Pairing a logitech touchpad to a Logitech Unifying Receiver does not make it act as a pointing device

Question

I have been using a standalone Logitech touchpad with my Ubuntu desktop, and trying to pair another one to my backup desktop I learn that both of the Logitech touchpads will not function as a pointing device after being paired, at present time on my Ubuntu 20.04 machines. Not even on the desktop machine where it worked till I unpaired them to narrow down the problem. They are just not acting as pointing devices anymore after pairing/re-pairing them.

I am using Solaar for the pairing.

Here's my solaar output when both touchpads have been re-paired:

$ solaar show
Unifying Receiver
  Device path  : /dev/hidraw1
  USB id       : 046d:c52b
  Serial       : 08C4950C
    Firmware   : 12.10.B0032
    Bootloader : 02.14
    Other      : AA.AA
  Has 2 paired device(s) out of a maximum of 6.
  Notifications: wireless (0x000100)
  Device activity counters: 2=17
1: Wireless Touchpad
     Codename     : Wireless Touch
     Kind         : touchpad
     Wireless PID : 4011
     Protocol     : HID++ 2.0
     Polling rate : 8 ms (125Hz)
     Serial number: DCBF0037
     The power switch is located on the base.
     Battery: unknown (device is offline).
2: Wireless Rechargeable Touchpad T650
     Codename     : T650
     Kind         : touchpad
     Wireless PID : 4101
     Protocol     : HID++ 2.0
     Polling rate : 8 ms (125Hz)
     Serial number: E6CBD4AB
     The power switch is located on the base.
     Battery: unknown (device is offline).

This output is after it has been supposedly paired, as one can see from the "Unpair" button on the solaar GUI:

$ solaar --version
solaar 1.0.1

To reiterate, these are touchpads I had successfully acting as pointing devices until un-pairing and re-pairing today.

I got one unifying receiver dongle per each of those touchpads, so I tested all combinations and the problem is the same when trying each of the two unifying receiver dongles. The problem seems consistent across the two touchpad models (one being a T650 the other a built older to recognize now), two logitech unifying receivers and two Ubuntu 20.04 machines.

How would you approach fixing it up so that they actually work as pointing devices after pairing them?

(I'm using X11 and Gnome Shell as the windowing system, on Ubuntu 20.04 with its latest updates installed, in case it matters).

2024 Redux

Happens again. Now on Ubuntu 22.04. After it stopped working for this touchpad, I upgraded Solaar and the Solaar version is now 1.1.13. When the upgraded solaar is started on the command line, it says:

rules cannot access modifier keys in Wayland, accessing process only works on GNOME with Solaar Gnome extension installed

cannot create uinput device: "/dev/uinput" cannot be opened for writing

The file permissions of the mentioned /dev/uinput are crw------- which sounds like enough to me, as I also tried running solaar as root.

I'm on Wayland, but it used to work till yesterday. It's not the T650, but an older an better model this time around. I rely on it heavily for RSI alleviation.

Any recent related Ubuntu updates maybe?

heynnema · Accepted Answer · 2022-03-14T22:29:21.700

Your version of Solaar is antique. You have 1.0.1 and the latest is 1.1.1.

Update this way...

The easy way to install/maintain/upgrade Solaar is to use a PPA.

Add the repository...

See https://launchpad.net/~solaar-unifying/+archive/ubuntu/stable

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:solaar-unifying/stable
sudo apt-get update

Install Solaar...

sudo apt install solaar

Note: If you already have it installed, Software Updater can be used to upgrade it.

If you don't wish to see the popup window at startup...

See https://pwr-solaar.github.io/Solaar/

Solaar’s GUI can be started in several ways

--window=show (the default) starts with its main window visible,
--window=hide starts with its main window hidden,
--window=only does not use the system tray, and starts with main window visible.

For more information on Solaar’s command-line interface use the help option...

solaar --help

Extra credit

Touchégg is an app that runs in the background and transform the gestures you make on your touchpad or touchscreen into visible actions in your desktop.

See touchegg at https://github.com/JoseExposito/touchegg

Enable GNOME Shell multi-touch gestures on X11 with this extension.

See X11 Gestures at https://github.com/JoseExposito/gnome-shell-extension-x11gestures

The desktop application to configure Touchégg

See touche at https://github.com/JoseExposito/touche

Note: This requires X11, and won't work in Wayland.

Update #1:

firmware updates

Some starter info...

You might try upgrading the firmware in the Logitech unifying dongles. See https://community.logitech.com/s/question/0D531000055gw8YCAQ/logitech-response-to-unifying-receiver-research-findings for instructions and the firmware.

You might also check the USB settings in your BIOS. They may need to be set to USB 2.0, or legacy.

Lastly, you might have to plug the dongle directly into your computer's USB port, instead of a hub (if you're using one).