Touch pads

Richard A. Smith richard at laptop.org
Tue Nov 25 18:13:37 EST 2008


Ties Stuij wrote:

>> If you do do have laptops that have the problem consistently we might
>> want to try and do some sort of swap.
> 
> I wouldn't go there...
> Sorry, not to rub it in,.. but.. yea, well a bit actually. This is a
> very, VERY big and very known (hardware) bug. And if it's still not
> resolved, it needs to be addressed asap. Is what I think...

I'm not talking about a large scale swap.  I mean exchanging a few 
machines that have chronic jumpyness.  So that the developers have 
machines that they can test on.  Yes its a known bug... but whats not 
know is the exact cause or how to fix it.

Touchpad problems are listed in many deployments.  Our biggest hurdle to 
fixing it having reliable way to duplicate the problem.  It seems to 
happen lots out in the wild its very hard to reproduce on demand and its 
pretty rare here at 1cc.

The 8.2 kernel has a bunch of stuff to try to help but without solid 
test cases its a bit of guess work to see what difference the new 
changes have.

We have a new touchpad that queued up for production.  That will hit 
sometime next year when the current supply is out.  Initial reports are 
that its much better than the current model.  However see my next, post. 
  That may not solve it 100%

I still want to fix the issues with the current pad but I'll need 
outside help.

If you can help here's what I need:

1) Serial number ranges for laptops that have have jumpy problems.
2) Laptops that are unlocked and people willing to run kernels with 
driver changes in areas where the problem is common.
3) As much data as possible on the conditions surrounding the laptop 
when the jumpyness happens.

-- 
Richard Smith  <richard at laptop.org>
One Laptop Per Child



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