What are the steps to disable the Synaptics touchpad tapping? (With apologies to all the many people who have been groping for the answer over the years and have said they found it.) I have tried "tpconfig", but I cannot understand its installation instructions very well, and it will not work. My computer is a new Dell 1420, with Slackware 12.0, but the problem is a general one, of course.

The setting is described here. Remember to restart X after editing the /etc/X11/xorg.conf file.

Thanks to macemoneta for the help. Unfortunately, I got it so messed up that I cannot bring up the X system now. I had no Synaptics driver,it appeared, so following some other posts, I downloaded one from web.telia.com and did make. There were a couple of discrepancies: the README said to put synaptics_drv.o into /usr/X11R6/lib/modules/input, but the executables made were synaptics_drv.so and syndaemon. I put the ".so" file into the directory. I adjusted the InputDevice and ServerLayout sections. Following the initial failure to startx, I made another event node as /dev/input/event4, as README suggested. It still did not work. The following were the relevant excerpts from /var/log/Xorg.0.log:

...........
Markers: (--) probed, (**) from config file, (==) default setting,
(++) from command line, (!!) notice, (II) informational,
(WW) warning, (EE) error, (NI) not implemented, (??) unknown.
(==) Log file: "/var/log/Xorg.0.log", Time: Wed Sep 19 16:03:35 2007
(==) Using config file: "/etc/X11/xorg.conf"
..................
(**) |-->Input Device "Synaptics Mouse"
(**) |-->Input Device "Keyboard1"
(II) No default mouse found, adding one
....................
(II) LoadModule: "synaptics"
(II) Loading /usr/lib/xorg/modules/input//synaptics_drv.so
(II) Module synaptics: vendor="X.Org Foundation"
compiled for 4.3.99.902, module version = 1.0.0
Module class: X.Org XInput Driver
ABI class: X.Org XInput driver, version 0.7
(II) LoadModule: "kbd"
(II) Loading /usr/lib/xorg/modules/input//kbd_drv.so
(II) Module kbd: vendor="X.Org Foundation"
compiled for 1.2.99.905, module version = 1.1.0
Module class: X.Org XInput Driver
ABI class: X.Org XInput driver, version 0.7
(II) LoadModule: "mouse"
(II) Loading /usr/lib/xorg/modules/input//mouse_drv.so
(II) Module mouse: vendor="X.Org Foundation"
compiled for 7.2.0, module version = 1.1.1
Module class: X.Org XInput Driver
ABI class: X.Org XInput driver, version 0.7
...................

(II) Synaptics touchpad driver version 0.14.6 (1406)
Synaptics Mouse no synaptics event device found (checked 14 nodes)
(**) Option "Device" "/dev/mouse"
(**) Option "MaxTapTime" "180"
Query no Synaptics: 6003C8
(EE) Synaptics Mouse no synaptics touchpad detected and no repeater device
(EE) Synaptics Mouse Unable to query/initialize Synaptics hardware.
(EE) PreInit failed for input device "Synaptics Mouse"
(II) UnloadModule: "synaptics"
...............
(**) Option "CoreKeyboard"
(**) Keyboard1: Core Keyboard
(**) Option "Protocol" "standard"
(**) Keyboard1: Protocol: standard
(**) Option "AutoRepeat" "500 30"
(**) Option "XkbRules" "xorg"
(**) Keyboard1: XkbRules: "xorg"
(**) Option "XkbModel" "pc105"
(**) Keyboard1: XkbModel: "pc105"
(**) Option "XkbLayout" "us"
(**) Keyboard1: XkbLayout: "us"
(**) Option "CustomKeycodes" "off"
(**) Keyboard1: CustomKeycodes disabled
(WW) <default pointer>: No Device specified, looking for one...
(II) <default pointer>: Setting Device option to "/dev/input/mice"
(--) <default pointer>: Device: "/dev/input/mice"
(==) <default pointer>: Protocol: "Auto"
(**) Option "AlwaysCore"
(**) <default pointer>: always reports core events
(==) <default pointer>: Emulate3Buttons, Emulate3Timeout: 50
(**) <default pointer>: ZAxisMapping: buttons 4 and 5
(**) <default pointer>: Buttons: 9
(WW) No core pointer registered
(II) XINPUT: Adding extended input device "<default pointer>" (type: MOUSE)
(II) XINPUT: Adding extended input device "Keyboard1" (type: KEYBOARD)
(--) <default pointer>: PnP-detected protocol: "ExplorerPS/2"
(II) <default pointer>: ps2EnableDataReporting: succeeded
No core pointer

Fatal server error:
failed to initialize core devices
.........

I'd sure appreciate help on this, as my wandering thumb is always putting things in the wrong places.

According to the output, the driver successfully loaded, but could not find a Synaptics touchpad. Are you sure you have one? All touchpads are not made by or compatible with Synaptics.

According to the Dell Company, a Synaptics touchpad is what I have.
I agree that the Synaptics driver seems to get loaded. Perhaps the trouble is with an "event device", which seems to be the first thing the X loader dislikes:

II) Synaptics touchpad driver version 0.14.6 (1406)
Synaptics Mouse no synaptics event device found (checked 14 nodes)
(**) Option "Device" "/dev/mouse"
(**) Option "MaxTapTime" "180"
Query no Synaptics: 6003C8
(EE) Synaptics Mouse no synaptics touchpad detected and no repeater device
(EE) Synaptics Mouse Unable to query/initialize Synaptics hardware.
(EE) PreInit failed for input device "Synaptics Mouse"
(II) UnloadModule: "synaptics"

I have not the slightest idea what is going on here. The README said to load something called "evdev", and "lsmod" seems to be saying that it is running. Any tips, specific or referring to general reading, would be welcome.

OK, some time on Google found this thread that describes the problem with Slackware 12.

The bottom line appears to be to either recompile the kernel with the configuration option "CONFIG_MOUSE_PS2_SYNAPTICS=y" or use the huge-smp kernel.

Thanks, Macemoneta, though I still have trouble. I studied the reference you gave. The questioner said that his problem was solved by switching to the Slackware 12 huge SMP kernel, but I was using that anyway. The respondent suggested rebuilding the kernel with a CONFIG_MOUSE_PS2_SYNAPTICS=y option, but I did not see such an option. (I do not really know how to build a kernel, but ran make menuconfig in the /usr/src/linux/ directory, as per "Running Linux".) He said, also, that it might be necessary to download the Synaptics driver; and that of course is what I have been wrestling with. So it is still a conundrum.

It turns out that the Dell 1420 does not have a Synpatics touchpad, it has an ALPS Glidepoint. While this should be compatible with the Synaptics driver, it's a new model that is not yet recognized by the kernel. There is a kernel patch available, but it's not in your Slackware 12 kernel yet, apparently. You can manually update the alps.c file in the kernel source and rebuild the kernel until Slackware incorporates the patch.

Thanks, Macemoneta. Dell tech support had told me it was a Synaptics touchpad, but he did not sound entirely sure. I have no alps.c driver in my Slackware 12.0 (though there is a synaptics.c). I'll look some more, but while browsing I found a page in which some configuration for udev occurs:

**************************************************
mousepad /etc/udev/rules.d/40-personal.rules
**************************************************

BUS="serio", SYSFS{description}="i8042 Aux-3 Port",
KERNEL="event2",SYMLINK="input/TouchPad"

(That's all on one line)

The reason that caught my eye was that in my boot messages the lack of an "event driver" was mentioned.