7 Currently the ALPS touchpad driver supports seven protocol versions in use by
8 ALPS touchpads, called versions 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 and 8.
10 Since roughly mid-2010 several new ALPS touchpads have been released and
11 integrated into a variety of laptops and netbooks. These new touchpads
12 have enough behavior differences that the alps_model_data definition
13 table, describing the properties of the different versions, is no longer
14 adequate. The design choices were to re-define the alps_model_data
15 table, with the risk of regression testing existing devices, or isolate
16 the new devices outside of the alps_model_data table. The latter design
17 choice was made. The new touchpad signatures are named: "Rushmore",
18 "Pinnacle", and "Dolphin", which you will see in the alps.c code.
19 For the purposes of this document, this group of ALPS touchpads will
20 generically be called "new ALPS touchpads".
22 We experimented with probing the ACPI interface _HID (Hardware ID)/_CID
23 (Compatibility ID) definition as a way to uniquely identify the
24 different ALPS variants but there did not appear to be a 1:1 mapping.
25 In fact, it appeared to be an m:n mapping between the _HID and actual
31 All ALPS touchpads should respond to the "E6 report" command sequence:
32 E8-E6-E6-E6-E9. An ALPS touchpad should respond with either 00-00-0A or
33 00-00-64 if no buttons are pressed. The bits 0-2 of the first byte will be 1s
34 if some buttons are pressed.
36 If the E6 report is successful, the touchpad model is identified using the "E7
37 report" sequence: E8-E7-E7-E7-E9. The response is the model signature and is
38 matched against known models in the alps_model_data_array.
40 For older touchpads supporting protocol versions 3 and 4, the E7 report
41 model signature is always 73-02-64. To differentiate between these
42 versions, the response from the "Enter Command Mode" sequence must be
43 inspected as described below.
45 The new ALPS touchpads have an E7 signature of 73-03-50 or 73-03-0A but
46 seem to be better differentiated by the EC Command Mode response.
51 Protocol versions 3 and 4 have a command mode that is used to read and write
52 one-byte device registers in a 16-bit address space. The command sequence
53 EC-EC-EC-E9 places the device in command mode, and the device will respond
54 with 88-07 followed by a third byte. This third byte can be used to determine
55 whether the devices uses the version 3 or 4 protocol.
57 To exit command mode, PSMOUSE_CMD_SETSTREAM (EA) is sent to the touchpad.
59 While in command mode, register addresses can be set by first sending a
60 specific command, either EC for v3 devices or F5 for v4 devices. Then the
61 address is sent one nibble at a time, where each nibble is encoded as a
62 command with optional data. This encoding differs slightly between the v3 and
65 Once an address has been set, the addressed register can be read by sending
66 PSMOUSE_CMD_GETINFO (E9). The first two bytes of the response contains the
67 address of the register being read, and the third contains the value of the
68 register. Registers are written by writing the value one nibble at a time
69 using the same encoding used for addresses.
71 For the new ALPS touchpads, the EC command is used to enter command
72 mode. The response in the new ALPS touchpads is significantly different,
73 and more important in determining the behavior. This code has been
74 separated from the original alps_model_data table and put in the
75 alps_identify function. For example, there seem to be two hardware init
76 sequences for the "Dolphin" touchpads as determined by the second byte
82 In the following tables, the following notation is used::
84 CAPITALS = stick, miniscules = touchpad
86 ?'s can have different meanings on different models, such as wheel rotation,
87 extra buttons, stick buttons on a dualpoint, etc.
94 byte 0: 0 0 YSGN XSGN 1 M R L
95 byte 1: X7 X6 X5 X4 X3 X2 X1 X0
96 byte 2: Y7 Y6 Y5 Y4 Y3 Y2 Y1 Y0
98 Note that the device never signals overflow condition.
100 For protocol version 2 devices when the trackpoint is used, and no fingers
101 are on the touchpad, the M R L bits signal the combined status of both the
102 pointingstick and touchpad buttons.
