Ubuntu – Settings for Glidepoint touchpad/trackpoint on Dell Latitude

delltouchpadtrackpoint

Couple of issues with the touchpad and trackpoint for my Dell Latitude laptop (Ubuntu 12.04). First, there's no "Touchpad" tab on the Mouse settings in system settings. I'd like to be able to use 2-finger scrolling on the touchpad (and also adjust the sensitivity), and to enable middle-mouse-button scrolling on the trackpoint.

synclient gives an error:

Couldn't find synaptics properties. No synaptics driver loaded?.

The relevent output of xinput is:

    ⎡ Virtual core pointer                      id=2    [master pointer  (3)]
    ⎜   ↳ Virtual core XTEST pointer                id=4    [slave  pointer  (2)]
    ⎜   ↳ GlidePoint Virtual Touchpad               id=13   [slave  pointer  (2)]

I found a file in /usr/share/X11/xorg.conf.d/ that has code to enable middle mouse scrolling, but it looks like it's only triggered if TrackPoint|DualPoint Stick is matched in the xinput list? Oddly, the middle-mouse scrolling seems to work only in Chrome's pdf viewer, but no where else.

I tried using gpointer-device-settings but it crashes/segfaults every time I run it. I've tried a couple of things about ALPS drivers, but those seem to come into play when the Glidepoint device shows up in xinput as regular mouse, which I don't think is the case here.

Best Answer

I have a Dell E7440 with pre-installed Ubuntu 12.04. Here is how I solved issues mentioned by you:

I have no "Touchpad" tab on the Mouse settings in system settings but it is not needed since there is a pre-installed tool called "GlidePoint Control Center" or "GlidePoint Touchpad" v.3.6 which allows to setup buttons, motion, tapping, scrolling etc. So all touchpad features can be controlled through it. It can be found here.

To enable middle-mouse-button scrolling on the trackpoint I followed this article and the only thing I modified was /usr/share/X11/xorg.conf.d/11-evdev-trackpoint.conf in the MatchProduct section there was no my device which I got through 'xinput' so I added it there. And here is my 11-evdev-trackpoint.conf:

Section "InputClass"
    Identifier      "trackpoint catchall"
    MatchIsPointer  "true"
    MatchProduct    "TrackPoint|DualPoint Stick|GlidePoint Virtual Touchpad"
    MatchDevicePath "/dev/input/event*"
    Option  "Emulate3Buttons"       "true"
    Option  "EmulateWheel"  "true"
    Option  "EmulateWheelButton"    "2"
    Option  "XAxisMapping"  "6 7"
    Option  "YAxisMapping"  "4 5"
EndSection

As far as I see you have the same device in your 'xinput'. So to enable middle-mouse-button scrolling just modify that file and reboot.

Related Solutions

Ubuntu – How to get two finger scrolling working on an Acer S3 Elantech Touchpad

First off does the touch-pad support two finger scrolling? If so the result of synclient -l would be nice to edit

add the output of the command synclient -l.

