Here, for example, is the beginning of the output for evtest on my XPS 9360. I'm not sure if ABS_PRESSURE and/or ABS_MT_PRESSURE are supposed to show up here as supported events, but I would imagine so. For the XPS 9360 touchpad to be able to have sensitivity settings set, it would need to be generating pressure data. As evtest logs events with my touchpad, the events indicated below are indeed shown as I swipe and click, but ABS_MT_PRESSURE never shows up.

> sudo evtest /dev/input/event16
[sudo] password for root:
Input driver version is 1.0.1
Input device ID: bus 0x18 vendor 0x6cb product 0x76af version 0x100
Input device name: "DLL075B:01 06CB:76AF Touchpad"
Supported events:
  Event type 0 (EV_SYN)
  Event type 1 (EV_KEY)
    Event code 272 (BTN_LEFT)
    Event code 325 (BTN_TOOL_FINGER)
    Event code 328 (BTN_TOOL_QUINTTAP)
    Event code 330 (BTN_TOUCH)
    Event code 333 (BTN_TOOL_DOUBLETAP)
    Event code 334 (BTN_TOOL_TRIPLETAP)
    Event code 335 (BTN_TOOL_QUADTAP)
  Event type 3 (EV_ABS)
    Event code 0 (ABS_X)
      Value    616
      Min        0
      Max     1216
      Resolution      12
    Event code 1 (ABS_Y)
      Value    294
      Min        0
      Max      680
      Resolution      12
    Event code 47 (ABS_MT_SLOT)
      Value      0
      Min        0
      Max        4
    Event code 53 (ABS_MT_POSITION_X)
      Value      0
      Min        0
      Max     1216
      Resolution      12
    Event code 54 (ABS_MT_POSITION_Y)
      Value      0
      Min        0
      Max      680
      Resolution      12
    Event code 57 (ABS_MT_TRACKING_ID)
      Value      0
      Min        0
      Max    65535
Properties:
  Property type 0 (INPUT_PROP_POINTER)
  Property type 2 (INPUT_PROP_BUTTONPAD)
Testing ... (interrupt to exit)

Hi, I just got the Dell XPS 13 DE, running 16.04 LTS.

I'm having major problems with my wireless performance. While the connection is stable, I am seeing really low bit rates of 1 Mb/s. This problem is reproducible for other infrastructure that I connect to at my university and research lab.

Here is the iwconfig info:

wlp58s0   IEEE 802.11abgn  ESSID:"Cafe1807"  

         Mode:Managed  Frequency:2.442 GHz  Access Point: 30:46:9A:45:2A:90  

         Bit Rate=1 Mb/s   Tx-Power=20 dBm  

         Retry short limit:7   RTS thr:off   Fragment thr:off

         Power Management:on

         Link Quality=48/70  Signal level=-62 dBm  

         Rx invalid nwid:0  Rx invalid crypt:0  Rx invalid frag:0

         Tx excessive retries:0  Invalid misc:182   Missed beacon:0

I believe this is with the killer wireless from Qualcomm/Atheros (reported by lspci):

3a:00.0 Network controller: Qualcomm Atheros QCA6174 802.11ac Wireless Network Adapter (rev 32)

Am I going insane or is anyone else seeing this? This is such a great laptop, but I cannot do anything serious because of this networking issue.

I also tried to do an update of linux-firmware (including just trying to reinstall) but it doesn't seem to fix the issue. Luckily, it doesn't seem to break things further.

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

This is also for Dell customer support. This is a brand new laptop. When I go to the web site and enter the service tag, I am told that no warranty support is available. Isn't this system under a basic warranty at least a few days after one receives it??

Are you sure that the 1Mb/s is not just a report rather than the real upper rate? Ie, a bug in reporting rather than actual performance. I certainly have gotten over 1MB/s  whith MB=Mega Byte, Mb=Mega bit)

I have also had trouble putting in the right thing they want for the warrenty support, anid it reporting no support (I have 3 year including accident replacement)

I believe that the standard minimal warrantee is 1 year.

I recommend updating to a recent mainline kernel no matter if you are stuck on 16.04 or have already made the jump to 16.10. This hardware is still a bit new to be well supported by kernels prior to 4.9. Since 4.9 is now a longterm kernel, I'll probably just stick to this series until there is some other reason to upgrade.

The Atheros firmware never reported an accurate Bit Rate for me. I used netperf (or similar tool) to a local wired computer to get accurate throughput numbers.

