "XInputExtension" missing on display ":0.0"  Segmentation fault.)  As an alternative, I might use a .conf to control the Synaptics touch pad in lieu of synclient if that part of Xorg works under Xfbdev.  I've experimented some but it's hard for me tell if it was successful.

Code: (bash) [Select]

00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation Core Processor DRAM Controller (rev 18)
00:01.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation Core Processor PCI Express x16 Root Port (rev 18)
00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation Core Processor Integrated Graphics Controller (rev 18)
00:1a.0 USB controller: Intel Corporation 5 Series/3400 Series Chipset USB Universal Host Controller (rev 06)
00:1a.7 USB controller: Intel Corporation 5 Series/3400 Series Chipset USB2 Enhanced Host Controller (rev 06)
00:1b.0 Audio device: Intel Corporation 5 Series/3400 Series Chipset High Definition Audio (rev 06)
00:1c.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 5 Series/3400 Series Chipset PCI Express Root Port 1 (rev 06)
00:1c.1 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 5 Series/3400 Series Chipset PCI Express Root Port 2 (rev 06)
00:1c.2 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 5 Series/3400 Series Chipset PCI Express Root Port 3 (rev 06)
00:1c.3 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 5 Series/3400 Series Chipset PCI Express Root Port 4 (rev 06)
00:1d.0 USB controller: Intel Corporation 5 Series/3400 Series Chipset USB Universal Host Controller (rev 06)
00:1d.7 USB controller: Intel Corporation 5 Series/3400 Series Chipset USB2 Enhanced Host Controller (rev 06)
00:1e.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801 Mobile PCI Bridge (rev a6)
00:1f.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corporation Mobile 5 Series Chipset LPC Interface Controller (rev 06)
00:1f.2 SATA controller: Intel Corporation 5 Series/3400 Series Chipset 4 port SATA AHCI Controller (rev 06)
00:1f.3 SMBus: Intel Corporation 5 Series/3400 Series Chipset SMBus Controller (rev 06)
00:1f.6 Signal processing controller: Intel Corporation 5 Series/3400 Series Chipset Thermal Subsystem (rev 06)
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: NVIDIA Corporation GT216M [GeForce GT 330M] (rev a2)
01:00.1 Audio device: NVIDIA Corporation GT216 HDMI Audio Controller (rev a1)
02:00.0 Ethernet controller: Broadcom Corporation NetXtreme BCM5764M Gigabit Ethernet PCIe (rev 10)
03:00.0 Network controller: Broadcom Corporation BCM43224 802.11a/b/g/n (rev 01)
04:00.0 FireWire (IEEE 1394): LSI Corporation FW643 [TrueFire] PCIe 1394b Controller (rev 08)
ff:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation Core Processor QuickPath Architecture Generic Non-core Registers (rev 05)
ff:00.1 Host bridge: Intel Corporation Core Processor QuickPath Architecture System Address Decoder (rev 05)
ff:02.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation Core Processor QPI Link 0 (rev 05)
ff:02.1 Host bridge: Intel Corporation 1st Generation Core i3/5/7 Processor QPI Physical 0 (rev 05)
ff:02.2 Host bridge: Intel Corporation 1st Generation Core i3/5/7 Processor Reserved (rev 05)
ff:02.3 Host bridge: Intel Corporation 1st Generation Core i3/5/7 Processor Reserved (rev 05)

Thanks again for your support.
Billy

[curaga]

Xvesa/Xfbdev does not support XInput, synaptics, conf files, or the calibration programs.

[Rudock1]

Hi curaga, thanks for your comments.

It sounds like you are saying if I use Xfbdev then my homemade 60-synaptics.conf doesn't matter, even if I loaded Xorg before Xfbdev.

I really wish there was a way to tame this MacBook Pro touch pad under Xfbdev, it's way too sensitive.

The only avenue left is to figure out some way to load Xorg on the MacBook Pro.

thx
Billy

[Juanito]

I seem to recall that there was a post about this - machines with two graphics systems - in these forums a couple of years back, but I can't seem to find it.

Is it possible to set the graphics to intel in the mac ios and have the setting preserved in linux?

[Juanito]

Looking at this:

https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/MacBookPro11,x

..it seems that the intel integrated graphics are disabled by default, so maybe xf86-video-nouveau would work with Xorg.

