Mouspad on ancient Dell inspiron 7000

Turbocapitalist · 09-18-2006, 10:48 AM

I've got Ubuntu (Dapper) up and running on a prehistoric Dell inspiron, but am unable to figure out how to get the trackpad to work. Plugging a regular mouse into the USB port works, but I'd like to have the trackpad instead.

Where should I look?

odcheck · 09-19-2006, 04:21 AM

It's a Synaptics PS/2 two-button touchpad, about the least challenging piece of hardware on earth to support. Don't forget to emulate the (absent) third button for X11.

This is part of /etc/X11/xorg.conf

Code:

Section Server Layout
        InputDevice    "Synaptics" "CorePointer"
        InputDevice    "Mouse0" "AlwaysCore"

and this can be also useful for your needs

Section "InputDevice"
        Identifier  "Mouse0"
        Driver      "mouse"
        Option      "Protocol" "IMPS/2"
        Option      "Device" "/dev/input/mice"
        Option      "ZAxisMapping" "4 5"
        Option      "Emulate3Buttons" "yes"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
        Identifier  "Synaptics"
        Driver      "synaptics"
        Option      "Device" "/dev/input/mice"
        Option      "Protocol" "auto-dev"
        Option      "Emulate3Buttons" "yes"
        Option      "LeftEdge" "120"
        Option      "RightEdge" "830"
        Option      "TopEdge" "120"
        Option      "BottomEdge" "650"
        Option      "FingerLow" "14"
        Option      "FingerHigh" "15"
        Option      "MaxTapMove" "110"
        Option      "VertScrollDelta" "20"
        Option      "HorizScrollDelta" "20"
        Option      "MinSpeed" "0.3"
        Option      "MaxSpeed" "0.75"
EndSection

by the way there is also an Synaptics driver that you can install with apt.

Turbocapitalist · 09-19-2006, 08:17 AM

Thanks. I've tried appending the text posted above to /etc/X11/xorg.conf , but see no effect even after restarting Gnome. I installed the synaptic driver using the command sudo apt-get install xfree86-driver-synaptics but that had no effect either.

Looking in "Device Manager" I'm hard pressed to find the touchpad device. What should it look like?

odcheck · 09-19-2006, 08:24 AM

Did it work before? Sure that you didn't mismatch something within the dell bios?

Turbocapitalist · 09-25-2006, 05:35 AM

The trackpad has worked before with SuSe, RedHat and Debian. But I haven't use the machine for well over a year.