New VoodooPS2Controller, Keyboard, Trackpad

[appleiscool]

Hi, I just noticed the weird shutdown issue, where after the screen goes blank you can still hear the fans spinning so it hasnt powered off yet.

I noticed this after unplugging the usb kb/mouse to prepare to take the laptop out into the field for testing.

what i did was unplug mouse/kb.

booted up as normal.

realised them touchpad needed tweaking.

went to sys pref to turn on mouse tap = mouse clicks.

adjusted the touchpad speed and noticed the stepping movement issue, kinda feels weird (at this point do i use rehabmans fix to solve this weird issue?)

when i went to shutdown, the screen went blank as normal, but what was not normal was the fan was spinning for at least 5 minutes while i did something else.

came back to the hackintosh, and just did the hard power off by holding down power button.

ok, i've reset the machine and powered on and logged on, and powered off or shutdown again, this time it was quick as a flash.

did i just catch a bug?


also noticed at the login screen, using the touchpad to move the mouse around it was very fast and very smooth - ie just perfect. after login the mouse movement via touchpad, the movement is completely worse. i'm not an expert on programming , but does osx have some kind of thing happen to its touchpad config b4 and after login?


cheers

I've been working on some enhancements to the keyboard and trackpad we use for our ProBook laptops. I'm not completely finished yet (when is software ever done), but I think it is worthy of release for testing at this point.

Complete details are in the README.md in the root of the github repo. Many of the changes detailed in the README are based on changes I made to the code I started with, and a few of those are not applicable to the version we have been using... but because source for that version is 'lost', I had to start with an earlier version and redo some of the same changes/bug fixes for this version.

There are complete details in the README.md, but here are the highlights that are interesting here:

- You can use the Fn+Del (SysReq) key on the built-in keyboard to toggle touchpad on/off. Touchpad LED in upper left corner will glow orange when touchpad is deactivated, and be black when it is activated. When the touchpad is deactivated, all input is thrown away (including buttons). I like to enable this when I'm using an external mouse.

- The ability for the driver to detect accidental input is much improved. It is not perfect yet, but it is better. In this version, it is also always on, regardless of the setting in Trackpad Prefs. A future version will pay attention to the trackpad pref option.

- This version seems "smoother." That is, it seems easier to move the pointer in small amounts... there is not that slight "stair stepping" effect that the previous version had. I would like to do some more work to make it even smoother in a future release (implement some sort of decaying average to eliminate spikes in the input)

Main github page with README (instructions for installing) and of course the source code:
https://github.com/RehabMan/OS-X-Voodoo-PS2-Controller

Download page:
https://github.com/RehabMan/OS-X-Voodoo-PS2-Controller/downloads
(Both Debug and Release versions are in the ZIP, but I recommend installing the Release version as the Debug version will spam your kernel.log like crazy)

I built this version last night and uploaded it then too. I see one person has already noticed and decided to download it.

But please give this a try and report back with your results.

And you might want to backup your current ApplePS2Controller.kext and AppleACPIPS2Nub.kext just in case something goes wrong.

Note: Just thought I'd mention that I have tested on 10.8.2 (Mountain Lion), but this should work on 10.7.x as well (Lion).

New Release 2012-10-11: This version fixes the WiFi button (so it doesn't change brightness) and adds some diagnostics when sending the "Identify Touchpad" command (in the case that it fails).

New Release 2012-10-13: See the change log in README.md for complete information. Highlights are bug fixing, enhanced accidental input detection when typing, and custom keyboard mapping.

New Release 2012-10-13 (late): Again, see change log in README.md for complete information. Highlights are: sleep delay, and VoodooPS2Mouse.kext working.

New Release 2012-10-15: See this post for details: http://www.tonymacx86.com/hp-probook/75649-new-voodoops2controller-keyboard-trackpad-12.html. And of course full details, updated source, wiki, and downloads on github.

 

[RehabMan]

Hi, I just noticed the weird shutdown issue, where after the screen goes blank you can still hear the fans spinning so it hasnt powered off yet.

I haven't ever had that happen. Probably it is something other than keyboard/mouse. I do have the spinner + white screen as the system pauses before shutting down sometimes, but that, I think is an Apple issue.

I noticed this after unplugging the usb kb/mouse to prepare to take the laptop out into the field for testing.

what i did was unplug mouse/kb.

booted up as normal.

realised them touchpad needed tweaking.

went to sys pref to turn on mouse tap = mouse clicks.

adjusted the touchpad speed and noticed the stepping movement issue, kinda feels weird (at this point do i use rehabmans fix to solve this weird issue?)

