[SOLVED] ASUS X205T laptop - everything works perfectly EXCEPT touchpad stops working after wake-from-Suspend

[RallyDarkstrike]

Title says it all!

Trying to set up a little bare-bones ASUS X205T laptop for an elderly friend of the family. MX is working great on it despite the meager hardware specs. Everything works fine other than a few minor glitches with sound....and the touchpad.

The touchpad is the big one. It works fine all the time. If you shut the machine down and turn it back on or restart it works fine. The issue only happens when the laptop is put into Suspend by closing the lid or selecting that option in the Log Out menu.

Basically, When the machine is re-awakened from Suspend, the touchpad doesn't work...nothing I try will make it work until I restart the laptop again and then it works perfectly until the machine is once again put to sleep.

I've already tried different kernels (the default 6.1 kernel and the latest 6.12 liquorix kernel in the Package Installer). I've also tried installing the Synaptics touchpad driver instead of libinput....makes no difference.

Anybody have any ideas what I could do to get it working reliable on wake from suspend?

Thanks! :)

[Stevo]

Sometimes unloading and reloading the touchpad driver will get it working again. I believe there is also a file the driver can be listed in, which will automatically unload it before sleep, then reload it after resuming.

But we are going to need a QSI.

[RallyDarkstrike]

My apologies, was posting that before I briefly stepped out the door and forgot!

QSI here:

