ALPS Touchpad driver with VoodooInput

[skyrilhd]

Sorry for being inactive, for some reason I did not get any emails about this thread.

 

Apparently, acidanthera's version is conflicting with something I did not find yet and causes the touchpad not to work on restarts (on my E7250 at least). I am assuming it is due to the high IOProbeScore. I lowered it, which hopefully fixes it.

 

Additionally, I changed the VoodooInput processing code, so the kernel panic that most V8 users were getting should be now gone. One of the benefits that V8 users are also getting is using 4 fingers natively. Currently, on 2+ fingers, virtual fingers were created to support touchpads that did not support the third and fourth packet and therefore causing issues with 3 or 4 finger gestures. However, I cannot verify if that's actually the case, as I don't have a V8 touchpad.

 

Feedback about this kext would be helpful

https://github.com/SkyrilHD/VoodooPS2/actions/runs/2434461660

 

And yes, like on other touchpads, there is a delay between keyboard and touchpad movement. But this can be changed inside the VoodooPS2Trackpad Info.plist: https://github.com/SkyrilHD/VoodooPS2/blob/x_avg-free/VoodooPS2Trackpad/VoodooPS2Trackpad-Info.plist#L80-L81

[skyrilhd]

small update:

 

I've changed the code for the trackstick, but I can't test the changes because my E7250 doesn't have a trackstick. To avoid multiple IOHIDPointing devices, I removed the code from the ALPS code to use VoodooTrackpoint from VoodooInput.

 

I think this is the last change (if nothing is broken) before making a pull request.

 

Link:

https://github.com/SkyrilHD/VoodooPS2/actions/runs/2440514063

or for non-GitHub account:

Artifacts (b609366).zip

[Mattia27c]

I didn't understand the other guy's problem he had with the trackstick, but with your kext @skyrilhd to me it always worked correctly (maybe a little bit too fast / inaccurate to use)

 

DELL E7470, ALPS V8

On 6/4/2022 at 8:48 PM, skyrilhd said:

small update:

 

I've changed the code for the trackstick, but I can't test the changes because my E7250 doesn't have a trackstick. To avoid multiple IOHIDPointing devices, I removed the code from the ALPS code to use VoodooTrackpoint from VoodooInput.

 

I think this is the last change (if nothing is broken) before making a pull request.

 

Link:

https://github.com/SkyrilHD/VoodooPS2/actions/runs/2440514063

or for non-GitHub account:

Artifacts (b609366).zip 1.08 MB · 4 downloads

with this, the touchpad works bad. 

The gestures are very inaccurate and the touchpad struggles to capture multiple fingers. Can't follow 1:1 the movment of fingers as before (and sometimes goes crazy....as before).

 

the track stick is too fast.

[skyrilhd]

@Mattia27c Thanks for the feedback. The kext I uploaded above is a bit outdated.

 

Currently, this is the latest one:

https://github.com/SkyrilHD/VoodooPS2/actions/runs/2524741295

Artifacts (8fcd8a5).zip

 

Based on your feedback, I lowered the trackstick speed and changed the trackpad calculation like on V3 and V7.

VoodooPS2Controller-2.2.9-DEBUG (V8 virtualFingers).zip

 

However, I would like to use V8's own calculation, as it should provide accurate third and fourth finger tracking. I suggest checking finger movements with FingerMgmt (e.g. unpressing or jumping around).

 

 

[Mattia27c]

with this (2.2.9-DEBUG) , touchpad (and trackstick) doesn't work at all. it moves only for a centimeter after a lot of inputs..

[skyrilhd]

@Mattia27c Can you try both kexts and report back?

 

VoodooPS2Controller-2.2.9-DEBUG (6000).zip

 

VoodooPS2Controller-2.2.9-DEBUG (1500).zip

[Hervé]

Hi @skyrilhd

 

Finally got round to test your kext on my Latitude E7270 fitted with Alps V8 touchpad (touchscreen model):

1. v2.2.9 Debug (1500)
   • Default touchpad speed is a little quicker than with my previous PS2 controller kext but it suits me just fine and it remains fully adjustable through the PrefPane of course.
   • Muti-finger gestures is working fine too (eg: Notification Centre, LaunchPad, etc.). 3-finger gestures can be a little difficult but that's due to the small size of the touchpad.
   • Keyboard 100% operational.
   • Looking very good to me.
2. v2.2.9 Debug (6000)
   • TouchPad not working at all.
   • keyboard 100% Ok.

This is the best Alps driver I ever got to experiment with on all my Latitude laptops. Respect! 

[skyrilhd]

I appreciate the feedback. Thank you very much!

 

However, this raises another issue: V3 touchpads only work on IOProbeScore 6000 while V8 touchpads only work on 1500. Funny enough, V7 is not affected and works on both scores. Since I only have a V7 touchpad, I cannot debug this issue.

 

Until I find a fix, I guess I will change the default IOProbeScore to support V8 (1500) without modifications, as V8 is the newest ALPS PS2 device. V3 users have to change the IOProbeScore (found in VoodooPS2Trackpad/Info.plist) back up to 6000.

 

Maybe we find the middle, which works on both V3 and V8 (?)

[Jake Lo]

I can confirm with Hervé's finding with v2.2.9 but when I'm using your version 1.0.7, the IOProbeScore is set at 6000 and working fine on my Alps V8. And it's more smooth than this v2.2.9

I remember you had to change the speed here to make it more usable for me on the V8

https://osxlatitude.com/forums/topic/17005-alps-touchpad-driver-with-voodooinput/?do=findComment&comment=113524

[skyrilhd]

41 minutes ago, Jake Lo said:

I can confirm with Hervé's finding with v2.2.9 but when I'm using your version 1.0.7, the IOProbeScore is set at 6000 and working fine on my Alps V8. And it's more smooth than this v2.2.9

I remember you had to change the speed here to make it more usable for me on the V8

https://osxlatitude.com/forums/topic/17005-alps-touchpad-driver-with-voodooinput/?do=findComment&comment=113524

 

I assume the IOProbeScore did not affect with my version since there was no interference with Synaptics and ELAN code. I checked one of the V8 log and the touchpad was working perfectly, but macOS did not want to process it for some reason.

 

The touchpad speed should be the same with my version, since I did no changes to the speed at all. However, compared to Dr. Hurt's PS2 kext, the touchpad is a bit faster. The trackstick speed might have changed, since v2.2.9 uses VoodooTrackpoint instead of its own mouse device. I assume "And it's more smooth than this v2.2.9" is related to the trackstick?

 

Here is a kext which uses the IOProbeScore 6000, but I added a property which waits the trackpad to "calibrate" for 4.5 seconds (by default) before setting protocols. I also cut the trackstick speed even more:

 

VoodooPS2Controller-2.2.9-DEBUG.zip

 

The wait time can also be changed inside the Info.plist (the time is in milliseconds). If the touchpad does not work, try increasing/decreasing the value, but keep the IOProbeScore at 6000. Hopefully this will help.