tp2ctl 1.0.1

Description:

tp2ctl 1.0.1

tp2ctl
Simple python tool to allow configuration of the Lenovo Trackpoint Keyboard II / Lenovo Trackpoint Keyboard 2 on Linux. This tool specifically allows to set the pointer-speed (i.e. Trackpoint sensitivity) and to disable/enable Thinkpad preferred scrolling-mode. Loosely based on tpkbdctl, this tool also uses the hidraw interface to connect to the keyboard.
Tested on Ubuntu 20.04 and Arch
Installation
Install via pip:
pip install tp2ctl
Alternatively, if you don't want to use pip, you can just clone the repo and run the script tp2ctl.py in src/tp2crl/ directly (no external dependencies need to be installed....)
Note: Python >= 3 is required to run this tool
Usage
Note that access to /dev/hidraw* is required, you might have to run this tool as root...
Set the trackpoint-sensitivity to maximum:
sudo tp2ctl -s 8
By default, tp2ctl will auto-detect and use the first Lenovo Trackpoint II Keyboard on the usb-bus. If you want to manually specify a hid-raw device, you can do so by using the -d switch...
Please also note, that the settings are not permanent and have to be re-applied after the keyboard was disconnected.
usage: tp2ctl.py [-h] [-s [0-8]] [-d DEVICE] [--no-preferred-scrolling | --preferred-scrolling]

Control IBM Trackpoint 2 Keyboard features

optional arguments:
-h, --help show this help message and exit
-s [0-8], --pointer-speed [0-8]
set trackpoint sensitivity ('Pointer Speed')
-d DEVICE, --device DEVICE
set hidraw device manually
--no-preferred-scrolling
enable 'Thinkpad Preferred Scrolling'
--preferred-scrolling
disable 'Thinkpad Preferred Scrolling'

Automatically configure when plugging in
To automatically apply settings whenever you plug in, you can use an udev rule.
Create a file at /etc/udev/rules.d/99-tp2ctl.rules:
# The Lenovo TrackPoint Keyboard II needs to be configured via raw hid commands
# Read in bInterfaceNumber into a ID_USB_INTERFACE_NUM
SUBSYSTEMS=="usb", ENV{ID_USB_INTERFACE_NUM}="$attr{bInterfaceNumber}"

# … so we can use it down here
SUBSYSTEM=="hidraw", ACTION=="add", ATTRS{idVendor}=="17ef", ATTRS{idProduct}=="60ee", ENV{ID_USB_INTERFACE_NUM}=="01", RUN+="/usr/bin/tp2ctl -s 8 --preferred-scrolling -d /dev/%k"

Tweak the path to the tp2ctl script, and the arguments accordingly, and make sure the script is owned and only writable by root.
Known Lmitiations

Only tested / working with 2.4GHz Transceiver
The internal Trackpoint of my Thinkpad seems to be much more sensitive as the one of the Trackpoint Keyboard II. However, this behaviour can also be observed using Windows, so I blame Lenovo for this ...
When disabling Thinkpad preferred scrolling the mouse middle-button is not working any more
Horizontal scrolling does not work
Middle-Button pastes clipboard on scolling (very annoying)

Windows Companion App
The Windows Companion App has two main features:

Set the Pointer Speed
Enable/Disable Thinkpad Preferred Scrolling
(Thinkpad Preferred Scrolling enables vertical scrolling in Windows)


Protocol
The Windows Companion App sends USB SET_REPORTrequests to configure the keyboard. Specifically a SET_REPORT (Feature)with Feature-ID 0x13and a payload of 8 + 1 bytes (first byte beeing the Feature-ID) is transmitted. The Windows App seems to send every setting-related package twice. The screenshot shows the tramssion of the Disable Preferred Scrolling packet. You can find the .pcap files with the USB-Traces in the folder pcaps
Note: Further information onSET_REPORT (Output)and SET_REPORT (Feature) requests can be found at the USB HID Definition (Pages 29 & 52)

Payloads
Pointer Speed



Speed
Data Fragment




1
0x13 0x02 0x01 0x00 0x00 0x00 0x00 0x00 0x00


2
0x13 0x02 0x02 0x00 0x00 0x00 0x00 0x00 0x00


3
0x13 0x02 0x03 0x00 0x00 0x00 0x00 0x00 0x00


4
0x13 0x02 0x04 0x00 0x00 0x00 0x00 0x00 0x00


5
0x13 0x02 0x05 0x00 0x00 0x00 0x00 0x00 0x00


6
0x13 0x02 0x06 0x00 0x00 0x00 0x00 0x00 0x00


7
0x13 0x02 0x07 0x00 0x00 0x00 0x00 0x00 0x00


8
0x13 0x02 0x08 0x00 0x00 0x00 0x00 0x00 0x00


9
0x13 0x02 0x09 0x00 0x00 0x00 0x00 0x00 0x00



Preferred Scrolling




Data Fragment




Enable
0x13 0x09 0x00 0x00 0x00 0x00 0x00 0x00 0x00


Disable
0x13 0x09 0x01 0x00 0x00 0x00 0x00 0x00 0x00



Unknown




Data Fragment




Reset to defaults (?)
0x13 0x05 0x00 0x00 0x00 0x00 0x00 0x00 0x00


Initialize (?)
0x13 0x01 0x0a 0x00 0x00 0x00 0x00 0x00 0x00



ToDo

Implement/Test bluetooth-support
Fix pasting on middle-button click