I am running Ubuntu 8.04 on my PowerBook. PowerBook trackpads do not have a right-click button; to bring up a contextual menu in the MacOS, you normally hold down the ctrl key on the left side of the keyboard and press the trackpad button (or tap the pad). This is not working in Ubuntu; the only way to get the contextual menu is to press the F12 key. Is there a way I can change this to the ctrl-click that is usual for Mac users?

Did you find the answer?

Thanks for asking. I found some instructions on the internet awhile back involving a change in the keycode in a configuration file. This allowed me to change the designated key that simulated a right-click, but not the control-click combination. That was OK, but unfortunately I had to reinstall Ubuntu on my PowerBook and I haven't been able to find the instructions since. If you know how, I would appreciate the instructions again.

mouseemu seems to be pretty good. That gives me F11 for right-click. I have a minimal Debian/Fluxbox install on my Mac and I'm slowing going through all the parts making it functional. Let me know if you figure this out, as I would like an apple-key+click for right-click.

Thanks.

I'm not sure how your distro setup the touch pad by default, but on most Synpatics pads, you can tap with 2 fingers at the same time to get right click, 3 fingers for middle click. There are some touch pads out there that are Synaptics compatible, but not multi-touch compatible, so this won't work all the time.

Unfortunately, the trackpad that comes with my PowerBook doesn't respond to the 2 or 3 finger touch.

I guess it's different for each distro/window manager. I have a minimal netinst Debian and Fluxbox. I purposefully went minimal to learn what makes FOSS tick!

elliott678, please could you let me know:-

i) What distro you use
ii) a print out of your /etc/X11/xorg.conf file
ii) laptop make and model (model e.g. a1010 -- found underneath Apple laptops)

Thanks in advance.

Jon

I don't have an Apple, I just know the newer ones support multiple taps, but I don't know when support became common. I do know this older than dirt Compaq I have acquired can do multiple taps, it is probably about 8 years old. As far as I am aware Apple used Synaptics pads just like everyone else, but I could be very wrong.

Every laptop I own can do multiple taps.
Acer 3680 (about 1 year old)
Acer 3003 (about 3 years old)
Dell C600 (about 6 years old)
Compaq 1600s (about 8 years old)

Everything runs Arch Linux, except the Compaq, it is i586(too old for Arch) and runs Windows 2000, I'll be giving that "gem" away soon, I know a student that can use it.

My touchpad section is pretty simple, I use basically the same one for all of my laptops. The tapping is basically the default, I did switch middle click and right click with the "TapButton" variable. It is normally 3 fingers for right click, 2 for middle click, I just switched them.