Before starting the gui, it might be a good idea to check dmesg to see what graphics hardware the kernel finds with something like:

Code: [Select]

$ dmesg | grep -i intel
$ dmesg | grep -i nvidia

[Rudock1]

Hi Juanito,

Thanks for finding that link.  I can see others have struggled with this Mac notebook. I did the dmesg as suggested and got back a few lines for Intel but nothing reported for Nvidia. 

$ dmesg | grep -i intel:

Code: [Select]

[    0.000000] Reserving Intel graphics stolen memory at 0xae000000-0xafffffff
[    0.154013] smpboot: CPU0: Intel(R) Core(TM) i7 CPU       M 620  @ 2.67GHz (family: 0x6, model: 0x25, stepping: 0x5)
[    0.154016] Performance Events: PEBS fmt1+, 16-deep LBR, Westmere events, Intel PMU driver.
[    1.289089] intel_idle: MWAIT substates: 0x1120
[    1.289090] intel_idle: v0.4.1 model 0x25
[    1.289448] intel_idle: lapic_timer_reliable_states 0xffffffff
[    3.414514] intel ips 0000:00:1f.6: CPU TDP doesn't match expected value (found 26, expected 29)
[    3.414525] intel ips 0000:00:1f.6: enabling device (0000 -> 0002)
[    3.414560] intel ips 0000:00:1f.6: failed to get i915 symbols, graphics turbo disabled until i915 loads
[    3.414617] intel ips 0000:00:1f.6: request irq failed, aborting
[    3.414657] intel ips: probe of 0000:00:1f.6 failed with error -16
My MacBook Pro is a bit older (late 2010) than the ArchLinux solution document.  Mine does appear to have two VGA controllers, but I just cannot get it to boot into Xorg with either the Intel or the NVIDIA xf86 graphics drivers.

lspci -vv:

Code: [Select]

00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation Core Processor Integrated Graphics Controller (rev 18) (prog-if 00 [VGA controller])
        Control: I/O+ Mem+ BusMaster+ SpecCycle- MemWINV- VGASnoop- ParErr- Stepping- SERR- FastB2B- DisINTx-
        Status: Cap+ 66MHz- UDF- FastB2B+ ParErr- DEVSEL=fast >TAbort- <TAbort- <MAbort- >SERR- <PERR- INTx-
        Latency: 0
        Interrupt: pin A routed to IRQ 0
        Region 0: Memory at d3400000 (64-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=4M]
        Region 2: Memory at b0000000 (64-bit, prefetchable) [size=256M]
        Region 4: I/O ports at 3130 [size=8]
        Capabilities: [90] MSI: Enable- Count=1/1 Maskable- 64bit-
                Address: 00000000  Data: 0000
        Capabilities: [d0] Power Management version 2
                Flags: PMEClk- DSI+ D1- D2- AuxCurrent=0mA PME(D0-,D1-,D2-,D3hot-,D3cold-)
                Status: D0 NoSoftRst- PME-Enable- DSel=0 DScale=0 PME-
        Capabilities: [a4] PCI Advanced Features
                AFCap: TP+ FLR+
                AFCtrl: FLR-
                AFStatus: TP-

