Linux Mint 12 two finger scrolling

linux-mintscrollingtouchpad

i can't get two finger scrolling to work for anything on Linux mint 12 64bit…. hp dv7 laptop. the hardware definitely supports it as it works just fine on my windows partition.

following the instructions here:
http://robert.orzanna.de/2011/06/06/enable-two-finger-scroll-in-linux-mint-11-and-ubuntu-11-04/

i created a

/usr/share/X11/xorg.conf.d/50-twofingerscroll.conf

file and add the following information:

Section "InputClass"
Identifier "touchpad catchall"
MatchProduct "SynPS/2 Synaptics TouchPad"
MatchDevicePath "/dev/input/event*"
Option "VertTwoFingerScroll" "on"
Option "HorizTwoFingerScroll" "on"
Option "EmulateTwoFingerMinW" "8"
Option "EmulateTwoFingerMinZ" "40"
EndSection

based on this link:

http://jaisejames.wordpress.com/2011/11/29/to-enable-touchpad-tap-on-click-two-finger-scroll-in-linux-for-laptop-users/

i also tried a slightly different conf file

Section "InputClass"
      Identifier "touchpad catchall"
      Driver "synaptics"
      MatchIsTouchpad "on"
      MatchDevicePath "/dev/input/event*"
      Option "HorizScrollDelta" "0"
      Option "TapButton1" "1"
      Option "TapButton2" "2"
      Option "RBCornerButton" "3"
      Option "VertTwoFingerScroll" "1"
EndSection

i've also been to Settings > Mouse >Touchpad and enabled two-finger scrolling. this does nothing but kills all scrolling since edge-scrolling is no longer enabled.

i've also installed gpointing device settings and tried enabling it that way per the instructions here:
http://craiglayne.com/linux-mint-enable-two-finger-scrolling-multitouch/

and i still can't get two finger scrolling to work. this is driving me crazy, not to mention i still have about 2-3 other problems with mint while trying to make the switch away from windows.

any further ideas? am i missing something obvious? let me know if you need any more information from me.

edit:

the following terminal commands DO finally enable two-finger scrolling. however, they are lost every time i reboot. 

synclient VertTwoFingerScroll=1
synclient HorizTwoFingerScroll=1
synclient EmulateTwoFingerMinW=5
synclient EmulateTwoFingerMinZ=48

I found this xorg configuration that definitely works on my Samsung Series 7 for enabling the clickpad!
https://gist.github.com/2382480

Best Answer

Don't modify /usr/share/X11/xorg.conf.d/50-twofingerscroll.conf. Generally speaking, never modify files under /usr, except under /usr/local. These files are under the control by the package management system. The configuration files that you can edit are under /etc.

By default, /etc/X11/xorg.conf, the configuration file for the X server (the part of the GUI that talks to the hardware), does not exist. If you want to customize it, you first need to create a file with suitable contents. Run this command from a text console (only if /etc/X11/xorg.conf doesn't exist already!):

sudo sh -c 'Xorg -configure >/etc/X11/xorg.conf'

See Howto find my xorg.conf. Where is it? and the Ubuntu wiki for more information.

Once you've created the file, you can add that InputClass section.

Alternatively, you could arrange for synclient to run whenever you log in. This would make the two-finger scrolling a per-user setting rather than a system-wide setting. See Is there a standard way to have a program start when a user logs in on Linux?; Auto running bash script on login

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