Possible workaround for Elan Touchpad driver failing

[kinggrowler]

Acer Chromebook 14 (Edgar) with MrChromeBox Legacy firmware.

NAME="GalliumOS" VERSION="3.1 (Bismuth)" ID=galliumos ID_LIKE="ubuntu debian" PRETTY_NAME="GalliumOS 3.1" VERSION_ID="3.1" HOME_URL="https://galliumos.org/" SUPPORT_URL="https://galliumos.org/" BUG_REPORT_URL="https://https://github.com/GalliumOS/galliumos-distro/issues" VERSION_CODENAME=bismuth UBUNTU_CODENAME=bionic

Problem: My Elan Touchpad driver fails after some time. In my experience, this happens after many hours of usage. None of the solutions proposed in https://github.com/GalliumOS/galliumos-distro/issues/539 work for me. I didn't put this idea in that discussion because it is a hack and not a true fix and I didn't want to muddy the waters.

Since I am lucky (unlucky?) enough to only be affected after many hours (and not minutes) I decided it was best--in absence of a true fix--to simply reload the elan driver. However, doing so on a set schedule via cron job seemed inelegant. I also didn't want my touchpad to "cut out" briefly every 10 (20/30/60 or whatever) minutes. I want this reload of touchpad module to be as invisible as possible.

Solution that works for me: This band-aid works so well for me that I never experience any issues with the Elan Touchpad dying; in fact, I essentially forget that I have an issue at all.

What I do is simply reload the 'elan_i2c' driver after every "resume from sleep" using a script in "/var/systemd/system-sleep". This script will unload/load the driver when my Chromebook resumes from sleep, driven by the systemd module.

Note: this solution is similar to the "/lib/systemd/system-sleep/wifi.sh" script, which is provided by the package "galliumos-braswell". This script (also run upon resume from sleep) unloads and reloads the wifi modules.

The good stuff: Create a script named "/lib/systemd/system-sleep/reload-elan-driver". Make it executable and owned by root. Add the following:

#!/bin/sh
#
# For some ChromiumOS 3.x systems experiencing issues
# with Elan touchpad driver dying.
#
# This script reloads the elan touchpad driver after
# resume from suspend, simply to keep driver "fresh".
#
# Place this script in:
# /lib/systemd/system-sleep

tag="elan-reload"

case $1 in
  post)
    # Bounce the elan_i2c module on resume
    /sbin/modprobe -r elan_i2c && \
    /sbin/modprobe -q elan_i2c
    if test "$?" = "0" ; then
      logger -t $tag "Elan Touchpad Driver reloaded successfully"
    else
      logger -t $tag "ERROR reloading Elan Touchpad Driver!"
    fi
    ;;
esac
exit 0

Now, when your Chromebook resumes from sleep, systemd runs the above script and bounces the elan_i2c module. You should never notice it happening!

Disclosure: This may not work for you if you experience frequent touchpad failures or you rarely suspend your laptop. I use my Edgar extensively (hours every day) but rarely go longer than 4-6 hours before closing the lid or letting it suspend by itself. If your elan touchpad dies more frequently, you may consider using the above script in a different manner; eg from a shorter-interval cron job or similar.

Hope this helps!

[kinggrowler]

But! what if your Elan touchpad fails before "systemd-sleep" or a cron job gets triggered? Here is a manual fail-safe (a workaround for the above workaround...):

Create the following script, place it in your PATH and make executable:

#!/usr/bin/env bash
# filename: tpfix

/usr/bin/sudo /sbin/modprobe -r elan_i2c
rc="${?}"

if [[ "${rc}" -eq 0 ]]; then
  /usr/bin/sudo /sbin/modprobe elan_i2c
fi

exit 0

Give your $USER "sudo NOPASSWD" permissions to execute "/sbin/modprobe -r elan_i2c" and "/sbin/modprobe elan_i2c" (a file in "/etc/sudoers.d/"):

<Your_username> ALL= NOPASSWD:/sbin/modprobe -r elan_i2c, /sbin/modprobe elan_i2c

Now you can execute the above script from the command line without entering a password for sudo.

Next, assign a keyboard shortcut to this script. In XFCE, look to "Keyboard --> Application Shortcuts." On my system I assigned the following:

/home/kinggrowler/.local/share/bin/tpfix --> Ctrl-Alt-E

Now, if I need to manually reload the drivers I simply enter the keyboard combo: Ctrl-Alt-E and my elan_i2c module is reloaded.

