Touchpad doesn't function on Fedora 40

Errata

It doesn’t accept touch input. I expect the undermentioned is the cause:

Recent kernel update seems to have introduces a bug that stops the FW16 touchpad from getting recognised. I’ve just revertered back to version 6.8.7 and can use my touchpad again. Now to patiently wait for the upstream to get a patch.

However, because this is a new installation, I can’t feasibly use an old kernel version, surely?

Template

Which Linux distro are you using?

https://download.fedoraproject.org/pub/fedora/linux/releases/40/Spins/x86_64/iso/Fedora-KDE-Live-x86_64-40-1.14.iso (written via https://fedora.pkgs.org/40/fedora-updates-x86_64/mediawriter-5.1.2-1.fc40.x86_64.rpm.html).

Which release version?

https://download.fedoraproject.org/pub/fedora/linux/releases/40/

Which kernel are you using?

  1. rpm -qa 'kernel'
    
  2. kernel-6.8.5-301.fc40.x86-64
    

Which BIOS version are you using?

  1. sudo dmidecode -t bios -q | grep -e 'BIOS Revision'# [Citation](https://stackoverflow.com/revisions/20604726/2#:~:text=dmidecode%20%2Dt%20bios%20%2Dq)
    
  2. BIOS Revision: 3.3
    

Which Framework Laptop 16 model are you using? (AMD Ryzen™ 7040 Series)

An AMD-CPU model.

Reposts

Fedora 40 KDE is on kernel 6.10.11, perhaps try updating?

I’m assuming that the touchpad worked booting the live Fedora 40 ISO for the install?

Try running

sudo libinput list-devices | grep Device

Your touchpad should be listed, if it is being seen.

Actually, @AKNickolai, that kernel version was when I was using the live install. I now have both it and 6.10.11-200 installed simultaneously (I presume with it defaulting to the latter, although GRUB2 doesn’t appear by default, allowing me to confirm). The touchpad remains undiscovered.

No output whatsoever. Removing grep displays mostly the keyboard and numpad modules, with a few for the video bus, lid switch, and power button.

Grub not appearing by default is strange, did you modify your grub config file on this install?

It sounds like the touchpad also did not work under the live ISO. Do you have the ability to test with another OS or windows? You don’t have to install it, just see if it works after boot while you’re navigating the install menus.

If its not showing up with libinput list-devices and doesn’t work during install process for other OS’s you might just have a bad unit and need to RMA.

I have a 16 running the same Fedora 40 KDE distro, so I was able to verify all those steps on the same machine/OS.

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@AKNickolai, I’ve installed Fedora on 4 systems recently, and it’s been set as quiet splash by default on all of them. It’s probably a recent change.

Yeah, I’ll try Windows 11 and openSUSE TW.

Thanks for that.

In retrospect, when my brother constructed the laptop for me (I swear I could do it too, I was just on a dog walk when it arrived!!!) he plugged it into a https://www.amazon.co.uk/Satechi-165W-USB-C-4-Port-Charger/dp/B09QRN64HB/, which takes an ungrounded IEC 60320 C8 cable as its AC input, so perhaps touch panel - Effect of charger on laptop touchpad - Electrical Engineering Stack Exchange applies here.

I’ve only thought of this because I’m unable to establish a connection between the device and the charger when multiple cables are connected (presumably because its wattage is too low).

However, I wouldn’t expect any effect from it to persist after the cable has been disconnected.

I’ve confirmed that it’s a dead touchpad - I tried my brother’s FW16 touchpad in mine, and it functioned immediately. I’ll get it RMA’d. Thanks.

OSTW didn’t have a live USB, and Windows 11 didn’t register the touchpad either.

Actually that’s by design, see the Changes/HiddenGrubMenu page on the Fedora wiki, also for steps/keyboard shortcuts to make it visible again. Tagging @RokeJulianLockhart as well, since that might be info useful to both.

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@Sebastiaan_Franken, thanks. Specifically, Changes/HiddenGrubMenu - Fedora Project Wiki [1] states:

On systems with only a single OS installed, the grub menu’s only function is to allow booting older kernels, which is only necessary as a rescue option in case of a severe kernel bug and as such not something which is directly useful for normal use.

Fedora already has a lot of work done to not show too technical boot messages to end users during bootup, e.g. we pass quiet to the kernel and we’ve plymouth to show a bootsplash instead of a bunch of “Starting service-foo: OK” messages.

The grub menu with its kernel versions is another example of showing too technical info to end-users and on non multi-boot systems it normally is not necessary, so it is better to hide it.

This change will add menu-auto-hide functionality to grub, which when enabled will hide the menu if:

  1. The machine only has a single OS installed; and
  2. The previous boot has set a flag to indicate it successfully booted

  1. Doesn't function at specific URI. · Issue #9 · ichaoX/ext-textFragment · GitHub ↩︎