Adjusting Laptop Touchpad Settings - SOLVED

[Martin109]

I've installed VL6.0 on a Compaq Evo N620c, and am finding the touchpad too fast and too sensitive, so it's easy to trigger all sorts of windows and buttons without intending to, so I'd like to reduce the speed and sensitivity.

When installing, I did choose the touchpad driver over the generic mouse driver, and mybe this was a mistake, as if I try to adjust under Menu->Settings->Mouse Settings, these are greyed out.

How can I get some control over the touchpad?

[nightflier]

The touchpad driver should give you the most functionality, as it has a lot of options that you can tweak using the "synclient" command. In a terminal, see what you get when entering:

Code:

synclient -l

(that's a small "L")

[Martin109]

Thanks, nightflier.

Whether I issue the command synclient -l as root or user, I get:

Can't access shared memory area. SHMConfig disabled?

[nightflier]

Check your file /etc/X11/xorg.conf, is there a section like this in it?

Code:

Section "InputDevice"
 Identifier    "Touchpad"
 Driver        "synaptics"
 Option        "SendCoreEvents"    "true"
 Option        "Device"            "/dev/psaux"
 Option        "Protocol"          "auto-dev"
 Option        "SHMconfig"         "true"
 Option        "HorizScrollDelta"  "0"

Also, when you enter the command "mount", do you see a line like this?

Code:

tmpfs on /dev/shm type tmpfs (rw)

[Martin109]

Thanks nightflier.

The 'input device' section of my xorg.conf file is as follows:

Code:

# **********************************************************************

# Core Pointer's InputDevice section

# **********************************************************************



Section "InputDevice"



# Identifier and driver



    Identifier "Mouse1"

    Driver "mouse"



# On platforms where PnP mouse detection is supported the following

# protocol setting can be used when using a newer PnP mouse:



#    Option     "Protocol"      "Auto"



# The available mouse protocols types that you can set below are:

#    Auto BusMouse GlidePoint GlidePointPS/2 IntelliMouse IMPS/2

#    Logitech Microsoft MMHitTab MMSeries Mouseman MouseManPlusPS/2

#    MouseSystems NetMousePS/2 NetScrollPS/2 OSMouse PS/2 SysMouse

#    ThinkingMouse ThinkingMousePS/2 Xqueue

    Option "Protocol"    "PS/2"



# The mouse device.  The device is normally set to /dev/mouse,

# which is usually a symbolic link to the real device.



    Option "Device"      "/dev/mouse"

#   Option "Device"      "/dev/psaux"

#   Option "Device"      "/dev/ttyS0"

#   Option "Device"      "/dev/ttyS1"



# When using XQUEUE, comment out the above two lines, and uncomment

# the following line.



#    Option "Protocol" "Xqueue"



# Baudrate and SampleRate are only for some Logitech mice. In

# almost every case these lines should be omitted.



#    Option "BaudRate" "9600"

#    Option "SampleRate" "150"



# Emulate3Buttons is an option for 2-button Microsoft mice

# Emulate3Timeout is the timeout in milliseconds (default is 50ms)



#    Option "Emulate3Buttons"

#    Option "Emulate3Timeout"    "50"



# ChordMiddle is an option for some 3-button Logitech mice



#    Option "ChordMiddle"



EndSection



# Some examples of extended input devices



# Section "InputDevice"

#    Identifier "spaceball"

#    Driver     "magellan"

#    Option     "Device"        "/dev/cua0"

# EndSection

#

# Section "InputDevice"

#    Identifier "spaceball2"

#    Driver     "spaceorb"

#    Option     "Device"        "/dev/cua0"

# EndSection

#

# Section "InputDevice"

#    Identifier "touchscreen0"

#    Driver     "microtouch"

#    Option     "Device"        "/dev/ttyS0"

#    Option     "MinX"          "1412"

#    Option     "MaxX"          "15184"

#    Option     "MinY"          "15372"

#    Option     "MaxY"          "1230"

#    Option     "ScreenNumber"  "0"

#    Option     "ReportingMode" "Scaled"

#    Option     "ButtonNumber"  "1"

#    Option     "SendCoreEvents"

# EndSection

#

# Section "InputDevice"

#    Identifier "touchscreen1"

#    Driver     "elo2300"

#    Option     "Device"        "/dev/ttyS0"

#    Option     "MinX"          "231"

#    Option     "MaxX"          "3868"

#    Option     "MinY"          "3858"

#    Option     "MaxY"          "272"

#    Option     "ScreenNumber"  "0"

#    Option     "ReportingMode" "Scaled"

#    Option     "ButtonThreshold"       "17"

#    Option     "ButtonNumber"  "1"

#    Option     "SendCoreEvents"

# EndSection

Looks like touchpad related stuff is greyed out.