104 ALPS Absolute Mode - Protocol Version 1
105 ---------------------------------------
109 byte 0: 1 0 0 0 1 x9 x8 x7
110 byte 1: 0 x6 x5 x4 x3 x2 x1 x0
111 byte 2: 0 ? ? l r ? fin ges
112 byte 3: 0 ? ? ? ? y9 y8 y7
113 byte 4: 0 y6 y5 y4 y3 y2 y1 y0
114 byte 5: 0 z6 z5 z4 z3 z2 z1 z0
116 ALPS Absolute Mode - Protocol Version 2
117 ---------------------------------------
121 byte 0: 1 ? ? ? 1 PSM PSR PSL
122 byte 1: 0 x6 x5 x4 x3 x2 x1 x0
123 byte 2: 0 x10 x9 x8 x7 ? fin ges
124 byte 3: 0 y9 y8 y7 1 M R L
125 byte 4: 0 y6 y5 y4 y3 y2 y1 y0
126 byte 5: 0 z6 z5 z4 z3 z2 z1 z0
128 Protocol Version 2 DualPoint devices send standard PS/2 mouse packets for
129 the DualPoint Stick. The M, R and L bits signal the combined status of both
130 the pointingstick and touchpad buttons, except for Dell dualpoint devices
131 where the pointingstick buttons get reported separately in the PSM, PSR
134 Dualpoint device -- interleaved packet format
135 ---------------------------------------------
139 byte 0: 1 1 0 0 1 1 1 1
140 byte 1: 0 x6 x5 x4 x3 x2 x1 x0
141 byte 2: 0 x10 x9 x8 x7 0 fin ges
142 byte 3: 0 0 YSGN XSGN 1 1 1 1
143 byte 4: X7 X6 X5 X4 X3 X2 X1 X0
144 byte 5: Y7 Y6 Y5 Y4 Y3 Y2 Y1 Y0
145 byte 6: 0 y9 y8 y7 1 m r l
146 byte 7: 0 y6 y5 y4 y3 y2 y1 y0
147 byte 8: 0 z6 z5 z4 z3 z2 z1 z0
149 Devices which use the interleaving format normally send standard PS/2 mouse
150 packets for the DualPoint Stick + ALPS Absolute Mode packets for the
151 touchpad, switching to the interleaved packet format when both the stick and
152 the touchpad are used at the same time.
154 ALPS Absolute Mode - Protocol Version 3
155 ---------------------------------------
157 ALPS protocol version 3 has three different packet formats. The first two are
158 associated with touchpad events, and the third is associated with trackstick
161 The first type is the touchpad position packet::
163 byte 0: 1 ? x1 x0 1 1 1 1
164 byte 1: 0 x10 x9 x8 x7 x6 x5 x4
165 byte 2: 0 y10 y9 y8 y7 y6 y5 y4
166 byte 3: 0 M R L 1 m r l
167 byte 4: 0 mt x3 x2 y3 y2 y1 y0
168 byte 5: 0 z6 z5 z4 z3 z2 z1 z0
170 Note that for some devices the trackstick buttons are reported in this packet,
171 and on others it is reported in the trackstick packets.
173 The second packet type contains bitmaps representing the x and y axes. In the
174 bitmaps a given bit is set if there is a finger covering that position on the
175 given axis. Thus the bitmap packet can be used for low-resolution multi-touch
176 data, although finger tracking is not possible. This packet also encodes the
177 number of contacts (f1 and f0 in the table below)::
179 byte 0: 1 1 x1 x0 1 1 1 1
180 byte 1: 0 x8 x7 x6 x5 x4 x3 x2
181 byte 2: 0 y7 y6 y5 y4 y3 y2 y1
182 byte 3: 0 y10 y9 y8 1 1 1 1
183 byte 4: 0 x14 x13 x12 x11 x10 x9 y0
184 byte 5: 0 1 ? ? ? ? f1 f0
186 This packet only appears after a position packet with the mt bit set, and
187 usually only appears when there are two or more contacts (although
188 occasionally it's seen with only a single contact).
190 The final v3 packet type is the trackstick packet::
192 byte 0: 1 1 x7 y7 1 1 1 1
193 byte 1: 0 x6 x5 x4 x3 x2 x1 x0
194 byte 2: 0 y6 y5 y4 y3 y2 y1 y0
195 byte 3: 0 1 0 0 1 0 0 0
196 byte 4: 0 z4 z3 z2 z1 z0 ? ?
197 byte 5: 0 0 1 1 1 1 1 1
199 ALPS Absolute Mode - Protocol Version 4
200 ---------------------------------------
202 Protocol version 4 has an 8-byte packet format::
204 byte 0: 1 ? x1 x0 1 1 1 1
205 byte 1: 0 x10 x9 x8 x7 x6 x5 x4
206 byte 2: 0 y10 y9 y8 y7 y6 y5 y4
207 byte 3: 0 1 x3 x2 y3 y2 y1 y0
208 byte 4: 0 ? ? ? 1 ? r l
209 byte 5: 0 z6 z5 z4 z3 z2 z1 z0
210 byte 6: bitmap data (described below)
211 byte 7: bitmap data (described below)
213 The last two bytes represent a partial bitmap packet, with 3 full packets
214 required to construct a complete bitmap packet. Once assembled, the 6-byte
215 bitmap packet has the following format::
