You can do a bunch of stuff with your laptop’s touch pad, all by installing a quick program and modifying your xorg.conf file.
If you’d like to do things like horizontal or circular scrolling in addition to your normal vertical scrolling, you’ll want to install a neat program called gsynaptics.
Open up a terminal session (Applications-> Accessories-> Terminmal) and type the following
sudo apt-get install gsynaptics
Once that’s installed, you’ll want to make a copy of your xorg.conf file and then do a bit of editing.
First lets back up that file.
sudo cp /etc/X11/xorg.conf /etc/X11/xorg.conf.bak
Now we’re going to break out Gedit, our graphical editor and make a quick change to your xorg.conf file
gksudo gedit /etc/X11/xorg.conf
Once in there, find the section that looks like this:
Section “InputDevice”
Identifier “Synaptics Touchpad”
Driver “synaptics”
Option “SendCoreEvents” “true”
Option “Device” “/dev/psaux”
Option “Protocol” “auto-dev”
Option “HorizScrollDelta” “0″
EndSection
If it’s not already there, add the following line below the HorizScrollDelta line and above EndSection:
Option “SHMConfig” “on”
Now you’ll have to restart Gnome for this to take effect. Save anything that’s open that you want to save and hit the CTRL-ALT-BKSPC keys to restart Gnome.
Once you’re back in, go to System-> Preferences-> Touchpad and configure away!
But that’s not all. Say you want a bit more sensitivity in your touch pad? You can head back into your terminal session and go back to editing your xorg.conf file – don’t forget to back it up!
sudo cp /etc/X11/xorg.conf /etc/X11/xorg.conf.bak
gksudo gedit /etc/X11/xorg.conf
Find that same place in the file, where you see “SHMConfig” “on” and add the following just below that:
Option “MinSpeed” “1.0″
Option “MaxSpeed” “1.3″
Option “AccelFactor” “0.3″
You’ll want to tweak these a bit depending on just how sensitive you want your touchpad. Mine is set somewhere between nice guy and quivering hamster. You’ll also have to restart X/Gnome each time you make an adjustment.
Technorati Tags: ubuntu, synaptics, touch pad, sensitivity, xorg, gedit, linux, hamster
September 13th, 2007 at 9:00 pm
Saw this on fsdaily.com. Can anyone tell me how to turn the pad and buttons off? I’ve got a machine set up for my son and when he types the pad keeps thinking his hand brushing over it means he wants to click. He uses a mouse anyway so it would be good to disable it all together.
September 14th, 2007 at 7:39 am
Sure can! I fact, I covered this a little while ago.
http://www.arsgeek.com/?p=1862 should help you out.
September 14th, 2007 at 8:31 am
you know, on Macs and in Windows, touchpads ‘just work’. Eat that, linux
September 14th, 2007 at 8:34 am
Touchpads ‘just work’ in Linux too. But if you want to enable multi-directional scrolling circular scrolling and fine tune the sensitivity, you’ve to to change some options.
Just like Macs or Windows.
September 17th, 2007 at 3:57 am
new ubuntu user here . I have an acer tablet pc but when i installed I got no refs to touchpad in my xorg.conf file
the touchpad kinda works but not properly as seams to run as a standard mouse
the stylus on the pc is fine
can i just add input device line directly to the file ? to get up and running?
September 17th, 2007 at 4:29 am
ahah sorted problem via ubuntu forum. now ready to rock and scroll
thanks for the general notes though
September 17th, 2007 at 7:54 am
I’ve been on Ubuntu full time since February and have installed several versions and I have to say that the touchpad is one issue that still drives me up a wall. It works but I wouldn’t put it in a class with Windows’ touchpad drivers. The ability to configure the pad, as well as the user interface are much better in Windows. The sensitivity adjustment doesn’t even seem to have much affect in Ubuntu. For some reason my finger always gets tired, it never did in Windows. I’m not sure why, or even what that means overall, but it is a data point I can feel.
September 17th, 2007 at 9:43 am
I’m running Feisty on a Gateway M685-E laptop, and my touchpad needs some tweaking.
It is physically (with a slightly raised dividing line) divided into two sections: the main section for moving and clicking, and a narrow strip (~one-sixth of the overall width) on the right for vertical scrolling.
Under Ubuntu, it is functionally divided into those two sections as well… except that the functional dividing line is off, such that fully one-third of the overall width on the right triggers vertical scrolling.
If anyone has any tips on how to tweak the settings so that the vertical scrolling is confined to the narrower strip that matches the physical division of the touchpad, I would be most interested in hearing them…