HP 6910P - X server doesn't start when lid closed or docked

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Environment

SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 10 Support Pack 2

Situation

On a HP 6910P laptop the X server does not start when the lid is closed - e.g. to use an external screen without a mouse connected - or the machine is docked. Even adding the "AllowMouseOpenFail" option in the X server's configuration file does not help.

Resolution

Open the X server's configuration file as server administrator (root):

/etc/X11/xorg.conf

Find the Mouse[x] input device declared in InputDevice sections looking similar to this where the Name field says IBM;TPPS/2 TrackPoint:

Section "InputDevice"
Identifier   "Mouse[3]"
[...]
Option       "Name""IBM;TPPS/2 TrackPoint"
[...]
EndSection

In this example it is Mouse[3]. Remember this identifier.

Now look for the ServerLayout section, looking similar to this:

Section "ServerLayout"
Identifier   "Layout[all]"
InputDevice "Keyboard[0]""CoreKeyboard"
InputDevice "Mouse[1]""CorePointer"
InputDevice "Mouse[3]""SendCoreEvents"
Screen       "Screen[0]"
EndSection

Edit the ServerLayout section, making the entry for the TrackPoint the CorePointer. In this case the new ServerLayout section would look like this:

Section "ServerLayout"
Identifier   "Layout[all]"
InputDevice "Keyboard[0]""CoreKeyboard"
InputDevice "Mouse[1]""SendCoreEvents"
InputDevice "Mouse[3]""CorePointer"
Screen       "Screen[0]"
EndSection

Restart your X server or reboot the machine. The X server should start up normally now.

Additional Information

The purpose of this workaround is that in the end the trackpoint of the notebook is declared as the Core Pointer. It seems that the touchpad gets disabled when closing the lid, but the trackpoint stays active. So it helps to keep the trackpoint as Core Pointer to make the X server start up normally.

Disclaimer

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