Ubuntu – Middle-click does nothing but makes window controls appear

12.04multi-touchtouchpad

Just did a fresh install of Ubuntu 12.04 on my laptop and noticed that the middle-click (actually three finger-tap on the touchpad) on Firefox doesn't work as it used to. When doing it on a link it doesn't get opened on a new tab, in fact, it doesn't get opened at all. Only the (useless) window size and position controls appear, as demonstrated on terminal in the following screen shot.

Middle-click on terminal

How do I get my tab-opening middle-clicks back?

Best Answer

You should be able to open a terminal with:

Alt+Ctrl+T

and then use the command:

synclient TapButton3=2  ClickFinger3=2

This disables Unity's use of 3 tap and 3 click (for click devices) gestures. See this, in particular comments around #68, and this if the above doesn't work.