Parameter settings:
    LeftEdge                = 1775
    RightEdge               = 5503
    TopEdge                 = 1652
    BottomEdge              = 4662
    FingerLow               = 24
    FingerHigh              = 29
    FingerPress             = 255
    MaxTapTime              = 180
    MaxTapMove              = 245
    MaxDoubleTapTime        = 180
    SingleTapTimeout        = 180
    ClickTime               = 100
    FastTaps                = 0
    EmulateMidButtonTime    = 75
    EmulateTwoFingerMinZ    = 10
    EmulateTwoFingerMinW    = 6
    VertScrollDelta         = 111
    HorizScrollDelta        = 111
    VertEdgeScroll          = 0
    HorizEdgeScroll         = 0
    CornerCoasting          = 0
    VertTwoFingerScroll     = 1
    HorizTwoFingerScroll    = 0
    MinSpeed                = 1
    MaxSpeed                = 1.75
    AccelFactor             = 0.0359131
    TrackstickSpeed         = 40
    EdgeMotionMinZ          = 29
    EdgeMotionMaxZ          = 159
    EdgeMotionMinSpeed      = 1
    EdgeMotionMaxSpeed      = 445
    EdgeMotionUseAlways     = 0
    TouchpadOff             = 0
    LockedDrags             = 0
    LockedDragTimeout       = 5000
    RTCornerButton          = 2
    RBCornerButton          = 3
    LTCornerButton          = 0
    LBCornerButton          = 0
    TapButton1              = 1
    TapButton2              = 3
    TapButton3              = 2
    ClickFinger1            = 1
    ClickFinger2            = 1
    ClickFinger3            = 1
    CircularScrolling       = 0
    CircScrollDelta         = 0.1
    CircScrollTrigger       = 0
    CircularPad             = 0
    PalmDetect              = 0
    PalmMinWidth            = 9
    PalmMinZ                = 199
    CoastingSpeed           = 20
    CoastingFriction        = 50
    PressureMotionMinZ      = 29
    PressureMotionMaxZ      = 159
    PressureMotionMinFactor = 1
    PressureMotionMaxFactor = 1
    ResolutionDetect        = 1
    GrabEventDevice         = 1
    TapAndDragGesture       = 1
    AreaLeftEdge            = 0
    AreaRightEdge           = 0
    AreaTopEdge             = 0
    AreaBottomEdge          = 0

You can change the setting of the synclient by adding to the startup application a new application with the following command:

xterm -e synclient "EmulateTwoFingerMinZ=10"

This would change the setting of EmulateTwoFingerMinZ to the value of 10

Found similar answer here: How to get two-finger scolling to work?

Ubuntu – Help trying to get two-finger scrolling to work on Asus UL80VT

To get your synclient settings to stick you can add them to xorg.conf. I did this recently for my macbook pro in 12.10 and it works pretty well.

You can also specify a separate configuration file in /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/ file to keep things neater. Here's a step by step:

Create /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d (if it doesn't already exist)

sudo mkdir /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d
Create and edit /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/10-synaptics.conf

gksudo gedit /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/10-synaptics.conf

Make it look like the following:

#Sample /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/10-synaptics.conf
Section "InputClass"
  Identifier "touchpad catchall"
  Driver "synaptics"
  MatchDevicePath "/dev/input/event*"
  MatchIsTouchpad "true"
  Option  "SHMConfig"           "true"
  Option  "TapButton1"          "1"
  Option  "TapButton2"          "2"
  Option  "TapButton3"          "3"
EndSection

Save and logout/login again. If the xserver fails to load and you get forced into low graphics mode then edit the file again and comment everything out, or mv /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/10-synaptics.conf ~/10-synaptics.conf.backup and reload again to get back to normal.

For posterity, my current setup for my macbook pro 2012 13" is as follows (warning, I like my touchpad rather sensitive). Try any of these options using synclient before putting them into xorg.conf!

Section "InputClass"
      Identifier "touchpad catchall"
      Driver "synaptics"
      MatchIsTouchpad "on"
      MatchDevicePath "/dev/input/event*"
      MatchProduct "bcm5974"
      MatchIsTouchpad "true"
      Option  "SHMConfig"           "true"
      Option  "FastTaps"            "1"
      Option  "MaxDoubleTapTime"    "100"
      Option  "BottomEdge"          "6000"
      Option  "FingerLow"           "60"
      Option  "FingerHigh"          "90"
      Option         "ClickFinger3" "2"
#      Option         "FingerLow"             "30"
#      Option         "FingerHigh"            "80"
      Option         "VertTwoFingerScroll" "1"
      Option         "HorizTwoFingerScroll" "1"
      Option         "VertScrollDelta" "100"
      Option         "HorizScrollDelta" "100"
      Option         "MultiFingerButton" "2"
      #Option         "TapButton1" "1"
      Option         "TapButton2" "3"
      Option         "TapButton3" "2"
      Option         "MinSpeed" "1"
      Option         "MaxSpeed" "2"
      Option         "AccelFactor" "0.01"
#      Option         "AreaBottomEdge" "5000"
EndSection

Best Answer

Related Solutions

Ubuntu – How to get two finger scrolling working on an Acer S3 Elantech Touchpad

Ubuntu – Help trying to get two-finger scrolling to work on Asus UL80VT

Related Question