i use an old Dell Netbook from 2009 with an Intel Atom CPU. I found antiX in the Distrowatch column of Linux Format. I had been struggling with Zenwalk for some months but had continuing & inexplicable problems with the network, was going to bin it & try Arch but thought I'd try this instead. It's certainly a lot more solid than Zenwalk!

I have, though, one major problem. The touchpad (showing as a Syn/PS2 Synaptics connected to isa0060/serio1/input0) works fine in that the cursor moves about the screen OK, it scrolls windows, I can left click and I can bring up menus by right clicking but, the minute I hold down the LH button to move anything by dragging or block some text for copying - the whole thing freezes.

Prior to putting it onto this machine, I fiddled about with antiX on my big i5 Samsung laptop{?) using VirtualBox. This certainly wasn't a problem then. I can only assume it's a Dell problem.

Any suggestions will be gratefully received.

duncan_mk

Well. since nobody is replying. I don't experience this problem on my eeepc netbooks. So I probably won't be of much help. Maybe open a terminal and type in and then try to freeze up your netbook and look in htop (try to keep it open on desktop) to see what is hogging cpu on that dell netbook.

Antix - Thanks for your reply.

I obviously wasn't quite clear in my original: the system doesn't actually"freeze". What happens is that, once I hold down the LH button, the cursor will not move. Hence I cannot move or resize windows, block text, or drag & drop. Once the LH button is released the cursor goes about its merry way as usual.

I don't think htop displays anything much (unless you know better). At rest htop shows conky and the /usr/bin/X -dpi, etc, etc using amounts varying between 1-2% of the CPU each, nothing else shows anything. When I try to move the window /usr/bin/X jumps to 3-4% and conky goes to 2-3%.

I think this may be a Dell problem. I mentioned the wlan0 problems with Zenwalk and said that antiX appeared more stable (it does) but the same problem has cropped up a couple of times today. I'm coming to the conclusion that the netbook is a bit like a dog that doesn't come up to expectations. You soldier on and realise after 3 years you should have shot the animal at birth - but by this time you have a sentimental attatchment. Eheu!

duncan_mk

ps. This was sent from antiX running from the Samsung in VirtualBox - sweet as a nut!

Further research seems to show that this IS a Dell problem. There's a lot of stuff out there and I would guess that 85% refers to the Dell trackpad - ubuntuforums.org/archive/index.php/t-1026820 has very full coverage. Some of the answers involve recompiling parts or all of the kernel!

I'll fiddle around with this for a while & let you know if I get anywhere. I think I like antiX & it's a good distro for a Netbook!

See you on the packet xclip.
Maybe it will help ... __{{emoticon}}__

Got it! On the aforementioned:

ubuntuforums.org\archive\index.php\t-1026820

I found the following from dg0yt:
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Edit (as root) / etc/modprobe.d/options and add:

options psmouse proto=bare

After the next reboot (or after reload module psmouse), the kernel driver won't test if the hardware is some sort of touchpad, but instead treat it as a generic mouse. In this mode, both the stick and the touchpad are working without strange effects.

Caveats: You cannot set any touchpad options. You loose the scrolling feature.

I found this solution when a analyzed why sometimes everything suddenly started working like it should. After a number of errors, the kernel driver decided to treat the touchpad\stick as a generic mouse.
--------------------------------------------------------------
OK, there isn't an"options" file in the antiX directory / etc/modprobe.d/ but there is a dkms.conf file (which is empty, except for the statement that it"is a stub file, should be edited when needed"). Enter the line"options psmouse=bare", save & reboot - woks for me!

Thanks to rokynjt (sorry I called you antiX)l, male & (of course} dg0yt (whoever he/she is).

duncan_mk

Thanks to rokynjt (sorry I called you antiX)

No worries, you can call me rok. Everyone else does.

Glad you got it sorted and posted what needed to be done to fix it. Not enough
users on forums take the time to post the fix. __{{emoticon}}__

For the forbidden forum post problems. Lately I have just been using
========= SCRAPER REMOVED AN EMBEDDED LINK HERE ===========
url was:"http://pastebin.com/"
linktext was:"http://pastebin.com/"
====================================
to get by the
forum site limitations on posting code.