Well, my driver is smoother at fine movements of the trackpad. And the next version will be even smoother. Maybe you should try it...

when i went to shutdown, the screen went blank as normal, but what was not normal was the fan was spinning for at least 5 minutes while i did something else.

came back to the hackintosh, and just did the hard power off by holding down power button.

ok, i've reset the machine and powered on and logged on, and powered off or shutdown again, this time it was quick as a flash.

did i just catch a bug?

Sometimes you get quick shutdown and sometimes not (more often not). If you boot with -v you can see what is going on during shutdown, and it is waiting for some process that sounds like Apple's code...

also noticed at the login screen, using the touchpad to move the mouse around it was very fast and very smooth - ie just perfect. after login the mouse movement via touchpad, the movement is completely worse. i'm not an expert on programming , but does osx have some kind of thing happen to its touchpad config b4 and after login?
cheers

After login, you get the preferences that you set in system prefs. They are per-user. There may be other differences. Before logon is definitely different than after. I think this whole issue is how the old driver reports its resolution (I think too low), then uses a divisor internally to adjust for the numbers it gets from the pad. And then you have the multiplication going on to re-accelerate it based on system prefs. I don't really understand it all completely yet, but my hope is that I can eventually plug my mouse in and use the trackpad/mouse interchangeably without changing prefs or re-adjusting my use of the mouse/touchpad. It is close right now, but will probably be better in the next release.

So, I can't tell from your post whether you are using my driver or not, but if you aren't you should at least give it a try. You can always switch back if you don't like.

 

[RehabMan]

When I use PS2Mouse, I can't use trackpad after sleeping, it's very erratic and barely move at all. After a while and it stop moving completely. The only difference is that my trackpoint works well both before and after sleeping. Up to now, I'm using USB mouse after sleeping.
With the 1.7.4 kext, I now have problem with stuck touchpad, and I just realize that it happens not only when I click two buttons for track point, but also sometimes when I use touchpad and two buttons for trackpad two. It's nice if you include pass through toggle on info.plist on next version

So you have the sleep issue with both PS2Mouse and PS2Trackpad. I'll investigate... maybe there is something that can be done to get your trackpad to re-initialize. We'll see if I can take a guess at it...

 

[bagnolet]

When I lower the screen light to completely dark with the keyboard, I cannot bring it back with the keyboard. I have either to try to read the screen and use the Preferences Panel to light the screen or to wait for the screen or computer to go to sleep then wake it up.

 

[RehabMan]

When I lower the screen light to completely dark with the keyboard, I cannot bring it back with the keyboard. I have either to try to read the screen and use the Preferences Panel to light the screen or to wait for the screen or computer to go to sleep then wake it up.

Maybe you could describe exactly what you are doing. I tried:

- press F2 until screen goes dark
- press F3 and screen comes back

I tried both before display sleep and after.

 

[bagnolet]

Maybe you could describe exactly what you are doing. I tried:

- press F2 until screen goes dark
- press F3 and screen comes back

I tried both before display sleep and after.

Exactly what I did, pressed F2 until screen went black, pressed F3 but nothing happened.

 

[RehabMan]

Exactly what I did, pressed F2 until screen went black, pressed F3 but nothing happened.

You should probably verify key mappings. Run the debug version and verify that the keys you are pressing F2, F3 are being translated into ADB codes 0x91, and 0x90, respectively.

If you can verify that working, then your issue is caused by something else.

 

[Machanical]

I just wanted to say, thanks RehabMan. I cannot even begin to express my appreciation for your work here, first the fan-mod and then this. You are a invaluable member of this community and have improved the daily computer experience of so many people by doing this, so thanks again for your utmost amazing work and dedication, we all are really grateful.

I have a suggestion for a feature, although I am not sure if it's possible to implement it. I was checking around BetterTouchTool which modifies gestures on Apple trackpads and also enables Windows type of window maximising. Getting three-finger gestures on the HP trackpad is close to impossible as far as I understood, and so is getting BTT to work with Voodoo drivers. However the trackpad does recognise "Scroll left" and "Scroll right" as a type of gesture, and would it be possible to have a modifier key like "Fn" or "ctrl" and use scroll left/right to change spaces? It would certainly help when browsing in fullscreen or using full screened applications instead of having to move your hand from the trackpad to the left or right arrow keys. Think of it as a semi-gesture like the "Hold Ctrl + scroll to zoom" option like the Voodoo trackpad driver already has implemented.

