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

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

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'

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.

• 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)

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)

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)

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