01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: NVIDIA Corporation GT216M [GeForce GT 330M] (rev a2) (prog-if 00 [VGA controller])
        Subsystem: Apple Inc. Device 00c7
        Control: I/O- Mem+ BusMaster- SpecCycle- MemWINV- VGASnoop- ParErr- Stepping- SERR- FastB2B- DisINTx-
        Status: Cap+ 66MHz- UDF- FastB2B- ParErr- DEVSEL=fast >TAbort- <TAbort- <MAbort- >SERR- <PERR- INTx-
        Interrupt: pin A routed to IRQ 0
        Region 0: Memory at d2000000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=16M]
        Region 1: Memory at c0000000 (64-bit, prefetchable) [size=256M]
        Region 3: Memory at d0000000 (64-bit, prefetchable) [size=32M]
        Region 5: I/O ports at 2000 [disabled] [size=128]
        Expansion ROM at d3000000 [disabled] [size=512K]
        Capabilities: [60] Power Management version 3
                Flags: PMEClk- DSI- D1- D2- AuxCurrent=0mA PME(D0-,D1-,D2-,D3hot-,D3cold-)
                Status: D0 NoSoftRst+ PME-Enable- DSel=0 DScale=0 PME-
        Capabilities: [68] MSI: Enable- Count=1/1 Maskable- 64bit+
                Address: 0000000000000000  Data: 0000
        Capabilities: [78] Express (v2) Endpoint, MSI 00
                DevCap: MaxPayload 128 bytes, PhantFunc 0, Latency L0s unlimited, L1 <64us
                        ExtTag+ AttnBtn- AttnInd- PwrInd- RBE+ FLReset-
                DevCtl: Report errors: Correctable- Non-Fatal- Fatal- Unsupported-
                        RlxdOrd+ ExtTag- PhantFunc- AuxPwr- NoSnoop+
                        MaxPayload 128 bytes, MaxReadReq 512 bytes
                DevSta: CorrErr+ UncorrErr- FatalErr- UnsuppReq- AuxPwr- TransPend-
                LnkCap: Port #0, Speed 5GT/s, Width x16, ASPM L0s L1, Exit Latency L0s <256ns, L1 <4us
                        ClockPM+ Surprise- LLActRep- BwNot- ASPMOptComp-
                LnkCtl: ASPM L0s L1 Enabled; RCB 128 bytes Disabled- CommClk+
                        ExtSynch- ClockPM- AutWidDis- BWInt- AutBWInt-
                LnkSta: Speed 2.5GT/s, Width x16, TrErr- Train- SlotClk+ DLActive- BWMgmt- ABWMgmt-
                DevCap2: Completion Timeout: Not Supported, TimeoutDis+, LTR-, OBFF Not Supported
                DevCtl2: Completion Timeout: 50us to 50ms, TimeoutDis-, LTR-, OBFF Disabled
                LnkCtl2: Target Link Speed: 5GT/s, EnterCompliance- SpeedDis-
                         Transmit Margin: Normal Operating Range, EnterModifiedCompliance- ComplianceSOS-
                         Compliance De-emphasis: -6dB
                LnkSta2: Current De-emphasis Level: -6dB, EqualizationComplete-, EqualizationPhase1-
                         EqualizationPhase2-, EqualizationPhase3-, LinkEqualizationRequest-
        Capabilities: [b4] Vendor Specific Information: Len=14 <?>
        Capabilities: [100 v1] Virtual Channel
                Caps:   LPEVC=0 RefClk=100ns PATEntryBits=1
                Arb:    Fixed- WRR32- WRR64- WRR128-
                Ctrl:   ArbSelect=Fixed
                Status: InProgress-
                VC0:    Caps:   PATOffset=00 MaxTimeSlots=1 RejSnoopTrans-
                        Arb:    Fixed- WRR32- WRR64- WRR128- TWRR128- WRR256-
                        Ctrl:   Enable+ ID=0 ArbSelect=Fixed TC/VC=01
                        Status: NegoPending- InProgress-
        Capabilities: [128 v1] Power Budgeting <?>
        Capabilities: [600 v1] Vendor Specific Information: ID=0001 Rev=1 Len=024 <?>
I found a reference in the TC forums about "dual graphics" but not applicable to my current issue.
http://forum.tinycorelinux.net/index.php/topic,16534.msg98444.html#msg98444

It is regrettable that Xfbdev does not seem to offer Synaptics hardware management alternatives like Xorg.  I found a few discussions with Xfbdev and mouse control like this one http://damnsmalllinux.org/static/act-ST/f-8/t-2605.html.  Since I've hit a wall, I may have to let my sub conscience work on this one for a while.

thx
Billy

[Juanito]

About the only other thing I can think of is to try the nvidia-352.63-4.2.9-tinycore extension, but read the info file first.

[Rudock1]

Thanks again, Juanito, I appreciate your suggestions.  I will try the other nvidia driver extension tonight. 

I did go through every dependency with a fine tooth comb and I found that I had previously removed the dep file for graphics-KERNEL.tcz which listed i2c-KERNEL.tcz.  Initially, while troubleshooting, I found that the MacBook Pro wouldn't do anything, even with Xfbdev, if i2c-KERNEL.tcz was loaded so I pulled it out and didn't look back.  Last night I put it back in and tried all the tricks and driver load methods I've learned since then, but it never got past the frozen cursor if i2c was loaded.

For your Mac-mini on Xorg, is i2c-KERNEL loading OK?

thx
Billy

[Juanito]

For your Mac-mini on Xorg, is i2c-KERNEL loading OK?

Yes, in fact Xorg will not run on the mac mini without graphics-KERNEL/i2c-KERNEL loaded.