Yes, the command mount gives

Code:

tmpfs on /dev/shm type tmpfs (rw)

[nightflier]

That xorg.conf looks different than what I'm used to seeing in VL.. anyways, here are the important parts from my laptop with a working touchpad:

Code:

Section "ServerLayout"
Identifier     "X.org Configured"
InputDevice    "Synaptics Touchpad"
Screen      0  "Screen0" 0 0
InputDevice    "Mouse0" "CorePointer"
InputDevice    "Keyboard0" "CoreKeyboard"
EndSection
..
..
..
Section "InputDevice"
 Identifier    "Synaptics Touchpad"
 Driver        "synaptics"
 Option        "SendCoreEvents"    "true"
 Option        "Device"            "/dev/psaux"
 Option        "Protocol"          "auto-dev"
 Option        "SHMconfig"         "true"
 Option        "HorizScrollDelta"  "0"
 Option        "VertEdgeScroll"  "1"
 Option        "TapButton1"  "1"
EndSection
..
..

Notice that in the first section, it refers to the following section identified by "Synaptics Toucpad".
There are several other sections referenced as well, the entries "Mouse0" and "Keyboard0" may be different on your system.

After making a backup copy of your xorg.conf file, try adding that line:
InputDevice    "Synaptics Touchpad"
to the "ServerLayout" section as in my example above
Then scroll down, find a line like this:
EndSection
and add the whole section about the touchpad after it.

[Martin109]

Notice that in the first section, it refers to the following section identified by "Synaptics Touchpad".
There are several other sections referenced as well, the entries "Mouse0" and "Keyboard0" may be different on your system.

After making a backup copy of your xorg.conf file, try adding that line:
InputDevice    "Synaptics Touchpad"
to the "ServerLayout" section as in my example above
Then scroll down, find a line like this:
EndSection
and add the whole section about the touchpad after it.

Right, I've made those changes and rebooted.

The touchpad seems a bit more well-behaved, but how do I go about fine-tuning it now?

Now, the command 'synclient -l' produces the following output:

Code:

Parameter settings:
    LeftEdge                = 1632
    RightEdge               = 5312
    TopEdge                 = 1575
    BottomEdge              = 4281
    FingerLow               = 24
    FingerHigh              = 29
    FingerPress             = 255
    MaxTapTime              = 180
    MaxTapMove              = 221
    MaxDoubleTapTime        = 180
    SingleTapTimeout        = 180
    ClickTime               = 100
    FastTaps                = 0
    EmulateMidButtonTime    = 75
    EmulateTwoFingerMinZ    = 280
    VertScrollDelta         = 100
    HorizScrollDelta        = 0
    VertEdgeScroll          = 1
    HorizEdgeScroll         = 0
    CornerCoasting          = 0
    VertTwoFingerScroll     = 1
    HorizTwoFingerScroll    = 0
    MinSpeed                = 0.4
    MaxSpeed                = 0.7
    AccelFactor             = 0.00995223
    TrackstickSpeed         = 40
    EdgeMotionMinZ          = 29
    EdgeMotionMaxZ          = 159
    EdgeMotionMinSpeed      = 1
    EdgeMotionMaxSpeed      = 401
    EdgeMotionUseAlways     = 0
    UpDownScrolling         = 1
    LeftRightScrolling      = 1
    UpDownScrollRepeat      = 1
    LeftRightScrollRepeat   = 1
    ScrollButtonRepeat      = 100
    TouchpadOff             = 0
    GuestMouseOff           = 0
    LockedDrags             = 0
    LockedDragTimeout       = 5000
    RTCornerButton          = 0
    RBCornerButton          = 0
    LTCornerButton          = 0
    LBCornerButton          = 0
    TapButton1              = 1
    TapButton2              = 0
    TapButton3              = 0
    ClickFinger1            = 1
    ClickFinger2            = 1
    ClickFinger3            = 1
    CircularScrolling       = 0
    CircScrollDelta         = 0.1
    CircScrollTrigger       = 0
    CircularPad             = 0
    PalmDetect              = 0
    PalmMinWidth            = 10
    PalmMinZ                = 199
    CoastingSpeed           = 0
    PressureMotionMinZ      = 29
    PressureMotionMaxZ      = 159
    PressureMotionMinFactor = 1
    PressureMotionMaxFactor = 1
    GrabEventDevice         = 1

[nightflier]

You're almost there.

Now you can start playing with all those values. Experiment in a terminal with commands like:

Code:

synclient MinSpeed=0.2
synclient MaxSpeed=0.5
synclient AccelFactor=0.00900010

Once you find the values that produce the desired behavior, you can add those commands to the startup script of your DE/WM.

[Martin109]

Thanks, nightflier, that's great!