ALPS tapping disabled. WHY?

["Ian E. Morgan" <imorgan@webcon.ca>]

Trying out 2.6.11-rc5, I discovered my ALPS touchpad misbehaving. After
reading several threads related to the topic, noe seemed to resolve my
issue.

The pad has always worked fine as a plain PS/2 mouse, from 2.4.0 through
2.6.10.

This change fixes the problem by NOT disabling hardware tapping:

--- linux-2.6.11-rc5/drivers/input/mouse/alps.c~	2005-02-24 18:16:03.000000000 -0500
+++ linux-2.6.11-rc5/drivers/input/mouse/alps.c	2005-02-24 18:16:03.000000000 -0500
@@ -334,8 +334,8 @@
  	if (alps_get_status(psmouse, param))
  		return -1;

-	if (param[0] & 0x04)
-		alps_tap_mode(psmouse, 0);
+//	if (param[0] & 0x04)
+//		alps_tap_mode(psmouse, 0);

  	if (alps_absolute_mode(psmouse)) {
  		printk(KERN_ERR "alps.c: Failed to enable absolute mode\n");
@@ -372,11 +372,11 @@
  		return -1;
  	}

-	if (param[0] & 0x04) {
-		printk(KERN_INFO "  Disabling hardware tapping\n");
-		if (alps_tap_mode(psmouse, 0))
-			printk(KERN_WARNING "alps.c: Failed to disable hardware tapping\n");
-	}
+//	if (param[0] & 0x04) {
+//		printk(KERN_INFO "  Disabling hardware tapping\n");
+//		if (alps_tap_mode(psmouse, 0))
+//			printk(KERN_WARNING "alps.c: Failed to disable hardware tapping\n");
+//	}

  	if (alps_absolute_mode(psmouse)) {
  		printk(KERN_ERR "alps.c: Failed to enable absolute mode\n");



So now, can anyone explain what bit 3 of param[0] does, and why you would
want to disable hardware tapping support when it's set? My pad (ALPS
56AAA1760C on a Sager NP8560V) has always worked with hardware tapping as a
plain PS/2 mouse, no special ALPS support req'd.

Can this disabling of hardware tapping support be made optional (boot time
param or other)? I don't want to have to patch every kernel from here on
out.

Regards,
Ian Morgan

-- 
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  Ian E. Morgan          Vice President & C.O.O.       Webcon, Inc.
  imorgan at webcon dot ca       PGP: #2DA40D07       www.webcon.ca
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