[SOLVED] How to configure touchpad?

Synderesis · 12-18-2010, 10:52 PM

Hi! So after several hours I've finally gotten slackware running! But the only thing I don't understand is how to configure the touchpad. In Ubuntu you can do it in the GUI, but I have no idea how to do it via Slackware.

I mostly want it to disable tap to click when I type, and enable horizontal and vertical scrolling. I've tried using synclient but that doesn't seem to work, and in any case I think that is only supposed to be a temporary fix anyway.

Oh, I guess this is not really on topic, but can someone teach me how to update packages I've installed? I installed wicd to use wireless for my laptop, but according to their website, it's best that I update it to the newest version because of some bug.

Thanks!

fmiser · 12-18-2010, 11:31 PM

Probably you will need to make changes is xorg.conf. Try first looking in /etc/X11/.

The latest versions of xorg don't really need an xorg.conf, so if it's not there don't panic.

Sorry, I don't remember (and my notes are too sketchy) where I learned the possible parameter.

That said, on my old hardware running old Debian I have the following in my xorg.conf

Code:

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

## These are my additions
        Option          "PalmDetect"         "on"
        Option          "PalmMinWidth"       "5"
        Option          "CoastingSpeed"      "10"
        Option          "CircularScrolling"  "on"
        Option          "CircScrollTrigger"  "0"
        Option          "EmulateMidButtonTime" "100"
        Option          "MaxTapTime"           "200" #ms, more is not a tap
        Option          "MaxTapMove"           "0" # no single-click taps
        Option          "LeftEdge"             "1700"
        Option          "RightEdge"            "5300"
        Option          "TopEdge"              "1700"
        Option          "BottomEdge"           "4200"
        Option          "FingerLow"            "20"
        Option          "FingerHigh"           "60"
        Option          "VertScrollDelta"      "100"
        Option          "MinSpeed"             "0.0001"
        Option          "MaxSpeed"             "0.2"
        Option          "AccelFactor"          "0.005"
        Option          "SHMConfig"            "on"

allend · 12-19-2010, 01:00 AM

Configuring the synaptics driver for your touchpad will depend on the version of Slackware that you have installed.
For the stable 13.1 release:
From CHANGES_AND_HINTS.TXT

Quote:

If you are using input hotplugging via HAL and a synaptics touchpad, then you
might need to copy /usr/share/hal/fdi/policy/10osvendor/11-x11-synaptics.fdi
to /etc/hal/fdi/policy/ and edit it to suit your needs. You can also use
synclient(1) to make changes "on the fly."
Also note that any touchpads that include actual buttons as part of the
touchpad hardware will not have tap-to-click enabled by default.

For the development 13.1-current release:
From CHANGES_AND_HINTS.TXT

Quote:

The version of Xorg in Slackware -current will not (in most cases) require
an /etc/X11/xorg.conf file at all. Input hotplugging is no longer done
using hal; instead, it now uses udev for input device detection and for
keyboard mapping.

/usr/share/X11/xorg.conf.d/ is the "packaged" configuration directory; all
files ending with ".conf" in this directory are used by the X server
unless there is an identically-named file in the local sysadmin directory.
The local sysadmin config directory is /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/ - all files
ending with ".conf" in this directory are parsed.

There are several default config files in /usr/share/X11/xorg.conf.d/:
* 10-evdev.conf
a "catchall" rule for input devices using the evdev driver; this
should work for most hardware in the absence of a better driver
* 50-synaptics.conf
overrides the earlier 10-evdev.conf file and uses the synaptics
driver for all touchpads
* 50-wacom.conf
overrides the earlier 10-evdev.conf file and uses the wacom driver
for Wacom tablets
* 90-keyboard-layout.conf
this sample ("normal" en layout) keeps the "old" default of
allowing Zap'ing the Xserver.
If you need to modify any of these defaults, then copy the relevant file
from /usr/share/X11/xorg.conf.d/ to /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/ and edit the
copy.

catkin · 12-19-2010, 03:05 AM

On Slackware 13.1 the following worked to disable tap-to-click on a touchpad reported in /var/log/messages as

Code:

Synaptics Touchpad, model: 1, fw: 7.2, id: 0x1c0b1, caps: 0xd04771/0xa40000

Create /etc/hal/fdi/policy/11-x11-synaptics.fdi by

Code:

cp /usr/share/hal/fdi/policy/10osvendor/11-x11-synaptics.fdi /etc/hal/fdi/policy/

and edit /etc/hal/fdi/policy/11-x11-synaptics.fdi to (comments stripped for brevity):

Code:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="ISO-8859-1"?>
<deviceinfo version="0.2">
  <device>
    <match key="info.capabilities" contains="input.touchpad">
        <merge key="input.x11_driver" type="string">synaptics</merge>
        <merge key="input.x11_options.TapButton1" type="string">0</merge>
    </match>
  </device>
</deviceinfo>

I do not know how to safely re-initialise HAL (it might upset X) so rebooted to effect the above changes.

