commit a11a65b0f4b5091d319612635d4a3ec742dbe34b
parent 0ab9a33bea7e91976f6a02e27796e5f130925e3c
Author: Jake Bauer <jbauer@paritybit.ca>
Date: Tue, 19 May 2020 18:02:14 -0400
Publish new blog post
Diffstat:
9 files changed, 134 insertions(+), 2 deletions(-)
diff --git a/pages/blog.md b/pages/blog.md
@@ -20,6 +20,7 @@ href="https://social.paritybit.ca/@jbauer">Mastodon</a>.
### 2020
<ul>
+ <li>2020-05-19 <a href="blog/attempting-to-replace-my-thinkpads-touchpad">Attempting to Replace My Thinkpad's Touchpad</a></li>
<li>2020-05-18 <a href="blog/trying-out-aerc">Trying Out aerc</a></li>
<li>2020-05-17 <a href="blog/setting-up-gpg-keys-from-scratch">Setting Up GPG Keys from Scratch</a></li>
<li>2020-05-16 <a href="blog/self-hosting-email">Self-Hosting Email</a></li>
diff --git a/pages/blog/attempting-to-replace-my-thinkpads-touchpad.md b/pages/blog/attempting-to-replace-my-thinkpads-touchpad.md
@@ -0,0 +1,65 @@
+## Attempting to Replace My Thinkpad's Touchpad
+
+[//]: # "My attempt at replacing my Thinkpad T440s's touchpad with a T450s's touchpad."
+
+[//]: # "main.min.css"
+
+[//]: #
+
+<div class="byline">
+<b>Written By:</b> Jake Bauer |
+ <b>Posted:</b> 2020-05-19 |
+ <b>Last Updated:</b> 2020-05-19
+</div>
+
+_**Note:** Apologies for the awful quality of the photos in this post, it seems
+my cellphone's camera is either failing or the number of microscratches on the
+glass covering the lens is resulting in poor quality._
+
+I have a Thinkpad T440s which has a "buttonless" touchpad. Essentially, the
+entire touchpad clicks downward to make clicks and there are no separate
+touchpad keys. Although I don't mind how it works and feels (the clunk is quite
+satisfying), it doesn't feel good to use in conjunction with the trackpoint for
+which Thinkpads are famous.
+
+The T450s supposedly has a compatible touchpad which can be swapped with the
+T440s's to give the T440s the separate buttons in addition to a clickable
+touchpad. Ordering one of these cost me ~$20 CAD on eBay and it shipped from
+what appears to be a local warehouse. It arrived yesterday so I spent some time
+today fitting it into my Thinkpad:
+
+<figure>
+ <a href="/img/laptop-open-with-touchpad.jpg"><img
+ src="/img/laptop-open-with-touchpad-thumb.jpg"/></a>
+ <figcaption>My T440s with internals exposed and the new touchpad laying
+ next to it.</figcaption>
+</figure>
+
+Unfortunately, when I replaced the touchpad and put everything together, the
+touchpad was not behaving properly. Touching it would cause multiple touch
+events to fire off, phantom clicks would happen, and clicking the touchpad
+buttons would actually move the mouse instead of clicking. In an attempt to
+diagnose the problem, I set up the laptop in a way that I could swap the two
+touchpads out and see what happened in a live-booted Linux distribution:
+
+<figure>
+ <a href="/img/live-testing-touchpad.jpg"><img
+ src="/img/live-testing-touchpad-thumb.jpg"/></a>
+ <figcaption>Live testing the new touchpad with a Linux distro booted off of
+ a USB stick.</figcaption>
+</figure>
+
+It seemed that the touchpad was being correctly recognized in Ubuntu; it was
+recognized as an Alps touchpad. However, no matter what I tried, the new
+touchpad wouldn't behave properly where the original one worked just fine. I'm
+assuming that it's something to do with an incompatibility between the touchpad
+and the existing ribbon cable. I was only able to find one forum thread online
+with people experiencing similar problems, with no solutions proposed. So,
+unfortunately, I think I'll be returning this touchpad in a few days if I can't
+find a solution. It's a shame I couldn't get it to work, but ultimately I don't
+really mind the existing touchpad so it's not a big deal.
+
+_This is my twenty-fourth post for the
+[#100DaysToOffload](https://social.paritybit.ca/tags/100DaysToOffload)
+challenge. You can learn more about this challenge over at
+[https://100daystooffload.com](https://100daystooffload.com)._
diff --git a/pages/home.md b/pages/home.md
@@ -20,6 +20,8 @@ extent)! Access through `gopher://paritybit.ca` or `gemini://paritybit.ca`.
src="/img/feed-icon.png" width="15" height="15" alt="Click for RSS Feed"/>
</a>
</div>
+2020-05-19 <a class="feed-item" href="blog/attempting-to-replace-my-thinkpads-touchpad">Attempting to Replace My Thinkpad's Touchpad</a>
+
2020-05-18 <a class="feed-item" href="blog/trying-out-aerc">Trying Out aerc</a>
2020-05-17 <a class="feed-item" href="blog/setting-up-gpg-keys-from-scratch">Setting Up GPG Keys from Scratch</a>
@@ -38,8 +40,6 @@ extent)! Access through `gopher://paritybit.ca` or `gemini://paritybit.ca`.