217 byte 0: 0 1 x7 x6 x5 x4 x3 x2
218 byte 1: 0 x1 x0 y4 y3 y2 y1 y0
219 byte 2: 0 0 ? x14 x13 x12 x11 x10
220 byte 3: 0 x9 x8 y9 y8 y7 y6 y5
221 byte 4: 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
222 byte 5: 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 y10
224 There are several things worth noting here.
226 1) In the bitmap data, bit 6 of byte 0 serves as a sync byte to
227 identify the first fragment of a bitmap packet.
229 2) The bitmaps represent the same data as in the v3 bitmap packets, although
230 the packet layout is different.
232 3) There doesn't seem to be a count of the contact points anywhere in the v4
233 protocol packets. Deriving a count of contact points must be done by
234 analyzing the bitmaps.
236 4) There is a 3 to 1 ratio of position packets to bitmap packets. Therefore
237 MT position can only be updated for every third ST position update, and
238 the count of contact points can only be updated every third packet as
241 So far no v4 devices with tracksticks have been encountered.
243 ALPS Absolute Mode - Protocol Version 5
244 ---------------------------------------
245 This is basically Protocol Version 3 but with different logic for packet
246 decode. It uses the same alps_process_touchpad_packet_v3 call with a
247 specialized decode_fields function pointer to correctly interpret the
248 packets. This appears to only be used by the Dolphin devices.
250 For single-touch, the 6-byte packet format is::
252 byte 0: 1 1 0 0 1 0 0 0
253 byte 1: 0 x6 x5 x4 x3 x2 x1 x0
254 byte 2: 0 y6 y5 y4 y3 y2 y1 y0
255 byte 3: 0 M R L 1 m r l
256 byte 4: y10 y9 y8 y7 x10 x9 x8 x7
257 byte 5: 0 z6 z5 z4 z3 z2 z1 z0
259 For mt, the format is::
261 byte 0: 1 1 1 n3 1 n2 n1 x24
262 byte 1: 1 y7 y6 y5 y4 y3 y2 y1
263 byte 2: ? x2 x1 y12 y11 y10 y9 y8
264 byte 3: 0 x23 x22 x21 x20 x19 x18 x17
265 byte 4: 0 x9 x8 x7 x6 x5 x4 x3
266 byte 5: 0 x16 x15 x14 x13 x12 x11 x10
268 ALPS Absolute Mode - Protocol Version 6
269 ---------------------------------------
271 For trackstick packet, the format is::
273 byte 0: 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1
274 byte 1: 0 X6 X5 X4 X3 X2 X1 X0
275 byte 2: 0 Y6 Y5 Y4 Y3 Y2 Y1 Y0
276 byte 3: ? Y7 X7 ? ? M R L
277 byte 4: Z7 Z6 Z5 Z4 Z3 Z2 Z1 Z0
278 byte 5: 0 1 1 1 1 1 1 1
280 For touchpad packet, the format is::
282 byte 0: 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1
283 byte 1: 0 0 0 0 x3 x2 x1 x0
284 byte 2: 0 0 0 0 y3 y2 y1 y0
285 byte 3: ? x7 x6 x5 x4 ? r l
286 byte 4: ? y7 y6 y5 y4 ? ? ?
