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up vote 2 down vote favorite

I've got more of a basic question for you:

My linux kernel (I tried several here from stock 2.6, 3.2 and 3.5 as well as a custom 3.7.3 one) does not detect my synaptics touchpad - or I'am too dumb to find it. I looked into: dmesg, lsusb -v, lspci -v, lshw, /dev/input, /dev/bus/00x/ (...)

It shows me several internal usb root hubs and integrated rate matching hubs, my pendrive and optical mouse but nothing else of interest.

Now, as for the question: is it possible that the kernel does not detect certain hardware if there is no driver available? As far as I understand it, the kernel should at least report some unknown device at some hardware address.

Thanks for your time.

dmesg | grep input

[    3.529623] input: Sleep Button as /devices/LNXSYSTM:00/device:00/PNP0C0E:00/input/input0
[    3.529659] input: Power Button as /devices/LNXSYSTM:00/device:00/PNP0C0C:00/input/input1
[    3.529694] input: Lid Switch as /devices/LNXSYSTM:00/device:00/PNP0C0D:00/input/input2
[    3.529745] input: Power Button as /devices/LNXSYSTM:00/LNXPWRBN:00/input/input3
[    5.196578] input: AT Translated Set 2 keyboard as /devices/platform/i8042/serio0/input/input4
[    5.847405] input: Logitech USB-PS/2 Optical Mouse as /devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:1a.0/usb1/1-1/1-1.3/1-1.3:1.0/input/input5
[    5.847752] hid-generic 0003:046D:C050.0001: >input,hidraw0: USB HID v1.10 Mouse [Logitech USB-PS/2 Optical Mouse] on usb-0000:00:1a.0-1.3/input0
[    5.993994] input: Video Bus as /devices/LNXSYSTM:00/device:00/PNP0A08:00/LNXVIDEO:00/input/input6
[   15.474899] input: HDA Intel PCH HDMI/DP,pcm=3 as /devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:1b.0/sound/card0/input7
[   15.475781] input: HDA Intel PCH Mic as /devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:1b.0/sound/card0/input8
[   15.475950] input: HDA Intel PCH Headphone as /devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:1b.0/sound/card0/input9

cat /proc/bus/input/devices 

I: Bus=0019 Vendor=0000 Product=0003 Version=0000
N: Name="Sleep Button"
P: Phys=PNP0C0E/button/input0
S: Sysfs=/devices/LNXSYSTM:00/device:00/PNP0C0E:00/input/input0
U: Uniq=
H: Handlers=kbd event0 
B: PROP=0
B: EV=3
B: KEY=4000 0 0

I: Bus=0019 Vendor=0000 Product=0001 Version=0000
N: Name="Power Button"
P: Phys=PNP0C0C/button/input0
S: Sysfs=/devices/LNXSYSTM:00/device:00/PNP0C0C:00/input/input1
U: Uniq=
H: Handlers=kbd event1 
B: PROP=0
B: EV=3
B: KEY=10000000000000 0

I: Bus=0019 Vendor=0000 Product=0005 Version=0000
N: Name="Lid Switch"
P: Phys=PNP0C0D/button/input0
S: Sysfs=/devices/LNXSYSTM:00/device:00/PNP0C0D:00/input/input2
U: Uniq=
H: Handlers=event2 
B: PROP=0
B: EV=21
B: SW=1

I: Bus=0019 Vendor=0000 Product=0001 Version=0000
N: Name="Power Button"
P: Phys=LNXPWRBN/button/input0
S: Sysfs=/devices/LNXSYSTM:00/LNXPWRBN:00/input/input3
U: Uniq=
H: Handlers=kbd event3 
B: PROP=0
B: EV=3
B: KEY=10000000000000 0

I: Bus=0011 Vendor=0001 Product=0001 Version=ab83
N: Name="AT Translated Set 2 keyboard"
P: Phys=isa0060/serio0/input0
S: Sysfs=/devices/platform/i8042/serio0/input/input4
U: Uniq=
H: Handlers=sysrq kbd event4 
B: PROP=0
B: EV=120013
B: KEY=402000000 3803078f800d001 feffffdfffefffff fffffffffffffffe
B: MSC=10
B: LED=7

I: Bus=0019 Vendor=0000 Product=0006 Version=0000
N: Name="Video Bus"
P: Phys=LNXVIDEO/video/input0
S: Sysfs=/devices/LNXSYSTM:00/device:00/PNP0A08:00/LNXVIDEO:00/input/input6
U: Uniq=
H: Handlers=kbd event6 
B: PROP=0
B: EV=3
B: KEY=3e000b00000000 0 0 0

I: Bus=0000 Vendor=0000 Product=0000 Version=0000
N: Name="HDA Intel PCH HDMI/DP,pcm=3"
P: Phys=ALSA
S: Sysfs=/devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:1b.0/sound/card0/input7
U: Uniq=
H: Handlers=event7 
B: PROP=0
B: EV=21
B: SW=140

I: Bus=0000 Vendor=0000 Product=0000 Version=0000
N: Name="HDA Intel PCH Mic"
P: Phys=ALSA
S: Sysfs=/devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:1b.0/sound/card0/input8
U: Uniq=
H: Handlers=event8 
B: PROP=0
B: EV=21
B: SW=10

I: Bus=0000 Vendor=0000 Product=0000 Version=0000
N: Name="HDA Intel PCH Headphone"
P: Phys=ALSA
S: Sysfs=/devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:1b.0/sound/card0/input9
U: Uniq=
H: Handlers=event9 
B: PROP=0
B: EV=21
B: SW=4

I: Bus=0003 Vendor=046d Product=c050 Version=0110
N: Name="Logitech USB-PS/2 Optical Mouse"
P: Phys=usb-0000:00:14.0-3/input0
S: Sysfs=/devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:14.0/usb3/3-3/3-3:1.0/input/input11
U: Uniq=
H: Handlers=mouse0 event5 
B: PROP=0
B: EV=17
B: KEY=ff0000 0 0 0 0
B: REL=143
B: MSC=10

lsusb 

Bus 001 Device 002: ID 8087:0024 Intel Corp. Integrated Rate Matching Hub
Bus 002 Device 002: ID 8087:0024 Intel Corp. Integrated Rate Matching Hub
Bus 003 Device 002: ID 0951:1642 Kingston Technology DT101 G2
Bus 003 Device 004: ID 046d:c050 Logitech, Inc. RX 250 Optical Mouse
Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
Bus 002 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
Bus 003 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
Bus 004 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0003 Linux Foundation 3.0 root hub
share|improve this question
synaptics touch pads are supported since ancient times so either the touchpad is turned off or simply broken. Laptop make and model? And quite simple solution, have you simply tried installing Ubuntu? – Hubert Kario Jan 20 at 10:48
Well Ubuntu live runs out-of-the-box for any device - no touchpad there either. I just received the Laptop so my first quess is a faulty or simply not plugged in touchpad as well. But my question actually aims more on the basic principle: Is it possible, that the Kernel does not show connected and functional hardware? – 0815ZED Jan 20 at 10:54
Yes, if it doesn't know how to detect it (when it uses some non-standard buses or buses that don't support auto-detection). Serial devices the kind of thouchpad would fall into this. – Hubert Kario Jan 20 at 11:02
Recent laptops have ways of disabling the touchpad, maybe it doesn't work because of that? – vonbrand Jan 21 at 4:03
guys, thanks for making it clear. @vonbrand: I thought of this too, didn't find a bios setting and fn+toggle does not work. xbindkeys reports unknown key... – 0815ZED Jan 21 at 12:49

migrated from serverfault.com Jan 20 at 14:02

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