How can I write a driver for an asus trackpad on linux?

Question

I bought a laptop and installed Linux on it and the trackpad is now not working but it was on Windows. There is no linux driver for it and I thought this could be a good project to write one.

I have read and implemented tutorials on device drivers for simple things (turning on an led on a pandaboard) but I have no idea where to start here. Related questions pointed to commands like modprobe -r psmouse and it seems the trackpad is not seen at all.

Any idea ? the laptop is : Asus R409C.

Answer 1

A temporary fix is to boot with "psmouse.proto=bare" on the kernel cmdline.

$ sudoedit /etc/default/grub

Change GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT to add psmouse.proto=bare at the end, and save your modifications.

Then:

$ sudo update-grub

And finally reboot.

Answer 2

i think linux input subsystem can be used to write driver for touchpad. Exact details need to be considered. But most of the input devices can be integrated using input subsystem.