...But my original idea above using "systemd-sleep" is so effective I never have to manually bounce the module, however for people with frequent touchpad crashes, a manual bounce may be useful.

[arusher999]

Thanks this worked great!!!

[kinggrowler]

Thanks this worked great!!!

Awesome, thanks for the feedback!

[LukeWarmpocket]

First of all, thanks so much for your input! The sleep script alone has been tremendously helpful. But I still deal with the occasional issue while I'm using the Chromebook, and I can't seem to get the manual script setup properly. I've created the script, named it tpfix, made it executable, and placed it in /home/lukewarmpocket/.local/share/bin. However, when I attempt to run

ALL= NOPASSWD:/sbin/modprobe -r elan_i2c, /sbin/modprobe elan_i2c

it returns

bash: NOPASSWD:/sbin/modprobe: No such file or directory

What am I doing wrong? I'm sorry if this is a silly question, but I've tried reading and troubleshooting on my own and came up with nothing.

[arusher999]

Wait a minute, Luke I was in your 8th grade science class!

[espoelstra]

I don't have an Edgar handy to test, but if you grep -ir elan /etc/ or specifically against /etc/udev/ does it return any results?

[LukeWarmpocket]

I don't have an Edgar handy to test, but if you grep -ir elan /etc/ or specifically against /etc/udev/ does it return any results?

Ethan, here are the results of running grep for /etc/, both with and without sudo. grep for udev returned nothing.

/etc/locale.alias:icelandic is_IS.ISO-8859-1 grep: /etc/sudoers.d/README: Permission denied grep: /etc/polkit-1/localauthority: Permission denied grep: /etc/security/opasswd: Permission denied grep: /etc/ppp/pap-secrets: Permission denied grep: /etc/ppp/chap-secrets: Permission denied grep: /etc/gshadow: Permission denied /etc/login.defs:# enable the equivelants of them. grep: /etc/ssl/private: Permission denied grep: /etc/sudoers: Permission denied /etc/sound/events/gnome-2.soundlist:description[sv]=Informativt meddelande /etc/sound/events/gnome-2.soundlist:description[sv]=Varningsmeddelande /etc/sound/events/gnome-2.soundlist:description[sv]=Felmeddelande /etc/sound/events/gnome-2.soundlist:description[sv]=Diversemeddelande grep: /etc/NetworkManager/system-connections/NETGEAR99-5G: Permission denied grep: /etc/NetworkManager/system-connections/Pixel 3 XL: Permission denied grep: /etc/NetworkManager/system-connections/NETGEAR46: Permission denied grep: /etc/NetworkManager/system-connections/NETGEAR99: Permission denied grep: /etc/.pwd.lock: Permission denied grep: /etc/shadow-: Permission denied grep: /etc/shadow: Permission denied /etc/mime.types:application/vnd.lotus-freelance grep: /etc/gshadow-: Permission denied grep: /etc/cups/subscriptions.conf.O: Permission denied grep: /etc/cups/printers.conf: Permission denied grep: /etc/cups/printers.conf.O: Permission denied grep: /etc/cups/ssl: Permission denied grep: /etc/cups/ppd/CANON-MX920.ppd: Permission denied grep: /etc/cups/classes.conf: Permission denied grep: /etc/cups/subscriptions.conf: Permission denied /etc/skel/.kodi/userdata/guisettings.xml: <subtitlelanguage `default="true">original

/etc/locale.alias:icelandic is_IS.ISO-8859-1 /etc/login.defs:# enable the equivelants of them. /etc/sound/events/gnome-2.soundlist:description[sv]=Informativt meddelande /etc/sound/events/gnome-2.soundlist:description[sv]=Varningsmeddelande /etc/sound/events/gnome-2.soundlist:description[sv]=Felmeddelande /etc/sound/events/gnome-2.soundlist:description[sv]=Diversemeddelande /etc/mime.types:application/vnd.lotus-freelance /etc/skel/.kodi/userdata/guisettings.xml: original

[kinggrowler]

Luke, I'm confused when you say you run this in bash:

ALL= NOPASSWD:/sbin/modprobe -r elan_i2c, /sbin/modprobe elan_i2c

You should not type that command, but simply add that line to your sudoers file, or create a new sudoers file in /etc/sudoers.d.

So, for example, you could create a new file in /etc/sudoers.d/luke-nopasswd, and add the following as described above:

luke ALL= NOPASSWD:/sbin/modprobe -r elan_i2c, /sbin/modprobe elan_i2c

We do this because otherwise the "luke" user does not have permission to use the modprobe command as we need.

Hope this helps!