287 byte 5: z7 z6 z5 z4 z3 z2 z1 z0
289 (v6 touchpad does not have middle button)
291 ALPS Absolute Mode - Protocol Version 7
292 ---------------------------------------
294 For trackstick packet, the format is::
296 byte 0: 0 1 0 0 1 0 0 0
297 byte 1: 1 1 * * 1 M R L
298 byte 2: X7 1 X5 X4 X3 X2 X1 X0
299 byte 3: Z6 1 Y6 X6 1 Y2 Y1 Y0
300 byte 4: Y7 0 Y5 Y4 Y3 1 1 0
301 byte 5: T&P 0 Z5 Z4 Z3 Z2 Z1 Z0
303 For touchpad packet, the format is::
305 packet-fmt b7 b6 b5 b4 b3 b2 b1 b0
306 byte 0: TWO & MULTI L 1 R M 1 Y0-2 Y0-1 Y0-0
307 byte 0: NEW L 1 X1-5 1 1 Y0-2 Y0-1 Y0-0
308 byte 1: Y0-10 Y0-9 Y0-8 Y0-7 Y0-6 Y0-5 Y0-4 Y0-3
309 byte 2: X0-11 1 X0-10 X0-9 X0-8 X0-7 X0-6 X0-5
310 byte 3: X1-11 1 X0-4 X0-3 1 X0-2 X0-1 X0-0
311 byte 4: TWO X1-10 TWO X1-9 X1-8 X1-7 X1-6 X1-5 X1-4
312 byte 4: MULTI X1-10 TWO X1-9 X1-8 X1-7 X1-6 Y1-5 1
313 byte 4: NEW X1-10 TWO X1-9 X1-8 X1-7 X1-6 0 0
314 byte 5: TWO & NEW Y1-10 0 Y1-9 Y1-8 Y1-7 Y1-6 Y1-5 Y1-4
315 byte 5: MULTI Y1-10 0 Y1-9 Y1-8 Y1-7 Y1-6 F-1 F-0
318 R / M: Non-clickpads: Right / Middle button
319 Clickpads: When > 2 fingers are down, and some fingers
320 are in the button area, then the 2 coordinates reported
321 are for fingers outside the button area and these report
322 extra fingers being present in the right / left button
323 area. Note these fingers are not added to the F field!
324 so if a TWO packet is received and R = 1 then there are
326 TWO: 1: Two touches present, byte 0/4/5 are in TWO fmt
327 0: If byte 4 bit 0 is 1, then byte 0/4/5 are in MULTI fmt
328 otherwise byte 0 bit 4 must be set and byte 0/4/5 are
330 F: Number of fingers - 3, 0 means 3 fingers, 1 means 4 ...
333 ALPS Absolute Mode - Protocol Version 8
334 ---------------------------------------
336 Spoken by SS4 (73 03 14) and SS5 (73 03 28) hardware.
338 The packet type is given by the APD field, bits 4-5 of byte 3.
340 Touchpad packet (APD = 0x2)::
342 b7 b6 b5 b4 b3 b2 b1 b0
343 byte 0: SWM SWR SWL 1 1 0 0 X7
344 byte 1: 0 X6 X5 X4 X3 X2 X1 X0
345 byte 2: 0 Y6 Y5 Y4 Y3 Y2 Y1 Y0
346 byte 3: 0 T&P 1 0 1 0 0 Y7
347 byte 4: 0 Z6 Z5 Z4 Z3 Z2 Z1 Z0
348 byte 5: 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
350 SWM, SWR, SWL: Middle, Right, and Left button states
352 Touchpad 1 Finger packet (APD = 0x0)::
354 b7 b6 b5 b4 b3 b2 b1 b0
355 byte 0: SWM SWR SWL 1 1 X2 X1 X0
356 byte 1: X9 X8 X7 1 X6 X5 X4 X3
357 byte 2: 0 X11 X10 LFB Y3 Y2 Y1 Y0
358 byte 3: Y5 Y4 0 0 1 TAPF2 TAPF1 TAPF0
359 byte 4: Zv7 Y11 Y10 1 Y9 Y8 Y7 Y6
360 byte 5: Zv6 Zv5 Zv4 0 Zv3 Zv2 Zv1 Zv0
365 Touchpad 2 Finger packet (APD = 0x1)::
367 b7 b6 b5 b4 b3 b2 b1 b0
368 byte 0: SWM SWR SWL 1 1 AX6 AX5 AX4
369 byte 1: AX11 AX10 AX9 AX8 AX7 AZ1 AY4 AZ0
370 byte 2: AY11 AY10 AY9 CONT AY8 AY7 AY6 AY5
371 byte 3: 0 0 0 1 1 BX6 BX5 BX4
372 byte 4: BX11 BX10 BX9 BX8 BX7 BZ1 BY4 BZ0
373 byte 5: BY11 BY10 BY9 0 BY8 BY7 BY5 BY5
375 CONT: A 3-or-4 Finger packet is to follow
377 Touchpad 3-or-4 Finger packet (APD = 0x3)::
379 b7 b6 b5 b4 b3 b2 b1 b0
380 byte 0: SWM SWR SWL 1 1 AX6 AX5 AX4
381 byte 1: AX11 AX10 AX9 AX8 AX7 AZ1 AY4 AZ0
382 byte 2: AY11 AY10 AY9 OVF AY8 AY7 AY6 AY5
383 byte 3: 0 0 1 1 1 BX6 BX5 BX4
384 byte 4: BX11 BX10 BX9 BX8 BX7 BZ1 BY4 BZ0
385 byte 5: BY11 BY10 BY9 0 BY8 BY7 BY5 BY5
387 OVF: 5th finger detected