Last updated: 15.07.2005

Lifebook B Series Touchscreen Driver

-- for Kernel 2.6
This touchscreen driver for the Lifebook B series can only be used for kernel 2.6. It consists of two components.
  1. A kernel driver
  2. A driver for Xfree

The xfree driver

The driver for XFree is actually a evdev-driver which supports events for moving in absolute coordinates, relative coordinates and the mouse-buttons. There are rumours (and patches) for edev-support for X -- but I wasn't able to get them to work thus I wrote this driver. Maybe it is integrated with a more general evdev support for X one day. The evdev support enabled by this driver is not limited for the lifebook. In general you could use this driver for all sorts of input devices but currently only a very limited subset of events is supported.

The kernel driver

Since Kernel 2.6.11 there is a patch for the psmouse-module available. Before that the kernel driver was a standalone driver.
In general the driver for Linux Kernel is needed due to massive changes in the Linux input system since Kernel 2.6. This driver reads the protocol from the touchscreen device and translates it into linux input events which are read and interpreted by the X driver component.

Most of the driver configuration is just the same as with the old xfree-driver for kernel 2.4. The details are explained below.

Installation/Configuration

  1. Go to the Download-section get the Kernel Patch and apply it to your kernel. This is the same for the psmouse-patch and the standalone-driver. Change to your kernel source directory and do:
    gunzip -c lbtouch-version.diff.gz | patch -p1
  2. Do a
    make menuconfig
    and select the lifebook touchscreen driver as a Module (Device Drivers -> Input Device Support -> Touchscreens -> Lifebook Touchscreen).
    Warning: With the standalone driver You MUST NOT compile psmouse into the kernel
    -- you can select it as a Module if you really need it. Never load psmouse and the lbtouch Module at the same time since only the first Module loaded will work properly. If you have kernel 2.6.11 and newer this does not apply.
    3. To summarise the kernel-configuration (for kernels prior to 2.6.11). Later Kernels need only to enable the psmouse-module -- Here is the touchscreen-related part of my .config-file:
    CONFIG_INPUT=y
    CONFIG_INPUT_EVDEV=m
    CONFIG_SERIO=y
    CONFIG_SERIO_I8042=y
    CONFIG_INPUT_TOUCHSCREEN=y
    CONFIG_TOUCHSCREEN_LBTOUCH=m
  3. Download the XFree/Xorg driver and follow the installation description.

    Download

    Kernel-Driver

    Since kernel 2.6.11 the kernel-driver is just a patch for the psmouse-module. I only put it here on my web-page until it is officially integrated into the mainline kernel. This should happen with kernel 2.6.13.

    Psmouse-Patch for Kernel 2.6.12-2 psmouse-lifebook-2.6.12-2.diff.gz
    Psmouse-Patch for Kernel 2.6.11.7-2 psmouse-lifebook-2.6.11.7-2.diff.gz


    For kernels prior to 2.6.11 you have to use the standalone kernel driver below. Have a look at the CHANGELOG.
    Patch for Kernel 2.6.10 lbtouch-0.7.diff.gz
    Patch for Kernel 2.6.9 lbtouch-0.6.diff.gz
    Patch for Kernel 2.6.8.1 lbtouch-0.5.3.1.diff.gz
    Patch for Kernel 2.6.6 lbtouch-0.5.2.diff.gz
    Patch for Kernel 2.6.1 lbtouch-0.5.1.diff.gz
    Patch for Kernel 2.6.0 lbtouch-0.5.diff.gz