Touchpad on laptop [SOLVED]

[LiteHacker]

Hello to all,

Edit: I have found that I actually have a Synaptics Touchpad called "AlpsPS/2 ALPS GlidePoint"

LXDE is an interesting desktop environment - so far the lightest one I found that the had only the most useful features required.

I am running LXDE on my inspiron dell laptop. It has a touchpad at the bottom, used as a mouse, with a vertical and horizontal scrolls.

As in most desktop environments, the touchpad has been recognized and the horizontal scroll works. Also by default, the mouse clicks if I tap the touchpad.

I would like to enable the verticle scroll, and disable the touchpad from clicking from taps.
How do I do this?

Previously in GNOME, I would use gnome-mouse-properties utility which would have an extra touchpad property. However the utility does not seem to control the configurations within LXDE.
Apparently I would need to somehow reconfigure it manually.
I have read previously about reconfiguring the "Synaptics Touchpad" in "/etc/X11/xorg.conf" however apparently I do not have a "Synaptics Touchpad."

Does anybody know how to do this?

Thank you,
LiteHacker

[LiteHacker]

Correction:

I ran:

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xinput list

and got "AlpsPS/2 ALPS GlidePoint" which happens to be "Synaptics" so I in fact have a Synaptics Touchpad.

Looking through xinput, I have the following configurable information:

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Device 'AlpsPS/2 ALPS GlidePoint':
   Device Enabled:      1
   Synaptics Edges:      120, 830, 120, 650
   Synaptics Finger:      14, 15, 256
   Synaptics Tap Time:      180
   Synaptics Tap Move:      110
   Synaptics Tap Durations:      180, 180, 100
   Synaptics Tap FastTap:      0
   Synaptics Middle Button Timeout:      75
   Synaptics Two-Finger Pressure:      257
   Synaptics Scrolling Distance:      20, 20
   Synaptics Edge Scrolling:      1, 0, 0
   Synaptics Two-Finger Scrolling:      0, 0
   Synaptics Edge Motion Pressure:      30, 160
   Synaptics Edge Motion Speed:      1, 102
   Synaptics Edge Motion Always:      0
   Synaptics Button Scrolling:      1, 1
   Synaptics Button Scrolling Repeat:      1, 1
   Synaptics Button Scrolling Time:      100
   Synaptics Off:      0
   Synaptics Guestmouse Off:      0
   Synaptics Locked Drags:      0
   Synaptics Locked Drags Timeout:      5000
   Synaptics Tap Action:      2, 3, 0, 0, 1, 2, 3
   Synaptics Click Action:      1, 1, 1
   Synaptics Circular Scrolling:      0
   Synaptics Circular Scrolling Trigger:      0
   Synaptics Circular Pad:      0
   Synaptics Palm Detection:      1
   Synaptics Palm Dimensions:      10, 200
   Synaptics Pressure Motion:      30, 160
   Synaptics Grab Event Device:      1


There seem to be a lot of options with "Synaptics Tap" and I am not sure which one will configure mouse clicks, or scrolls. Nor do I know what all the numbers represent.
From what I understand xinput seems to actually be a temporary operation that would have to be used every time the desktop manager turns on.
Does anybody know a more efficient way of doing this?

From what I understand, I can use "HAL" as written here: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/X/Config/Input
but I am not completely sure what xinput has to do with HAL.
Has anybody here done something like this before?

Thank you,
LiteHacker

[LiteHacker]

I figured out how to do it. I believe this will be beneficial to all people who have an Intel compatible (non-apple) laptop.
The following instructions will enable vertical and horizontal scrolling. Additionally it will disable clicks on taps.
If you would like to further configure the mouse, use this information and checkout the man pages of "synaptics"

1. In your terminal type the following:

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gksudo gedit /etc/hal/fdi/policy/mouse.fdi

2. Paste the following into the new gedit window that just opened:

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<?xml version="1.0" encoding="ISO-8859-1"?>
<deviceinfo version="0.2">
 <device>
  <match key="input.x11_driver" string="synaptics">
   <merge key="input.x11_options.VertEdgeScroll" type="string">true</merge>
   <merge key="input.x11_options.HorizEdgeScroll" type="string">true</merge>
   <merge key="input.x11_options.MaxTapTime" type="string">0</merge>
  </match>
 </device>
</deviceinfo>


3. Save the file and reboot your computer.

It should work now.

LiteHacker

[kgas]

There is also a nice wiki in Arch Linux http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Synaptics.

[kevkoala]

Worked for me too - many thanks.

FEDORA 12 (64-bit), on a HP (Compaq) 6710b laptop.

The file did not exist - in fact the directory was empty

Cheers,

Kev

[gmorales]

Hi,
I am desperate to find a solution to disable the tap clic on my touchpad. Problem is I am not very literate with terminal and command line. How should I proceed to create this mouse.fdi file into the policy folder? what should be the command line? help!

EDIT: just solved the problem - in case other newbies need this info:. the command line is (for mint lxde): gksudo cd (file) (destination)

GM