Urgent help needed - graphical interface unresponsive when using Dell trackpad [Solved]

[monamtb]

Hi all,

I have been running KDE 21.1 as my productive system.
Today, all of a sudden, no more mouse actions would work.

Can't even open applications from the latte dock anymore, nor can I call up the menu when clicking on the menu button for shutdown.

Luckily know how to switch to a terminal via CTRL + ALT + F3, logged in as root, and typed shutdown - h.

After reboot the problem persists.
Can't use the trackpad, but most keyboard commands work.

Any idea what can be wrong?

Is it possible I used a keyboard combination that started this by accident??

Any help is greatly appreciated since I can't work with the system now.

Even logging in as root has the same issue with using the trackpad.

[j2mcgreg]

If it's a wireless mouse, replace the battery.

[razor2021]

Or use a different mouse to rule out the mouse device.

[monamtb]

It is a Dell laptop and I only have the track pad and the left and right mouse buttons

[j2mcgreg]

It is a Dell laptop and I only have the track pad and the left and right mouse buttons

I think that you should switch to a mouse, temporarily and then post your QSI (MX Tools --> Quick System Info).

[razor2021]

Is the first mouse (not trackpad) a wired or wireless one using bluetooth or RF USB receiver? If it is wireless, remove the RF USB adapter, or wired mouse, and just check to see if the trackpad works normally. When I connect a wired mouse, my trackpad is disabled. If the trackpad is working fine when there are no other mice involved, then its something else.

[Charlie Brown]

If you have any bootable live media (no matter what Linux) boot with and make sure it's a hardware issue or not.

[monamtb]

Great suggestion, Charlie
I had a PC Linux OS on a USB stick with KDE.

Same issue here while doing the live session.

Weird thing is, left click on the trackpad has no effect - right click works but when choosing a menu entry I have to use the TAB button to go through the menu because I can't choose them by using the trackpad mouse pointer.

Keyboard seems to work fine, but I can't start any applications accept for using keyboard keys.

[monamtb]

Hi J2mcgreg,
I'll be darned....
Had a Logitech mouse lying around by chance - plugged it in - and now it works again fine....

[/quote]
I think that you should switch to a mouse, temporarily and then post your QSI (MX Tools --> Quick System Info).
[/quote]

Here is the QSI output:

