T450/T550 touchpad on T440/T540 mod

Hi all,
T450/T550 Thinkpads (Broadwell) have been announced and there have been a few pictures and videos on the web: Panoramic, Front

I am very curious to know if the touchpad of T450 with the physical buttons can be fitted on the T440 (Haswell).
I've measured the dimensions of the T440 touchpad+buttons from the pictures, and they seem to match exactly the clickpad size of T440.
My measurements rely on the assumption that the keyboard dimensions remain the same (I used keyboard as a reference to scale up the picture).

I know that even if touchpad/clickpad sizes are the same, cabling, form factor of underneath area etc might ruing my dream.

What do you think ?
Any brave souls out there who have tried it already ?


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UPDATE A: The modification has been performed successfully
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Hi all,
today I received the new touchpad with the physical buttons , and fitted it on my T440p.


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Item on ebay
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http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/251805759114


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Fitting the new touchpad
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Before you proceed, download and have a look in the T440p maintenance guide:
http://download.lenovo.com/ibmdl/pub/pc/pccbbs/mobiles_pdf/t440p_hmm_en_sp40a25467.pdf

1. Remove bottom panel
2. Remove all screws marked with "C" + the screw under the DVD drive + the 3 screwas located in the battery area
3. Remove keyboard (slide keyboard plastic, unscrew the small keyboard bolts, disconnect the 2 connectors)
4. Use a credit card to carefully separate the top panel from the bottom and slowly remove the top panel (make sure you also disconnect the 2 ribbon cables before taking off the panel)
5. Remove the 4 short screws which mount the touchpad on the top panel, remove the old touchpad
6. Safely screw the new touchpad with the 4x short screws
7. Connect back the 2 cables of the top panel, fit the top panel back on the laptop base (you'll listen multiple click sounds)
8. Connect the keyboard cables, screw the keyboard bolts, slide down the keyboard's plastic cover
9. Put back all screws which were removed in step 2
10. Secure back the bottom panel.

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Making it work under Ubuntu Linux
***************************************
I use Ubuntu 14.04LTS with kernel 3.13.0-45-generic.
I followed the steps of "camerongray" but unfortunately things didn't work out of the box.
Here follows a short walkthrough.

The touchpad was recognized as a "PS/2 Generic Mouse"
#/> cat /proc/bus/input/devices
I: Bus=0011 Vendor=0002 Product=0001 Version=0000
N: Name="PS/2 Generic Mouse"
P: Phys=isa0060/serio1/input0
S: Sysfs=/devices/platform/i8042/serio1/input/input86
U: Uniq=
H: Handlers=mouse0 event4
B: PROP=0
B: EV=7
B: KEY=70000 0 0 0 0
B: REL=3

This is also confirmed from xinput:
#/> xinput list
⎡ Virtual core pointer id=2 [master pointer (3)]
⎜ ↳ Virtual core XTEST pointer id=4 [slave pointer (2)]
⎜ ↳ PS/2 Generic Mouse id=12 [slave pointer (2)]
⎣ Virtual core keyboard id=3 [master keyboard (2)]
↳ Virtual core XTEST keyboard id=5 [slave keyboard (3)]
↳ Power Button id=6 [slave keyboard (3)]
↳ Video Bus id=7 [slave keyboard (3)]
↳ Video Bus id=8 [slave keyboard (3)]
↳ Sleep Button id=9 [slave keyboard (3)]
↳ Integrated Camera id=10 [slave keyboard (3)]
↳ AT Translated Set 2 keyboard id=11 [slave keyboard (3)]
↳ ThinkPad Extra Buttons id=13 [slave keyboard (3)]


This happens because my kernel's module "psmouse" does not support Alpsv7
#/> dmesg | grep -i alps
[ 1.334186] psmouse serio1: alps: Unknown ALPS touchpad: E7=73 03 0a, EC=88 b0 13

To resolve that, you either need to instal a recent kernel (e.g. 3.17), or patch+build the psmouse module with alpsv7 support:
https://github.com/he1per/psmouse-dkms-alpsv7

If you do not care about the touchpad , but only for the UltrNav + physical 3 buttons, then the guide of "camerongray" should be enough for you with a minor change:
1. Create file "/etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/90-evdev.conf " and add the following contents:
Section "InputClass"
Identifier "Touchpad/TrackPoint"
MatchProduct "PS/2 Generic Mouse"
MatchDriver "evdev"
Option "GrabDevice" "False"
Option "EmulateWheel" "1"
Option "EmulateWheelButton" "2"
Option "Emulate3Buttons" "0"
Option "XAxisMapping" "6 7"
Option "YAcisMapping" "4 5"
EndSection

2. Create file "/etc/modprobe.d/psmouse.conf", and add the following contents:
options psmouse proto=imps

3. Reboot and enjoy



===============================================
UPDATE B: Perfecting Linux configuration for a better experience
===============================================
With the previous configuration touchpad didn't work properly, and had no multitouch support.
This was because the psmouse kernel module of Ubuntu 14.04 kernel 3.13.0-45-generic did not detect properly the hardware.

The part I received from the ebay seller is an ALPSv7 hardware, and is best supported from more recent kernels (e.g. 3.18 or later).
The X11 uses the synaptics + evdev drivers.

FYI the seller answered my question and claimed it is a genuine Lenovo part (how is that possible??):

"Yes, it is New and original from the lenovo."​

I have produced a patched psmouse kernel module which makes the new (eBay) touchpad with physical buttons perfectly usable under Ubntu 14.04.

You can grab it from here, and use it at your own risk:
https://github.com/dimosped/psmouse-dkms-alpsv7

 

Even if cabling, form factor etc. fits, there is still a problem, called UEFI BIOS - it might fail at this point, even if you succed with fitting the new UltraNav into the old palmrest.

 

Very true, but I guess if the new touchpad has the same dimensions/cabling, then it's worth giving it a shot.

 

I would be very interested in this as well. One of the few things I dislike about my T440s is the lack of discrete trackpoint buttons. Although I am one of the few (apparently) who thinks the trackpad is pretty fantastic.

 

I think the trackpoint is pretty good - tracking, 2 finger scrolling, etc, with the MAJOR exception of the button design. If they took that trackpad and gave it discrete buttons for both the touchpad and trackpoint, even if it reduced the surface of it, I'd be happy.

 

Go ahead and try it out: ThinkPad T440 T440P T440S T450 T450S Touchpad Clickpad with Left and Right Keys | eBay

 

I would pay that gladly, but do we know if you can reasonably remove the touchpad from the palmrest? Don't these come out as a single unit?

 

Haha, $50!! People really are cashing in.

 

Anyone give it a shot yet to see if it works?

 

this time last year when I was looking at the t440p or e440 I would of gladly payed for one of these EASY. but for me no point now. but if you are happy with what you got already do it. infact the main advantage with the t440p is the cpu is socketed and the t450/t550 is all soldered in and im sure they are low powered cpu. where as id like to upgrade my cpu to quad if I had dual core.
if I can get a cheap t440p. then I think I wpuld do the whole buttons swap.