I was wondering if you ever got the touchpad to work as you like.  I too came from OSX and the trackpad does drive me a bit crazy.  It seems like I have an OK combination here but think I can do better.  

Option "PalmDetect" "1"

Option "PalmMinWidth" "4"

Option "PalmMinZ" "50"

Option "AreaRightEdge" "900"

Thanks!

I've not been able to get the touchpad to work right, for my tastes. I find the physical click mechanism too stiff (demands too much pressure). But I haven't for the life of me been able to get any pressure-related touchpad settings to work. I can set them and tweak them, but they have no effect on the operation. The touchpad remains so sensitive when it comes to tapping, yet stiff when it comes to physical clicking. I've tried different distros (opensuse, mint), and different desktop environments (kde plasma, lxde, mate) to no avail.

Seems completely absurd that such an expensive machine, supposedly leading edge, can't expose such basic properties like touchpad pressure settings. With my 7-year old $300 toshiba it's a breeze, and with my old $400 asus, too. I haven't seen any indications that anyone has been able to configure these settings. I'm going to ask, though, in a dedicated thread. I might sell the 9360 XPS 13, because the touchpad is just always this annoying layer between me and whatever I'm doing with the machine.

Hi @piattj,

The team read through your posts and below are some items we would like to clarify and some initial approaches.

1. We would like to confirm that palm detection is the major pain point.

2. If this is the case, our first thought is that it might be necessary to redirect ourselves away from this particular output on the touchpad, ABS_MT_PRESSURE: (resource on what it is: www.kernel.org/.../multi-touch-protocol.txt)

3. To address issues with cursors acting unpredictably in Ubuntu 16.04, we disable the PS/2 driver.  This change made on a fresh install, Ubuntu will then default to the I2C driver for advanced functionality and customization options.  This link has steps to address this issue: www.dell.com/.../erratic-cursor-movement-on-the-xps-13-15-series-laptops-and-precision-mobile-workstations-with-ubuntu-1604-installed

Please let us know if we are on the right track and if the above helps.

thanks

[Really don't know what this character limit is about, but I'll have to post in several installments...]

PART 1/3

As to Q1, I'm not sure what you mean. The touchpad interprets the slightest graze as a click when I have tap-to-click enabled. These grazes come from my right index finger (I'm right handed), not my palm. There is no way to alter this on the XPS13 9360, except by turning off tap-to-click, which leaves me with the stiff physical click mechanism. This means trouble, because you have a situation where moving the cursor around is very sensitive, but clicking (physically) demands force. Fine control is lost, or demands too much mental attention to prevent unwanted cursor movements en route to the hard click. On the other hand, if you mean that the some of the same underlying properties or events feed both palm-detection and click-sensitivity settings, and that therefore we can talk about palm detection when the user's problem is experienced as click sensitivity, then maybe yes.

As to Q2, when I disable the DLL... touchpad by ignoring it, I get only the SynPS/2 touchpad listed with xinput. All the sensitivity settings are then available, though the touchpad becomes non-functional. By available, I mean that sensitivity/pressure settings show up in the touchpad settings gui in KDE Plasma. That is, in "Configure Desktop > Input Devices > Touchpad," the "Pointer Motion > Pressure-Dependent Motion" settings and "Sensitivity > Sensitivity" settings are miraculously available to be set, i.e. are no longer greyed out as they are when the DLL... touchpad is active. The "Sensitivity" settings here are "Pressure for detecting a touch" and "Pressure for detecting a release," which correspond exactly to the FingerHigh and FingerLow values that the synaptics driver handles. With the touchpad operational through DLL..., I can set these values with synclient to my heart's content (but not with the gui), but the settings have no effect on the touchpad's operation.

Here's a comparison of evemu-record output, one for SynPS/2 (when the DLL... touchpad is ignored), the other for DLL... (when the SynPS/2 touchpad is ignored). As you can see, several events are supported when SynPS/2 is active, that are not available when DLL is active. It's highly likely that the availability of these extra events, or some combination of them, with SynPS/2 in control (ABS_PRESSURE, ABS_TOOL_WIDTH, and ABS_MT_PRESSURE) are what cause the sensitivity and pressure-related settings in the gui to show up when the SynPS/2 touchpad is active. But again, when the SynPS/2 touchpad is active, the touchpad is non-functional.