Code: Select all

System:
  Kernel: 6.1.0-31-amd64 [6.1.128-1] arch: x86_64 bits: 64 compiler: gcc v: 12.2.0
    parameters: BOOT_IMAGE=/boot/vmlinuz-6.1.0-31-amd64 root=UUID=<filter> ro quiet splash
  Desktop: Xfce v: 4.20.0 tk: Gtk v: 3.24.38 info: xfce4-panel wm: xfwm v: 4.20.0 vt: 7
    dm: LightDM v: 1.32.0 Distro: MX-23.5_x64 Libretto May 19  2024 base: Debian GNU/Linux 12
    (bookworm)
Machine:
  Type: Laptop System: ASUSTeK product: X205TA v: 1.0 serial: <superuser required>
  Mobo: ASUSTeK model: X205TA v: 1.0 serial: <superuser required> UEFI: American Megatrends
    v: X205TA.205 date: 10/06/2014
Battery:
  ID-1: BATC charge: 23.3 Wh (76.6%) condition: 30.4/38.0 Wh (79.9%) volts: 7.6 min: 7.6
    model: Intel SR 1 SR Real Battery type: Li-ion serial: <filter> status: discharging cycles: 29
CPU:
  Info: model: Intel Atom Z3735F bits: 64 type: MCP arch: Silvermont level: v2 built: 2013-15
    process: Intel 22nm family: 6 model-id: 0x37 (55) stepping: 8 microcode: 0x838
  Topology: cpus: 1x cores: 4 smt: <unsupported> cache: L1: 224 KiB desc: d-4x24 KiB; i-4x32 KiB
    L2: 2 MiB desc: 2x1024 KiB
  Speed (MHz): avg: 516 high: 566 min/max: 500/1833 scaling: driver: intel_cpufreq
    governor: ondemand cores: 1: 566 2: 500 3: 500 4: 500 bogomips: 10666
  Flags: ht lm nx pae sse sse2 sse3 sse4_1 sse4_2 ssse3 vmx
  Vulnerabilities:
  Type: gather_data_sampling status: Not affected
  Type: itlb_multihit status: Not affected
  Type: l1tf status: Not affected
  Type: mds mitigation: Clear CPU buffers; SMT disabled
  Type: meltdown mitigation: PTI
  Type: mmio_stale_data status: Unknown: No mitigations
  Type: reg_file_data_sampling status: Not affected
  Type: retbleed status: Not affected
  Type: spec_rstack_overflow status: Not affected
  Type: spec_store_bypass status: Not affected
  Type: spectre_v1 mitigation: usercopy/swapgs barriers and __user pointer sanitization
  Type: spectre_v2 mitigation: Retpolines; IBPB: conditional; IBRS_FW; STIBP: disabled; RSB
    filling; PBRSB-eIBRS: Not affected; BHI: Not affected
  Type: srbds status: Not affected
  Type: tsx_async_abort status: Not affected
Graphics:
  Device-1: Intel Atom Processor Z36xxx/Z37xxx Series Graphics & Display vendor: ASUSTeK
    driver: i915 v: kernel arch: Gen-7 process: Intel 22nm built: 2012-13 ports: active: eDP-1
    empty: DP-1,HDMI-A-1 bus-ID: 00:02.0 chip-ID: 8086:0f31 class-ID: 0300
  Device-2: Realtek USB Camera type: USB driver: uvcvideo bus-ID: 1-1.1:3 chip-ID: 0bda:57b5
    class-ID: 0e02 serial: <filter>
  Display: x11 server: X.Org v: 1.21.1.7 compositor: xfwm v: 4.20.0 driver: X:
    loaded: modesetting unloaded: fbdev,vesa dri: crocus gpu: i915 display-ID: :0.0 screens: 1
  Screen-1: 0 s-res: 1366x768 s-dpi: 96 s-size: 362x204mm (14.25x8.03") s-diag: 416mm (16.36")
  Monitor-1: eDP-1 model: ChiMei InnoLux 0x1130 built: 2013 res: 1366x768 hz: 60 dpi: 136
    gamma: 1.2 size: 256x144mm (10.08x5.67") diag: 294mm (11.6") ratio: 16:9 modes: 1366x768
  API: OpenGL v: 4.2 Mesa 22.3.6 renderer: Mesa Intel HD Graphics (BYT) direct-render: Yes
Audio:
  Message: No device data found.
  API: ALSA v: k6.1.0-31-amd64 status: kernel-api tools: alsamixer,amixer
  Server-1: PipeWire v: 1.0.0 status: active with: 1: pipewire-pulse status: active
    2: wireplumber status: active 3: pipewire-alsa type: plugin 4: pw-jack type: plugin
    tools: pactl,pw-cat,pw-cli,wpctl
Network:
  Message: No PCI device data found.
  IF-ID-1: wlan0 state: up mac: <filter>
Drives:
  Local Storage: total: 29.12 GiB used: 13.41 GiB (46.0%)
  ID-1: /dev/mmcblk2 maj-min: 179:0 vendor: SK Hynix model: HBG4e size: 29.12 GiB block-size:
    physical: 512 B logical: 512 B type: SSD serial: <filter> rev: 0x7 scheme: GPT
  SMART Message: Unknown smartctl error. Unable to generate data.
Partition:
  ID-1: / raw-size: 28.87 GiB size: 28.25 GiB (97.85%) used: 13.41 GiB (47.5%) fs: ext4
    dev: /dev/mmcblk2p2 maj-min: 179:2
  ID-2: /boot/efi raw-size: 256 MiB size: 252 MiB (98.46%) used: 314 KiB (0.1%) fs: vfat
    dev: /dev/mmcblk2p1 maj-min: 179:1
Swap:
  Kernel: swappiness: 15 (default 60) cache-pressure: 100 (default)
  ID-1: swap-1 type: file size: 1024 MiB used: 0 KiB (0.0%) priority: -2 file: /swap/swap
Sensors:
  System Temperatures: cpu: 6280.4 C mobo: N/A
  Fan Speeds (RPM): cpu: 0
Repos:
  Packages: pm: dpkg pkgs: 2301 libs: 1151 tools: apt,apt-get,aptitude,nala,synaptic pm: rpm
    pkgs: 0 pm: flatpak pkgs: 0
  No active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list
  Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/debian-stable-updates.list
    1: deb http://deb.debian.org/debian bookworm-updates main contrib non-free non-free-firmware
  Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/debian.list
    1: deb http://deb.debian.org/debian bookworm main contrib non-free non-free-firmware
    2: deb http://security.debian.org/debian-security bookworm-security main contrib non-free non-free-firmware
  Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/google-chrome.list
    1: deb [arch=amd64] https://dl.google.com/linux/chrome/deb/ stable main
  Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/mx.list
    1: deb http://mirror.its.dal.ca/mxlinux/mx/repo/ bookworm main non-free
  Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/signal-xenial-added-by-mxpi.list
    1: deb [arch=amd64] https://updates.signal.org/desktop/apt xenial main
  Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/spotify.list
    1: deb http://repository.spotify.com stable non-free
Info:
  Processes: 212 Uptime: 25m wakeups: 389 Memory: 1.86 GiB used: 977.8 MiB (51.4%) Init: SysVinit
  v: 3.06 runlevel: 5 default: graphical tool: systemctl Compilers: gcc: 12.2.0 alt: 12
  Client: shell wrapper v: 5.2.15-release inxi: 3.3.26
Boot Mode: UEFI

[RallyDarkstrike]

Just an update - I looked in the BIOS to see if there were any settings that would help. Nothing that I can see.