2020-05-09 <a class="feed-item" href="blog/submitting-a-bug-report-to-freebsd">Submitting a Bug Report to FreeBSD</a>
-2020-05-08 <a class="feed-item" href="blog/cat-v-considered-harmful">Cat -v Considered Harmful</a>
-
### What is a Parity Bit?
It is a bit (in the 1's and 0's sense) used in checking for errors in digital
diff --git a/public/feeds/sitewide-feed.xml b/public/feeds/sitewide-feed.xml
@@ -7,6 +7,71 @@
<description>The feed that covers all notable additions, updates, announcements,
and other changes for the entire paritybit.ca website.</description>
<item>
+ <title>Attempting to Replace My Thinkpad's Touchpad</title>
+ <link>https://www.paritybit.ca/blog/attempting-to-replace-my-thinkpads-touchpad</link>
+ <guid>https://www.paritybit.ca/blog/attempting-to-replace-my-thinkpads-touchpad</guid>
+ <pubDate>Tue, 19 May 2020 18:01:40 -0400</pubDate>
+<description><![CDATA[<h2>Attempting to Replace My Thinkpad's Touchpad</h2>
+
+<div class="byline">
+<b>Written By:</b> Jake Bauer |
+ <b>Posted:</b> 2020-05-19 |
+ <b>Last Updated:</b> 2020-05-19
+</div>
+
+<p><em><strong>Note:</strong> Apologies for the awful quality of the photos in this post, it seems
+my cellphone's camera is either failing or the number of microscratches on the
+glass covering the lens is resulting in poor quality.</em></p>
+
+<p>I have a Thinkpad T440s which has a "buttonless" touchpad. Essentially, the
+entire touchpad clicks downward to make clicks and there are no separate
+touchpad keys. Although I don't mind how it works and feels (the clunk is quite
+satisfying), it doesn't feel good to use in conjunction with the trackpoint for
+which Thinkpads are famous.</p>
+
+<p>The T450s supposedly has a compatible touchpad which can be swapped with the
+T440s's to give the T440s the separate buttons in addition to a clickable
+touchpad. Ordering one of these cost me ~$20 CAD on eBay and it shipped from
+what appears to be a local warehouse. It arrived yesterday so I spent some time
+today fitting it into my Thinkpad:</p>
+
+<p><figure>
+ <a href="/img/laptop-open-with-touchpad.jpg"><img
+ src="/img/laptop-open-with-touchpad-thumb.jpg"/></a>
+ <figcaption>My T440s with internals exposed and the new touchpad laying
+ next to it.</figcaption>
+</figure></p>
+
+<p>Unfortunately, when I replaced the touchpad and put everything together, the
+touchpad was not behaving properly. Touching it would cause multiple touch
+events to fire off, phantom clicks would happen, and clicking the touchpad
+buttons would actually move the mouse instead of clicking. In an attempt to
+diagnose the problem, I set up the laptop in a way that I could swap the two
+touchpads out and see what happened in a live-booted Linux distribution:</p>
+
+<p><figure>
+ <a href="/img/live-testing-touchpad.jpg"><img
+ src="/img/live-testing-touchpad-thumb.jpg"/></a>
+ <figcaption>Live testing the new touchpad with a Linux distro booted off of
+ a USB stick.</figcaption>
+</figure></p>
+
+<p>It seemed that the touchpad was being correctly recognized in Ubuntu; it was
+recognized as an Alps touchpad. However, no matter what I tried, the new
+touchpad wouldn't behave properly where the original one worked just fine. I'm
+assuming that it's something to do with an incompatibility between the touchpad
+and the existing ribbon cable. I was only able to find one forum thread online
+with people experiencing similar problems, with no solutions proposed. So,
+unfortunately, I think I'll be returning this touchpad in a few days if I can't
+find a solution. It's a shame I couldn't get it to work, but ultimately I don't
+really mind the existing touchpad so it's not a big deal.</p>
+
+<p><em>This is my twenty-fourth post for the
+<a href="https://social.paritybit.ca/tags/100DaysToOffload">#100DaysToOffload</a>
+challenge. You can learn more about this challenge over at
+<a href="https://100daystooffload.com">https://100daystooffload.com</a>.</em></p>]]></description>
+</item>
+<item>
<title>Trying Out aerc</title>
<link>https://www.paritybit.ca/blog/trying-out-aerc</link>
<guid>https://www.paritybit.ca/blog/trying-out-aerc</guid>
diff --git a/public/img/laptop-open-with-touchpad-thumb.jpg b/public/img/laptop-open-with-touchpad-thumb.jpg
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diff --git a/public/img/laptop-open-with-touchpad.jpg b/public/img/laptop-open-with-touchpad.jpg
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diff --git a/public/img/live-testing-touchpad-thumb.jpg b/public/img/live-testing-touchpad-thumb.jpg
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diff --git a/public/img/live-testing-touchpad.jpg b/public/img/live-testing-touchpad.jpg
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diff --git a/public/sitemap.xml b/public/sitemap.xml
@@ -3,6 +3,7 @@
<url><loc>https://www.paritybit.ca</loc></url>
<url><loc>https://www.paritybit.ca/home</loc></url>
<url><loc>https://www.paritybit.ca/blog</loc></url>
+ <url><loc>https://www.paritybit.ca/blog/attempting-to-replace-my-thinkpads-touchpad</loc></url>
<url><loc>https://www.paritybit.ca/blog/trying-out-aerc</loc></url>
<url><loc>https://www.paritybit.ca/blog/setting-up-gpg-keys-from-scratch</loc></url>
<url><loc>https://www.paritybit.ca/blog/self-hosting-email</loc></url>