Of course that is just a suggestion and I hope you will continue to develop this amazing piece of software in your own way. Thanks again, RehabMan. You've done the impossible.

 

[RehabMan]

I just wanted to say, thanks RehabMan. I cannot even begin to express my appreciation for your work here, first the fan-mod and then this. You are a invaluable member of this community and have improved the daily computer experience of so many people by doing this, so thanks again for your utmost amazing work and dedication, we all are really grateful.

Thanks. It really started with the fact that I couldn't use the laptop the way it was. Every time I tried to type anything significant it ended in a trip to a table where I could use a mouse and external keyboard. And I don't know how many times what I was writing was completely erased as a chunk of text got selected and then replaced by the next keystroke! I think there were a few replies that didn't go out because I didn't have the energy to re-type them. So, I'm really doing this for me too. But I'm glad you like it.

I have a suggestion for a feature, although I am not sure if it's possible to implement it. I was checking around BetterTouchTool which modifies gestures on Apple trackpads and also enables Windows type of window maximising. Getting three-finger gestures on the HP trackpad is close to impossible as far as I understood, and so is getting BTT to work with Voodoo drivers. However the trackpad does recognise "Scroll left" and "Scroll right" as a type of gesture, and would it be possible to have a modifier key like "Fn" or "ctrl" and use scroll left/right to change spaces? It would certainly help when browsing in fullscreen or using full screened applications instead of having to move your hand from the trackpad to the left or right arrow keys. Think of it as a semi-gesture like the "Hold Ctrl + scroll to zoom" option like the Voodoo trackpad driver already has implemented.

Implementing more gestures is something I can work on when I get the main parts working well... and maybe on a more relaxed schedule (there are some other things I should be doing). I'm not sure 3-finger gestures are impossible. There is 3-finger capability in the data, so there might be some possibilities assuming the data proves reliable.

Using the Fn key as a modifier for gestures is a non-starter. It is not a real key. That is, it doesn't generate a key up/key down events by itself. It only modifies the scan codes generated by other keys on the keyboard. So, as a key on the keyboard, it doesn't exist... it just makes it appear there are more keys on the keyboard than there are physically.

I was thinking of using modifier keys (ctrl, alt, shift, etc) as perhaps a way to temporarily set some of the "lock" modes. Like hold down Control during a double-tap hold to enter "drag lock" without having to change the trackpad preference. But your ideas have merit -- perhaps a configurable item at some point.

 

[appleiscool]

I haven't ever had that happen. Probably it is something other than keyboard/mouse. I do have the spinner + white screen as the system pauses before shutting down sometimes, but that, I think is an Apple issue.



Well, my driver is smoother at fine movements of the trackpad. And the next version will be even smoother. Maybe you should try it...



Sometimes you get quick shutdown and sometimes not (more often not). If you boot with -v you can see what is going on during shutdown, and it is waiting for some process that sounds like Apple's code...



After login, you get the preferences that you set in system prefs. They are per-user. There may be other differences. Before logon is definitely different than after. I think this whole issue is how the old driver reports its resolution (I think too low), then uses a divisor internally to adjust for the numbers it gets from the pad. And then you have the multiplication going on to re-accelerate it based on system prefs. I don't really understand it all completely yet, but my hope is that I can eventually plug my mouse in and use the trackpad/mouse interchangeably without changing prefs or re-adjusting my use of the mouse/touchpad. It is close right now, but will probably be better in the next release.

So, I can't tell from your post whether you are using my driver or not, but if you aren't you should at least give it a try. You can always switch back if you don't like.

thanks for your reply. at the moment i am not using your driver, as i don't even know how to install/remove it. still a noob on osx - is there guide you recommend for a quick look at install/remove drivers on osx?

as for the shutdown issues, it's weird, because only after i stopped using the laptop with an ext mouse/kb the shutdown seems to take longer time. i'll try and clean it up with ccleaner or something. maybe it can help.

almost satisfied with the laptop for daily use.

btw ubuntu is amazing, with the jupiter power management app, you can get more than 6 hours on the laptop. 4-5 hours on windows, and 4 hours on osx. quite good for extended web browsing and docs if travelling and waiting at an airport for connecting flights.