restart trackpad without reboot?

[gleachkr]

My trackpad mostly works pretty well, but occasionally gets into a weird state---the cursor moves randomly when I lift my finger off the pad, and taps are registered at random (even with no hands on the computer) or (more recently) no taps are registered at all. No useful information from journalctl or dmesg.

But: a reboot resolves the issue.

So I'm wondering if there's some way to powercycle the trackpad, or to reload the drivers, or anything that might help with the issue above, without a complete reboot.

Ideas?

This is on Manjaro, release 20.05

[belfastraven]

My trackpad mostly works pretty well, but occasionally gets into a weird state---the cursor moves randomly when I lift my finger off the pad, and taps are registered at random (even with no hands on the computer) or (more recently) no taps are registered at all. No useful information from journalctl or dmesg.

But: a reboot resolves the issue.

So I'm wondering if there's some way to powercycle the trackpad, or to reload the drivers, or anything that might help with the issue above, without a complete reboot.

Ideas?

This is on Manjaro, release 20.05

What happens if you just use Fn F7 to turn off the trackpad and then to turn in on again?  (that disables/enables the trackpad,  but exactly what it is doing physically isn't clear to me).  

I just found this article about Apple trackpads,  but thought it might give you some hints about what might be causing your problem.  FWIW  https://www.cnet.com/news/jumpy-and-erratic-trackpads/   .   

I am also running Manjaro 20.05 and haven't seen this problem.  I am normally running with the Pinebook Pro plugged into the A.C. power.

[gleachkr]

My trackpad mostly works pretty well, but occasionally gets into a weird state---the cursor moves randomly when I lift my finger off the pad, and taps are registered at random (even with no hands on the computer) or (more recently) no taps are registered at all. No useful information from journalctl or dmesg.

But: a reboot resolves the issue.

So I'm wondering if there's some way to powercycle the trackpad, or to reload the drivers, or anything that might help with the issue above, without a complete reboot.

Ideas?

This is on Manjaro, release 20.05

What happens if you just use Fn F7 to turn off the trackpad and then to turn in on again?  (that disables/enables the trackpad,  but exactly what it is doing physically isn't clear to me).  

I just found this article about Apple trackpads,  but thought it might give you some hints about what might be causing your problem.  FWIW  https://www.cnet.com/news/jumpy-and-erratic-trackpads/   .   

I am also running Manjaro 20.05 and haven't seen this problem.  I am normally running with the Pinebook Pro plugged into the A.C. power.

Thanks! I'll try that the next time the trackpad gets out of sorts.

[gleachkr]

My trackpad mostly works pretty well, but occasionally gets into a weird state---the cursor moves randomly when I lift my finger off the pad, and taps are registered at random (even with no hands on the computer) or (more recently) no taps are registered at all. No useful information from journalctl or dmesg.

But: a reboot resolves the issue.

So I'm wondering if there's some way to powercycle the trackpad, or to reload the drivers, or anything that might help with the issue above, without a complete reboot.

Ideas?

This is on Manjaro, release 20.05

What happens if you just use Fn F7 to turn off the trackpad and then to turn in on again?  (that disables/enables the trackpad,  but exactly what it is doing physically isn't clear to me).  

I just found this article about Apple trackpads,  but thought it might give you some hints about what might be causing your problem.  FWIW  https://www.cnet.com/news/jumpy-and-erratic-trackpads/   .   

I am also running Manjaro 20.05 and haven't seen this problem.  I am normally running with the Pinebook Pro plugged into the A.C. power.

Well, it's finally cropped up again. Fn F7 does stop the trackpad from registering random taps, but toggling it doesn't fix the condtion, nor does sleep and then wake. If anyone has any other ideas, they'd be very welcome.

[Arwen]

This seems to be a case where open source software would help.

At present, someone has a version of the keyboard software modified for various improvements. But, he has said that the trackpad firmware is different enough that he had not been able to decode it.

That said, you might look at the progress. Jack has made some changes in HOW the trackpad messages are passed through the keyboard. I don't understand all the details, but you could give the project a read;

Pinebook Pro - keyboard-updater