Bug 448795 - Laptop touchpad sometimes doesn't work after login
Summary: Laptop touchpad sometimes doesn't work after login
Status: RESOLVED WORKSFORME
Alias: None
Product: plasmashell
Classification: Plasma
Component: general (show other bugs)
Version: 5.23.90
Platform: Other Linux
: NOR normal
Target Milestone: 1.0
Assignee: David Edmundson
URL:
Keywords:
Depends on:
Blocks:
 
Reported: 2022-01-19 21:14 UTC by indecisiveautomator
Modified: 2022-03-16 19:17 UTC (History)
2 users (show)

See Also:
Latest Commit:
Version Fixed In:
Sentry Crash Report:


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Description indecisiveautomator 2022-01-19 21:14:37 UTC
SUMMARY
Sometimes my laptop touchpad doesn't work after logging in. It will work in SDDM but will occasionally not work after logging in. This seems to have gotten less and less prevalent with updates but still occurs regularly.

A few versions ago, a surefire way to reproduce this was to not touch the trackpad when logging in. Then after logging in, the touchpad would not respond to any input. Even then, it still had a chance to occur if you used the touchpad before logging in, and even still does now, but when it happens is seemingly random and not reliably reproducible.

I was waiting for some more fixes for Ryzen-based laptops as there were several bugs relating to those, but as this still persists, perhaps it is a KDE bug. This issue did not and does not occur for me when taking from sleep. Touchpad input always works after waking from sleep in my tests over the last 9 months.

I have not tested X11 in several months, but it occurred on X11 and Wayland, and still occasionally occurs on Wayland.


STEPS TO REPRODUCE
I cannot find a reliable way to reproduce, it seems to randomly occur after login.

OBSERVED RESULT
Touchpad sometimes does not work after logging in, even if it works on SDDM.


EXPECTED RESULT
Touchpad works after logging in always.


SOFTWARE/OS VERSIONS
Linux/KDE Plasma: 5.16.0-arch1-1
KDE Plasma Version: 5.23.90
KDE Frameworks Version: 5.90.0
Qt Version: 5.15.2

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
Tested on a Dell Inspiron laptop.
Comment 1 Marco Martin 2022-01-20 13:53:08 UTC
this is probably due to the kded that can disable the touchpad, weird that doesn't seem to respect the settings though
Comment 2 David Edmundson 2022-01-20 13:54:14 UTC
Please attach any logs from journalctl --user -b
Comment 3 indecisiveautomator 2022-01-20 23:15:46 UTC
Thanks! The next time I am able to reproduce this bug, I will attach the logs.
Comment 4 Bug Janitor Service 2022-02-04 04:37:32 UTC
Dear Bug Submitter,

This bug has been in NEEDSINFO status with no change for at least
15 days. Please provide the requested information as soon as
possible and set the bug status as REPORTED. Due to regular bug
tracker maintenance, if the bug is still in NEEDSINFO status with
no change in 30 days the bug will be closed as RESOLVED > WORKSFORME
due to lack of needed information.

For more information about our bug triaging procedures please read the
wiki located here:
https://community.kde.org/Guidelines_and_HOWTOs/Bug_triaging

If you have already provided the requested information, please
mark the bug as REPORTED so that the KDE team knows that the bug is
ready to be confirmed.

Thank you for helping us make KDE software even better for everyone!
Comment 5 Bug Janitor Service 2022-02-19 04:36:54 UTC
This bug has been in NEEDSINFO status with no change for at least
30 days. The bug is now closed as RESOLVED > WORKSFORME
due to lack of needed information.

For more information about our bug triaging procedures please read the
wiki located here:
https://community.kde.org/Guidelines_and_HOWTOs/Bug_triaging

Thank you for helping us make KDE software even better for everyone!
Comment 6 indecisiveautomator 2022-03-16 19:17:15 UTC
The bug occured for me again just today after turning my laptop on for the first time in about a week. I ran the command `journalctl --user -b` and saved it to a text file using `journalctl --user -b > log.txt`. The file is quite long, about 200 lines. I could attach all of it but is there anything specific I should search for to send? To my untrained eye I can't see anything related to touchpads or anything major that fails, there are some odd complaints about latte dock stuff (I don't use latte dock) and appimagelauncherd complaining some files don't exist. Other than that the services it tries to start all start up properly as far as I can see. But again, if there's something I should look out for I can just post that, or if there are any other commands I should run just let me know. I'll keep my laptop on to help diagnose the issue 🙂

This is the longest I've kept my laptop on while the touchpad has not worked. Putting the laptop to sleep and waking it again has not worked. I am unsure if, in this specific case, that the trackpad worked on the login screen. I didn't try to move it. Also, there is no battery indicator in my system tray. I can't open it to access the battery option that's normally in there as far as I know, but this behaviour is definitely strange.

I noticed some other potentially odd behaviour, though I could just be remembering incorrectly so please bear with me. Usually in System Settings > Input Devices > Touchpad, there is a dropdown box with my touchpad listed. However right now, there is no such dropdown box. The system settings screen starts with the "General" list where "Device Enabled" is checked.

I am using a point release behind on my laptop, but I didn't want to update and reboot as I wanted to keep the laptop in this touchpad-less state for as long as possible. Below is some updated system information from the initial bug report:

Kernel: 5.16.11-arch1-2 (64bit)
Plasma version: 5.24.2 (Wayland session)
KDE Frameworks: 5.91.0
Qt version: 5.15.2

I'd just like to note again that this bug is very rare, and that a reboot or two usually fixes it, but any potential of fixing it or at the very least documenting that it can occur may be beneficial 🙂