[ see next post... ]

PART 2/3

troodon@linux-io1y:~sudo evtest /dev/input/event1 Input driver version is 1.0.1
 Input device ID: bus 0x11 vendor 0x2 product 0x7 version 0x1a1
 Input device name: "SynPS/2 Synaptics TouchPad"
 Supported events:
   Event type 0 (EV_SYN)
   Event type 1 (EV_KEY)
     Event code 272 (BTN_LEFT)
     Event code 325 (BTN_TOOL_FINGER)
     Event code 328 (BTN_TOOL_QUINTTAP)
     Event code 330 (BTN_TOUCH)
     Event code 333 (BTN_TOOL_DOUBLETAP)
     Event code 334 (BTN_TOOL_TRIPLETAP)
     Event code 335 (BTN_TOOL_QUADTAP)
   Event type 3 (EV_ABS)
     Event code 0 (ABS_X)
       Value      0
       Min     1276
       Max     5666
     Event code 1 (ABS_Y)
       Value      0
       Min     1118
       Max     4734
     Event code 24 (ABS_PRESSURE)
       Value      0
       Min        0
       Max      255
     Event code 28 (ABS_TOOL_WIDTH)
       Value      0
       Min        0
       Max       15
     Event code 47 (ABS_MT_SLOT)
       Value      0
       Min        0
       Max        1
     Event code 53 (ABS_MT_POSITION_X)
       Value      0
       Min     1276
       Max     5666
     Event code 54 (ABS_MT_POSITION_Y)
       Value      0
       Min     1118
       Max     4734
     Event code 57 (ABS_MT_TRACKING_ID)
       Value      0
       Min        0
       Max    65535
     Event code 58 (ABS_MT_PRESSURE)
       Value      0
       Min        0
       Max      255
 Properties:
   Property type 0 (INPUT_PROP_POINTER)
   Property type 2 (INPUT_PROP_BUTTONPAD)
 Testing ... (interrupt to exit)


 troodon@linux-io1y:~> sudo evtest /dev/input/event19

 Input driver version is 1.0.1
 Input device ID: bus 0x18 vendor 0x6cb product 0x76af version 0x100
 Input device name: "DLL075B:01 06CB:76AF Touchpad"
 Supported events:
   Event type 0 (EV_SYN)
   Event type 1 (EV_KEY)
     Event code 272 (BTN_LEFT)
     Event code 325 (BTN_TOOL_FINGER)
     Event code 328 (BTN_TOOL_QUINTTAP)
     Event code 330 (BTN_TOUCH)
     Event code 333 (BTN_TOOL_DOUBLETAP)
     Event code 334 (BTN_TOOL_TRIPLETAP)
     Event code 335 (BTN_TOOL_QUADTAP)
   Event type 3 (EV_ABS)
     Event code 0 (ABS_X)
       Value    733
       Min        0
       Max     1216
       Resolution      12
     Event code 1 (ABS_Y)
       Value    383
       Min        0
       Max      680
       Resolution      12
     Event code 47 (ABS_MT_SLOT)
       Value      0
       Min        0
       Max        4
     Event code 53 (ABS_MT_POSITION_X)
       Value      0
       Min        0
       Max     1216
       Resolution      12
     Event code 54 (ABS_MT_POSITION_Y)
       Value      0
       Min        0
       Max      680
       Resolution      12
     Event code 57 (ABS_MT_TRACKING_ID)
       Value      0
       Min        0
       Max    65535
 Properties:
   Property type 0 (INPUT_PROP_POINTER)
   Property type 2 (INPUT_PROP_BUTTONPAD)
 Testing ... (interrupt to exit) 

[ see next post... ]

NEVER MIND. I give up. I've been trying to post a 3-part response, in order to get around Dell's character or line limit on these forums, and can't even get minimal formatting issues to work right. What a coincidence that the forums, where people raise issues and PROBLEMS with Dell products, don't even meet minimal standards of usability. I've been working for an hour and a half to respond to your questions in detailed, systematic way. Half hour writing, and an hour just trying to get the text to show up in a post. What a horrendous forum this is, clearly designed so that people can't post. Even non-tech related forums I'm on (guitar-playing, preschool education, woodcarving) work better than this. C plus R plus A plus P. Dell is wasting my time, after I wasted my money on this XPS with the brick touchpad.

@Piattj,

Mr. Barton George brought me your question/thread. You're welcome to send me a friend request including your service tag and contact information. I'll be happy to review and check into any support options we have.

@piattj,  I apologize for your experience.  To make sure that we properly address your issue I have asked Justin to reach out so we can officially track it and better support you.

Thanks for your patience

Have there been fixes? I still experience the palm detection as a pain point on my XPS13-9350.