Why Touchpad of Zenbook UX31 not working?

Question

The capabilities of the touchpad on the new ASUS UX31 Zenbook leave much to be desired. The touchpad works like a mouse, but no vertical or horizontal scrolling. I contacted a developer who works for Sentelic. He said:

Unless driver does some non-trivial works based on coordinates output, I'm afraid that it won't have scrolling support at this moment.

and

Windows driver does scrolling in driver where current Linux driver doesn't have such feature, yet. Additionaly, given that the resource is quite limited at this moment, I'm afraid that there is no firm schedule for scrolling support in Linux driver.

How can we get this driver to do some "non-trivial works based on coordinate output"?

Hardware: Asus Zenbook UX31
Touchpad: Sentelic

Solution 1

I asked Asus in Australia about whether they can say whether a particular system has the Sentelic or Elantech pad. They stated you can tell from the serial number. So I got a number from the reseller and Asus said it was an Elantech. I bought it and no, it had a Sentelic.

Asus now says you can't tell. So I returned it and got a Samsung series 7. Unfortunately.

Solution 2

i've installed Linux Kernel 3.2 rc2 today on my ASUS UX31 Zenbook and the Elantech Touchpad i've built in gets detected correctly and works as expected.

it seems that there are two versions of the zenbook, one with Sentelic and one with Elantech touchpad.

Solution 3

Currently these are your only options:

1. Build your own kernel

You can get a well functioning Sentelic touchpad by installing custom drivers into the kernel. This is a challenging task, but is detailed by a fellow Zenbook owner. The author has also made a script to automate this process.

2. Install somebody else's custom kernel

Another option is to use a pre-built custom kernel compiled with this support. Another Zenbook owner has posted a kernel here. (Though at the time of posting it seems the site is down.)

3. Wait patiently

According to the Ubuntu community wiki page for this laptop, support is a work in progress. It's possible that driver support will become part of the standard kernel in some time.

EDIT This last option is now viable. Patches are being merged into the kernel.

Comments

[Admin]

If you're on Windows and want to check which touchpad you have before installing Ubuntu it's as simple as: Mouse --> Hardware and then you can see "Manufacturer:"

[FindOut_Quran]

scrolling and multitouch is working out of the box but unfortunatly pressing the left bottom button and then moving the mouse is not working as expected. so at this moment it's not possible to eg. select text. emulating the middle button for pasting works with tapping with two fingers.

[Michael Gundlach]

Welcome to Ask Ubuntu! Whilst this may theoretically answer the question, it would be preferable to include the essential parts of the answer here, and provide the link for reference.