If that works, here's a more ambitious sample with comments:

Code:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="ISO-8859-1"?>
<deviceinfo version="0.2">
  <device>
    <match key="info.capabilities" contains="input.touchpad">
        <merge key="input.x11_driver" type="string">synaptics</merge>

        <!-- Disable tap click -->
        <merge key="input.x11_options.TapButton1" type="string">0</merge>

        <!-- Switch on shared memory, enables the driver to be configured at runtime -->
        <merge key="input.x11_options.SHMConfig" type="string">true</merge>

        <!-- Disable vertical scrolling when dragging along the right edge -->
        <merge key="input.x11_options.VertEdgeScroll" type="string">false</merge>

        <!-- Enable vertical scrolling when dragging with two fingers anywhere on the touchpad -->
        <merge key="input.x11_options.VertTwoFingerScroll" type="string">true</merge>

        <!-- Enable horizontal scrolling when dragging with two fingers anywhere on the touchpad -->
        <merge key="input.x11_options.HorizTwoFingerScroll" type="string">true</merge>

    </match>
  </device>
</deviceinfo>

With SHMConfig set to true you can use shmclient's -m option to experiment more directly. For example, shmclient -m showed that the above model did not detect two-finger scrolling.

EDIT: using the above methods, no X configuration changes were necessary.

catkin · 12-19-2010, 03:23 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Synderesis

Oh, I guess this is not really on topic, but can someone teach me how to update packages I've installed? I installed wicd to use wireless for my laptop, but according to their website, it's best that I update it to the newest version because of some bug.

Having multiple questions per thread can be confusing so is better avoided.

If you have just started with Slackware you may like to browse a collection of Slackware links for information on upgrading and many other questions that will come. A good starting place is LQ's collection of Slackware links.

Further helpful links (maybe all listed in LQ's collection of links):

David Woodfall's Homepage: http://www.dawoodfall.net/
zerouno's file/package search site: slak.homelinux.org
mRgOBLIN's site: http://connie.slackware.com/~mrgoblin/
Slackware boot procedure: http://www.bilbos-stekkie.com/slack_init/en/index.html
Dugan Chen's: http://www.vcn.bc.ca/~dugan/setting-up-slackware.html
alt.os.linux.slackware FAQ: http://l0k1.free.fr/aolsfaq.html
Slackware® Unofficial Announcement Repository: http://wiki.linuxquestions.org/wiki/.../Fixes/HotList
Alien Bob's site: http://connie.slackware.com/~alien/

allend · 12-19-2010, 07:09 AM

Quote:

With SHMConfig set to true you can use shmclient's -m option to experiment more directly. For example, shmclient -m showed that the above model did not detect two-finger scrolling.

I think that should be synclient rather than shmclient.

For package updates look at:
upgradepkg - The official Slackware script by Patrick Volkerding for upgrading a package.
pkgtool - The official Slackware script by Patrick Volkerding for configuring Slackware, that incorporates upgradepkg.
slackpkg - The official Slackware application by PiterPunk for syncing your Slackware installation with an official tree.

There are also third party tools (e.g. slaptget, swaret) for doing this that I personally do not use or recommend.

piratesmack · 12-19-2010, 07:29 AM

You can also use this synclient GUI to configure your touchpad:
http://slackbuilds.org/repository/13...m/flSynclient/

EDIT:

Even better if you're a KDE user:
http://slackbuilds.org/repository/13.../kcm_touchpad/

catkin · 12-19-2010, 07:44 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by allend

I think that should be synclient rather than shmclient.

Oops! Thanks for the correction

allend · 12-19-2010, 07:59 AM

Quote:

Oops! Thanks for the correction

LOL! You are welcome. Did the same thing myself very recently! :-) http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...8/#post4196319

Synderesis · 12-19-2010, 03:19 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by allend

Configuring the synaptics driver for your touchpad will depend on the version of Slackware that you have installed.
For the stable 13.1 release:
From CHANGES_AND_HINTS.TXT

For the development 13.1-current release:
From CHANGES_AND_HINTS.TXT

Umm.. the strange thing is, I don't even have that directory for /usr/share/X11. I also don't have a folder for xorg.conf.d/ but I do have a file for xorg.conf

I'm going to try the other method with HAL though and see how that goes

Synderesis · 12-19-2010, 04:13 PM

The HAL stuff worked! But unfortunately for some reason my touchpad doesn't support multitouch even though it was advertised as such =[

Going to change to solved

veeall · 12-20-2010, 01:36 AM

You can try if you can emulate two-finger scroll with:

Code:

synclient EmulateTwoFingerMinZ=35
synclient EmulateTwoFingerMinW=8
synclient VertTwoFingerScroll=1

Works here.

Synderesis · 12-20-2010, 04:05 AM

Wow that completely worked! How do you make it so that I don't have to enter the commands everytime I turn on the computer though? Should I have X11 make an xorg.conf file or am I supposed to do it from HAL?

I'm pretty new so all this stuff is confusing me =[

allend · 12-20-2010, 08:22 AM

Quote:

How do you make it so that I don't have to enter the commands everytime I turn on the computer though?

Do as catkin suggested in post#4, adding the parameters that you tested with synclient. i.e. Add these lines to /etc/hal/fdi/policy/11-x11-synaptics.fdi

Code:

<merge key="input.x11_options.EmulateTwoFingerMinZ" type="string">35</merge>
<merge key="input.x11_options.EmulateTwoFingerMinW" type="string">8</merge>
<merge key="input.x11_options.VertTwoFingerScroll" type="string">1</merge>

Make sure you add these lines to the active part of the file and not the comments section. In the XML format comments are delimited by