Cursor is shaky when using touchpad

[MidnightRose]

I installed Zorin on a very old laptop in 2021 after a Windows update completely wrecked it. It's only after I put Zorin on it that this issue began - the cursor is very shaky when using my laptop's touchpad. This isn't an issue when using my phone via Zorin Connect and working with it, as you can see on this screenshot - red lines are done through my touchpad, the blue are done through my phone's screen. You can also see that the issue is worse when the cursor moves diagonally.

~$ xinput list
⎡ Virtual core pointer                    	id=2	[master pointer  (3)]
⎜   ↳ Virtual core XTEST pointer              	id=4	[slave  pointer  (2)]
⎜   ↳ SynPS/2 Synaptics TouchPad              	id=11	[slave  pointer  (2)]
...

I installed the synaptics driver, and moved the libinput files out of the same folder so that only synaptics is used. The result was me not being able to use my keyboard, so I moved the libinput files back. Now both libinput and synaptics conf files are present in the folder, I rebooted my system and the cursor is still shaky, the only difference being that now I cannot use natural scrolling even though it is turned on in my settings.

Changing touchpad sensitivity doesn't work. It's less sensitive, but it's still shaky, when drawing a straight diagonal line it goes zigzag. This is especially jarring when moving app windows.

This was an issue present through Zorin 15.3 if I remember correctly, then through Zorin 16, and now in 17.2 latest version. I tried to find a solution in already existing help threads, but I didn't find anything resembling my own issue, it was usually touchpad not working or sensitivity issues.

More system information:

~$ uname -a
Linux ena-HP-250-G2-Notebook-PC 6.8.0-40-generic #40~22.04.3-Ubuntu SMP PREEMPT_DYNAMIC Tue Jul 30 17:30:19 UTC 2 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux

Device is approx. 9 years old.
Hardware model: Hewlett-Packard HP 250 G2 Notebook PC
Memory: 4 GB
Processor: Intel® Core™ i3-3110M CPU @ 2.40GHz × 4
Graphics: NVD7 / Mesa Intel® HD Graphics 4000 (IVB GT2)
Disk capacity: 500,1 GB

OS Name: Zorin OS 17.2 Core
OS type: 64-bit
Windowing system: X11

[MidnightRose]

Changed to Wayland now - the cursor is even more shaky, but natural scrolling now works.

Drawing in Wayland with my touchpad:

[Aravisian]

If it is worse on Wayland, it may be due to the difference between libinput and synaptics.

@MidnightRose

I installed the synaptics driver, and moved the libinput files out of the same folder so that only synaptics is used. The result was me not being able to use my keyboard, so I moved the libinput files back. Now both libinput and synaptics conf files are present in the folder, I rebooted my system and the cursor is still shaky,

At any point, did you try removing Synaptics completely?

sudo apt remove xserver-xorg-input-synaptics

Reboot and test.

I respond on this one out of sympathy. Urm... that would drive me crazy and seriously affect workflow.

[MidnightRose]

Thank you, I put up with this for almost 2 years :') luckily I have other devices to use, so I didn't attempt to seriously fix it until now.

I downloaded the synaptics driver about a day ago. Before that, it wasn't even on the system, just libinput. And the issue was present back then too..

[Aravisian]

I would recommend still running the terminal command to remove Synaptics, then run

xinput list

Look at the I.D for the touchpad listed. Replace Example-ID below with that numeric ID

xinput list-props example-ID

It should show libinput.

That is just to verify.

Since your machine is older, have you tried the grub parameter i8042.nopnp
at any point?

[HOW TO] add a grub parameter

There may be times that a user must add a specialized grub parameter in order to overcome an issue. The purpose of this guide is not to provide parameters, as that would be a case by case basis. It is to provide a guide on how to add one. To add a parameter, in a terminal (TTY, Recovery Prompt or Terminal Emulator) run: sudo nano /etc/default/grub Arrow key down to GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet splash" and place your parameter within the quotation tags. For example if you are adding th…

[MidnightRose]

I removed the synaptics driver and executed the xinput commands, it shows libinput in the response. I did not try adding that grub parameter before, what does it do?

[Aravisian]

@MidnightRose

I did not try adding that grub parameter before, what does it do?

The nopnp means No Plug 'N Play. This disables the PNP detection with the i8042 controller.
PNP detection on older computers can result in the system getting misleading information and this results in some erratic behavior in the cursor or touchpad.
Having it disabled causes the system to fallback to the older stable static drivers for the hardware - which likely are the best working ones.

It is worth trying...

[Aravisian]

@MidnightRose

Thank you, I put up with this for almost 2 years :') luckily I have other devices to use, so I didn't attempt to seriously fix it until now.

I have lost all sympathy, now...

[MidnightRose]

Oh no..

[MidnightRose]

I did that, no changes

[Aravisian]

Did you run sudo update-grub and then reboot and test?

[MidnightRose]

Yes I did, it's still shaky.

[Aravisian]

I am all out of experienced based ideas.
I would need to research this a bit.
I was kidding about losing sympathy, however I am currently also working and at the moment, on something a bit tedious.
I may fall back for a bit as other members suggest possible fixes and return to this in a couple hours.

[MidnightRose]

Silly old me accidentally deleted the last reply, so here it is again:

Thank you for your help, it's appreciated!

I will wait for more replies, as I have no experience fixing something like this myself

[Aravisian]

In an act of youthful rebellion, I re-clicked Like on the replacement post, in spite of you having deleted its predecessor.