Code: Select all

System:    Kernel: 5.10.0-23-amd64 [5.10.179-3] x86_64 bits: 64 compiler: gcc v: 10.2.1 
           parameters: BOOT_IMAGE=/boot/vmlinuz-5.10.0-23-amd64 root=UUID=<filter> ro quiet 
           splash, ipv6.disable=1 
           Desktop: KDE Plasma 5.20.5 info: latte-dock wm: kwin_x11 vt: 7 dm: SDDM 
           Distro: MX-21.3_KDE_x64 Wildflower September 18  2022 
           base: Debian GNU/Linux 11 (bullseye) 
Machine:   Type: Laptop System: Dell product: Latitude 7480 v: N/A serial: <filter> Chassis: 
           type: 10 serial: <filter> 
           Mobo: Dell model: 00F6D3 v: A00 serial: <filter> UEFI-[Legacy]: Dell v: 1.20.1 
           date: 01/25/2021 
Battery:   ID-1: BAT0 charge: 50.7 Wh (100.0%) condition: 50.7/60.0 Wh (84.5%) volts: 8.4 min: 7.6 
           model: LGC-LGC7.780 DELL MYJ9685 type: Li-ion serial: <filter> status: Full 
CPU:       Info: Dual Core model: Intel Core i5-6300U bits: 64 type: MT MCP arch: Skylake 
           family: 6 model-id: 4E (78) stepping: 3 microcode: F0 cache: L2: 3 MiB 
           flags: avx avx2 lm nx pae sse sse2 sse3 sse4_1 sse4_2 ssse3 vmx bogomips: 19999 
           Speed: 600 MHz min/max: 400/3000 MHz Core speeds (MHz): 1: 600 2: 600 3: 600 4: 600 
           Vulnerabilities: Type: itlb_multihit status: KVM: VMX disabled 
           Type: l1tf mitigation: PTE Inversion; VMX: conditional cache flushes, SMT vulnerable 
           Type: mds mitigation: Clear CPU buffers; SMT vulnerable 
           Type: meltdown mitigation: PTI 
           Type: mmio_stale_data mitigation: Clear CPU buffers; SMT vulnerable 
           Type: retbleed mitigation: IBRS 
           Type: spec_store_bypass 
           mitigation: Speculative Store Bypass disabled via prctl and seccomp 
           Type: spectre_v1 mitigation: usercopy/swapgs barriers and __user pointer sanitization 
           Type: spectre_v2 mitigation: IBRS, IBPB: conditional, STIBP: conditional, RSB filling, 
           PBRSB-eIBRS: Not affected 
           Type: srbds mitigation: Microcode 
           Type: tsx_async_abort mitigation: Clear CPU buffers; SMT vulnerable 
Graphics:  Device-1: Intel Skylake GT2 [HD Graphics 520] vendor: Dell driver: i915 v: kernel 
           bus-ID: 00:02.0 chip-ID: 8086:1916 class-ID: 0300 
           Device-2: Sunplus Innovation Integrated_Webcam_HD type: USB driver: uvcvideo 
           bus-ID: 1-5:3 chip-ID: 1bcf:2b96 class-ID: 0e02 
           Display: x11 server: X.Org 1.20.14 compositor: kwin_x11 driver: loaded: modesetting 
           unloaded: fbdev,vesa display-ID: :0 screens: 1 
           Screen-1: 0 s-res: 1920x1080 s-dpi: 96 s-size: 508x285mm (20.0x11.2") 
           s-diag: 582mm (22.9") 
           Monitor-1: eDP-1 res: 1920x1080 hz: 60 dpi: 158 size: 309x173mm (12.2x6.8") 
           diag: 354mm (13.9") 
           OpenGL: renderer: Mesa Intel HD Graphics 520 (SKL GT2) v: 4.6 Mesa 22.0.5 
           direct render: Yes 
Audio:     Device-1: Intel Sunrise Point-LP HD Audio vendor: Dell driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel 
           alternate: snd_soc_skl bus-ID: 00:1f.3 chip-ID: 8086:9d70 class-ID: 0403 
           Sound Server-1: ALSA v: k5.10.0-23-amd64 running: yes 
           Sound Server-2: PulseAudio v: 14.2 running: yes 
Network:   Device-1: Intel Ethernet I219-LM vendor: Dell driver: e1000e v: kernel port: f040 
           bus-ID: 00:1f.6 chip-ID: 8086:15d7 class-ID: 0200 
           IF: eth0 state: up speed: 100 Mbps duplex: full mac: <filter> 
           Device-2: Intel Wireless 8265 / 8275 driver: iwlwifi v: kernel modules: wl port: f040 
           bus-ID: 02:00.0 chip-ID: 8086:24fd class-ID: 0280 
           IF: wlan0 state: down mac: <filter> 
           IF-ID-1: wwan0 state: down mac: <filter> 
Bluetooth: Device-1: Intel Bluetooth wireless interface type: USB driver: btusb v: 0.8 
           bus-ID: 1-7:4 chip-ID: 8087:0a2b class-ID: e001 
           Report: hciconfig ID: hci0 rfk-id: 4 state: down bt-service: N/A rfk-block: 
           hardware: no software: no address: <filter> 
           Info: acl-mtu: 1021:4 sco-mtu: 96:6 link-policy: rswitch hold sniff 
           link-mode: slave accept 
Drives:    Local Storage: total: 953.87 GiB used: 353.83 GiB (37.1%) 
           SMART Message: Unable to run smartctl. Root privileges required. 
           ID-1: /dev/nvme0n1 maj-min: 259:0 vendor: Lexar model: SSD NM620 1TB size: 953.87 GiB 
           block-size: physical: 512 B logical: 512 B speed: 31.6 Gb/s lanes: 4 type: SSD 
           serial: <filter> rev: V1.23 temp: 26.9 C scheme: MBR 
Partition: ID-1: / raw-size: 47.29 GiB size: 46.25 GiB (97.79%) used: 24.07 GiB (52.0%) fs: ext4 
           dev: /dev/nvme0n1p1 maj-min: 259:1 
           ID-2: /home raw-size: 898.57 GiB size: 883.39 GiB (98.31%) used: 329.76 GiB (37.3%) 
           fs: ext4 dev: /dev/nvme0n1p3 maj-min: 259:3 
Swap:      Kernel: swappiness: 15 (default 60) cache-pressure: 100 (default) 
           ID-1: swap-1 type: partition size: 8 GiB used: 0 KiB (0.0%) priority: -2 
           dev: /dev/nvme0n1p2 maj-min: 259:2 
Sensors:   System Temperatures: cpu: 32.0 C mobo: N/A 
           Fan Speeds (RPM): cpu: 0 
Repos:     Packages: note: see --pkg apt: 2572 lib: 1447 flatpak: 0 
           No active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list 
           Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/brave-browser-release.list 
           1: deb [arch=amd64] https://brave-browser-apt-release.s3.brave.com/ bullseye main
           Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/debian-stable-updates.list 
           1: deb http://deb.debian.org/debian bullseye-updates main contrib non-free
           Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/debian.list 
           1: deb http://deb.debian.org/debian bullseye main contrib non-free
           2: deb http://security.debian.org/debian-security bullseye-security main contrib non-free
           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/megasync.list 
           1: deb [signed-by=/usr/share/keyrings/meganz-archive-keyring.gpg] https://mega.nz/linux/repo/Debian_11/ ./
           Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/mx.list 
           1: deb http://mirror.easyname.ch/mxlinux-packages/mx/repo/ bullseye main non-free
           2: deb http://mirror.easyname.ch/mxlinux-packages/mx/repo/ bullseye ahs
           Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/skype-stable.list 
           1: deb [arch=amd64] https://repo.skype.com/deb stable main
           Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/softmaker.list 
           1: deb https://shop.softmaker.com/repo/apt stable non-free
           Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/teamviewer.list 
           1: deb [signed-by=/usr/share/keyrings/teamviewer-keyring.gpg] https://linux.teamviewer.com/deb stable main
Info:      Processes: 228 Uptime: 1m wakeups: 2 Memory: 15.28 GiB used: 1.83 GiB (12.0%) 
           Init: SysVinit v: 2.96 runlevel: 5 default: 5 tool: systemctl Compilers: gcc: N/A 
           alt: 10 Client: shell wrapper v: 5.1.4-release inxi: 3.3.06 
Boot Mode: BIOS (legacy, CSM, MBR)

Could it be that using legacy mode instead of UEFI mode causes these kind of problems???

Trackpad issues still persist - only the logitech mouse works - clicks on the trackpad have no effect.

[j2mcgreg]

@monamtb

Since you are using MX 21.3, you can go to MX Tweak --> Other tab and switch to the libinput driver and see if it gets your trackpad working again. Note that this option is no longer available in MX 23.