Touchpad Gestures Not Working

[XhenEd]

I have Alps Pointing Device. It's pre-installed.
Specific laptop model is HP Pavilion 14-v241tx.

I thought that the closing of installation of ReHIPS rules was the culprit. I experimented a couple of hours ago in my "production" environment. I let the installation of rules finish, but gestures wouldn't work in the isolated environment. Fixer, you are right!

After this, I uninstalled my security software except ZAM Premium and CryptoPrevent (disabled/off). So, no AppGuard, ESET Smart Security, and HitmanPro.Alert. I still have Rollback RX Professional, though, for backup/time machine. But still, touchpad gestures wouldn't work in the isolated environment.

It works outside, but not inside in the production machine. However, it works even  inside if VM is used. So, there's something in my host OS that's preventing ReHIPS from working properly.

[fixer]

I guess gestures also don't work if isolated program is started on the the main desktop (not on a separate isolated desktop)? We're trying to find the suitable notebook to reproduce this issue.

[XhenEd]

In my host OS, gestures work on the main desktop but not inside the isolated desktop.
In my guest OS, gestures work on both, outside and inside.

I totally have no idea why. I think what should be done is a clean installation of my OS, but I don't think I'm ready for a few-day hassle.

[aDVll]

In my host OS, gestures work on the main desktop but not inside the isolated desktop.
In my guest OS, gestures work on both, outside and inside.

I totally have no idea why. I think what should be done is a clean installation of my OS, but I don't think I'm ready for a few-day hassle.

Did you try for start to remove rehips and settings and then install again with training mode on for a few hours? Seems easier to try then a complete format.

[XhenEd]

In my host OS, gestures work on the main desktop but not inside the isolated desktop.
In my guest OS, gestures work on both, outside and inside.

I totally have no idea why. I think what should be done is a clean installation of my OS, but I don't think I'm ready for a few-day hassle.

Did you try for start to remove rehips and settings and then install again with training mode on for a few hours? Seems easier to try then a complete format.

I removed ReHIPS using Revo Uninstaller. Then, reinstalled. I didn't leave it for a few hours. I tested gestures right after ReHIPS was installed. I made several system reboots, but gestures still wouldn't work. Besides, in my VM, gestures immediately worked right after the installation of ReHIPS. No waiting for a few hours.

[aDVll]

Ok then something is wrong. Devs will figure it out.

[fixer]

My best guess is as follows. Gestures implementation is based on DLL-injection. So it works fine on the main desktop as hook-based injection works within one desktop, but fails to work on isolated desktops as it's unaware of them. And it works in VM as actually it works for the VM-process which isn't isolated and this process translates gestures into VM, processes in which don't actually care about desktops as gestures are coming from above.
This is just a guess and we'll look into this issue as soon as we reproduce it.

[XhenEd]

Thanks!
Do you have something in mind that I could do? Logs?

I'm actually typing this with my browser that is within ReHIPS' isolated environment.

[fixer]

If my assumptions are correct, I'm afraid there isn't much that can be done. But I'd prefer to abstain from giving any advices based on unconfirmed assumptions. I'd like to reproduce it at first and then think what can be done.

[XhenEd]

I'm still hoping for the best. 

[fixer]

Unfortunately we weren't able to find notebook with Alps Pointing Device. But I found Synaptics touchpad that also supports gestures with the same problem. So I don't think Alps is very different in this regard. The problem is almost as I expected. There is a process with gestures processing. It intercepts gestures and sends input to the active foreground window. So it works on the main desktop where it is executed. But this process doesn't do any desktop checking and oblivious to other desktops, including isolated ones, so it can't send input to processes from these desktops. I'll think what can be done, but for the moment I don't have any good ideas.

[XhenEd]

Unfortunately we weren't able to find notebook with Alps Pointing Device. But I found Synaptics touchpad that also supports gestures with the same problem. So I don't think Alps is very different in this regard. The problem is almost as I expected. There is a process with gestures processing. It intercepts gestures and sends input to the active foreground window. So it works on the main desktop where it is executed. But this process doesn't do any desktop checking and oblivious to other desktops, including isolated ones, so it can't send input to processes from these desktops. I'll think what can be done, but for the moment I don't have any good ideas.

I feel relieved because it's confirmed that my laptop's system is not the issue, but at the same time sad because like you said it's something difficult to fix (if anything can be done).

[crasher]

We informed ALPS and Synaptics about the bug, waiting for their response.

[XhenEd]

Because of the "fix" for the restart issue, I tried to test touchpad again.
It now works for the Pale Moon browser! 
I got this idea because of hooking. Since Pale Moon doesn't need hook control, then touchpad gestures should work now through the removal of that option.

But still, this issue should still be fixed given that there are programs that may need hook control along with the gestures.

[fixer]

It's not quite about HOOK_CONTROL. It's about separate desktops. Gestures hooking doesn't work for separate isolated desktops as ALPS and Synaptics is unaware of other desktops. I guess their devs didn't expect anyone to use any other desktop besides default one. And it works since you unchecked Separate desktop option. And there is nothing we can do about it on our side. We informed ALPS and Synaptics, but no answer was received yet.