Might try and see if I can find a BIOS update for it as I am not sure if it has the most recent one it can run or not, but not sure if that would make any difference.

Anyone have any thoughts?

[FullScale4Me]

I seem to recall a post that mentioned changing Fast Boot in the PC's BIOS from minimal/off to a different setting, got the touchpad working.

Another case I recall was there were two firmware (drivers) available to the user. One of them gave fewer features than the other (libinput vs synaptic).

Another post suggested a higher kernel might help, install the 6.2 kernel.

[RallyDarkstrike]

I seem to recall a post that mentioned changing Fast Boot in the PC's BIOS from minimal/off to a different setting, got the touchpad working.

Another case I recall was there were two firmware (drivers) available to the user. One of them gave fewer features than the other (libinput vs synaptic).

Another post suggested a higher kernel might help, install the 6.2 kernel.

Already tried synaptics vs libinput, sadly made no difference. Did manage to find a BIOS upgrade and install that to the most recent one available (from 2019)...also no help, sadly.

I tried a newer kernel (6.12 Liquorix) over the default 6.1 kernel...both do the same thing. :(

The BIOS is very limited..no option for Fast Boot settings of any sort, unfortunately. It's frustrating because the touchpad works PERFECTLY....UNTIL you put the laptop to sleep, then on wake it doesn't work at all until you reboot...then it works perfectly again :/

Apparently this is not a new problem...found this post from a year ago on Reddit with an MX user mentioning the same thing:
https://www.reddit.com/r/MXLinux/commen ... f_the_box/

[j2mcgreg]

@RallyDarkstrike wrote:

The BIOS is very limited..no option for Fast Boot settings of any sort, unfortunately. It's frustrating because the touchpad works PERFECTLY....UNTIL you put the laptop to sleep, then on wake it doesn't work at all until you reboot...then it works perfectly again :/

According to the specs I found here:
https://www.amazon.com/ASUS-X205TA-DS01 ... 29UIO?th=1
This laptop shipped with Win 8.1 which means that the bios control that became Fast Start UP in Win 10 was then called Quick Start and you might have to set an Administrator password in order for that control to be revealed.

[Stevo]

Will this command get it working again?

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sudo rmmod psmouse && sudo modprobe psmouse

[Stevo]

Here is a wiki from way back when that addresses that issue on Debian Jessie, but I'm not sure if the drivers are handled with libinput with newer kernels and xorgs.

https://wiki.debian.org/InstallingDebianOn/Asus/X205TA

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Sensors:
  System Temperatures: cpu: 6280.4 C mobo: N/A

Maybe replace the thermal paste, it seems to be running a tad hot.

I hope that 2 GB will be enough...a 32-bit install would use a little less memory.

[RallyDarkstrike]

I might have solved it!

Thanks for the replies folks - I found an earlier post somewhere that lead me in the right direction in that this machine has an Elan touchpad and uses the elan_i2c kernel module.

Somebody elsewhere in the past on a different post suggested to the OP in a thread to try unloading the module and reloading it.

I decided to try that in Terminal after I woke the machine from Suspend to see if it would help as the touchpad doesn't work, but they keyboard still does. I opened Terminal and:

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sudo rmmod elan_i2c
sudo modprobe elan_i2c

Guess what! It worked! Touchpad was working again!

Now, I'm pretty tech savvy, but I'm not a massive Linux guru despite using it daily since 2016 or so....so how do I get this to automatically happen on resume from suspend?

Welp...I'm not huge into this ridiculous AI crazy, but it has its uses, so ChatGPT to the rescue.
Asked it to write a script for me - "Hey ChatGPT - write me a script for linux that will unload the "elan_i2c" module and then immediately reload it."

To which it provided:

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!/bin/bash

# Check if the script is run as root
if [[ $EUID -ne 0 ]]; then
   echo "This script must be run as root" 
   exit 1
fi

# Unload the elan_i2c module
rmmod elan_i2c
if [[ $? -ne 0 ]]; then
    echo "Failed to unload elan_i2c module"
    exit 1
fi

echo "elan_i2c module unloaded successfully"

# Reload the elan_i2c module
modprobe elan_i2c
if [[ $? -ne 0 ]]; then
    echo "Failed to reload elan_i2c module"
    exit 1
fi

echo "elan_i2c module reloaded successfully"

Looked good to me, so my next question: How would I run the above script automatically on sysvinit on wake from suspend?"

And I basically used what it told me to add it to /etc/pm/sleep.d/ every time the system wakes....seems to work perfectly! :)