[GUIDE] Troubleshooting Touchpad Issues After Resuming from Sleep

[sailoz]

[GUIDE] Troubleshooting Touchpad Issues After Resuming from Sleep

Some users may experience an issue where the touchpad behaves erratically after the laptop resumes from sleep. This guide provides a set of solutions to diagnose and fix this problem.

For myself, Solution 1 worked for this moment.

Symptoms

You might be facing this issue if you notice the following behaviors after waking your laptop:

• The cursor only moves when using two fingers on the touchpad.
• Single-finger movement does not work.
• Clicking, dragging, or selecting text becomes impossible or unreliable.

A reboot temporarily fixes the problem, but it reappears after the next sleep/resume cycle.

Diagnosis: Confirming the Cause

This behavior is often caused by a communication failure between the touchpad hardware and its kernel driver after waking up. You can confirm this by checking your system logs for a specific error.

1. After your laptop resumes and the touchpad is malfunctioning, open a terminal and run:

   sudo dmesg | grep -i "touchpad|i2c|hid"

2. Look for a line similar to the following. This is the key error message:

   i2c_hid_acpi i2c-DELL081B:00: i2c_hd_get_input: incomplete report (30/65369)
   

This incomplete report error confirms that the i2c_hid_acpi driver is receiving corrupted data from the touchpad, causing it to enter a faulty state.

The following solutions can resolve this issue permanently.

---

Solution 1: Automatically Reload the Touchpad Driver on Resume

This is the most direct workaround. It creates a simple script that automatically resets the touchpad driver every time the system wakes up, which is much faster than rebooting.

Step 1: Create the systemd sleep script

Open a terminal and create a new script file inside the system-sleep directory:

sudo nvim /usr/lib/systemd/system-sleep/touchpad-reset.sh

Step 2: Add the script content

Paste the following code into the file. This script checks if the system is waking up (post suspend) and, if so, reloads the i2c_hid_acpi kernel module.

#!/bin/sh

case $1/$2 in
  post/*)
    /usr/bin/modprobe -r i2c_hid_acpi
    /usr/bin/modprobe i2c_hid_acpi
    ;;
esac

Step 3: Make the script executable

You must give the script permission to run:

sudo chmod +x /usr/lib/systemd/system-sleep/touchpad-reset.sh

This method should be effective immediately. Suspend your laptop and wake it to test if the touchpad now works correctly.

Solution 2: Change the Default Sleep State to 'deep'

By default, many modern systems use a light sleep state (s2idle). Some hardware drivers have bugs related to resuming from this state. Switching to deep sleep (a more traditional, power-off state) can provide a more robust resume and fix the issue at a more fundamental level.

Step 1 (Optional): Test deep sleep temporarily

You can test if this will work without making a permanent change:

sudo sh -c 'echo deep > /sys/power/mem_sleep'

Now, suspend and resume your machine to see if the problem is solved. This setting will revert on your next reboot.

Step 2: Make deep sleep permanent

If the test was successful, add mem_sleep_default=deep to your kernel boot parameters. The method depends on your bootloader.

For systemd-boot users:

1. Edit your boot entry file. This is usually located at /boot/loader/entries/arch.conf or a similar name.

   sudo nvim /boot/loader/entries/arch.conf

2. Add the parameter to the end of the options line.
   Before:

   options root="LABEL=arch_os" rw quiet splash
   

   After:

   options root="LABEL=arch_os" rw quiet splash mem_sleep_default=deep
   

3. Save the file and reboot. No other steps are needed.

For GRUB users:

1. Edit the GRUB configuration file:

   sudo nvim /etc/default/grub

2. Add the parameter to the GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT string:

   GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet splash mem_sleep_default=deep"
   

3. Update the GRUB configuration and reboot:

   sudo grub-mkconfig -o /boot/grub/grub.cfg

Other Potential Solutions

If the methods above do not work, here are two more things you can try.

Solution 3: Update BIOS/UEFI Firmware

Hardware initialization bugs are often fixed in firmware updates. Visit your laptop manufacturer's support website (e.g., Dell Support), find the latest BIOS/UEFI for your model, and follow their instructions to install it.

Solution 4: Test with the Linux LTS Kernel

Sometimes, a regression in the latest Linux kernel can cause such issues. The Long-Term Support (LTS) kernel is more stable and a great tool for troubleshooting.

1. Install the LTS kernel:

   sudo pacman -S linux-lts linux-lts-headers
   ```2.  **Update your bootloader.** This should happen automatically for both GRUB and `systemd-boot` during the `pacman` transaction.

2. Reboot and select the LTS kernel from your bootloader menu to see if the issue persists.