[SOLVED] Touchpad Issue

Summer Deep · 10-23-2016, 10:13 AM

Anyone know how to switch off the touchpad on a laptop using 4MLinux? Very difficult to play Quake when this thing's active!

tronayne · 10-23-2016, 10:55 AM

Are you using a window manager? Say, KDE, Xfce?

In the system settings there is a hardware setting, in Xfce it's Mouse and Touchpad.

Simply turn the thing off.

That will not turn it off if X is not running, you still have to keep your thumbs off it.

Hope this helps some.

Summer Deep · 10-23-2016, 11:30 AM

^ Thanks for that, in the distro I use on a day to day basis (Mint Cinnamon 17.3) this works exactly as you say, but 4M is a bit of a law unto itself. Its default (and only?) window manager, JWM, is very basic and makes no reference to the touchpad in its 'Mouse and Keyboard' feature. I'm hoping there'll be a text file that can be edited or some solution via the Terminal....

Timothy Miller · 10-23-2016, 01:12 PM

You can edit the synaptics configuration file to turn off touchpad whenever an external mouse is plugged in.

https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php...ouse_detection

Summer Deep · 10-23-2016, 01:53 PM

Thanks for the link - that stuff looks very interesting, even if at least 90% of it is beyond my level of comprehension at this point in time, and any mention of 'drivers' always sends me running for the hills...I did have a quick trawl through various folders using the 4M File Manager, but couldn't see anything with 'synaptics' in it.

zk1234 · 10-23-2016, 02:25 PM

I will try to add such an option in 4MLinux 21.0 (4MLinux 20.0 is now "frozen"; it will become stable in several days, so it's too late to add new features).

Somewhat "brutal" workaround: move/rename/delete the /usr/lib/xorg/modules/input/synaptics_drv.so and restart X.

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zk1234 · 10-23-2016, 02:28 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Summer Deep

4M is a bit of a law unto itself

Much more than a bit :-)

http://4mlinux.blogspot.com/2013/01/...inux-blog.html

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Summer Deep · 10-23-2016, 02:52 PM

Thanks for the workaround zk, that works perfectly! The Quake demo is a lot of fun by the way, but is not as problem-free as the Freedoom games on the distro. It's crashed a few times (though maybe the touchpad issue was responsible for some of that), but I've also noticed that when reloading saved games, the control options are always reset to their defaults and need to be reconfigured every time. Not sure whether this is a bug, or whether it can be remedied.

zk1234 · 10-23-2016, 02:56 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Summer Deep

Thanks for the workaround zk, that works perfectly! The Quake demo is a lot of fun by the way, but is not as problem-free as the Freedoom games on the distro. It's crashed a few times (though maybe the touchpad issue was responsible for some of that), but I've also noticed that when reloading saved games, the control options are always reset to their defaults and need to be reconfigured every time. Not sure whether this is a bug, or whether it can be remedied.

Thanks for reporting this issue. I will have a look at this in the nearest future .

Emerson · 10-23-2016, 02:59 PM

You can enable/disable/adjust input devices on fly with xinput.

zk1234 · 10-23-2016, 03:04 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Emerson

You can enable/disable/adjust input devices on fly with xinput.

Code:

root@4MLinux:~$ xinput
bash: xinput: command not found

However, I will test this. Thanks.

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Emerson · 10-23-2016, 03:09 PM

You are the boss, include it with your distro. Below is Gentoo portage.

Code:

 ~ $ eix xinput
* lxde-base/lxinput
     Available versions:  0.3.2 (~)0.3.5
     Homepage:            http://lxde.org/
     Description:         LXDE keyboard and mouse configuration tool

* x11-apps/xinput
     Available versions:  1.6.1 1.6.2
     Homepage:            http://xorg.freedesktop.org/
     Description:         Utility to set XInput device parameters

* x11-apps/xinput_calibrator
     Available versions:  0.7.5 {gtk}
     Homepage:            https://www.freedesktop.org/wiki/Software/xinput_calibrator
     Description:         A generic touchscreen calibration program for X.Org

Found 3 matches

zk1234 · 10-23-2016, 03:12 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Emerson

You are the boss, include it with your distro. Below is Gentoo portage.

Code:

 ~ $ eix xinput
* lxde-base/lxinput
     Available versions:  0.3.2 (~)0.3.5
     Homepage:            http://lxde.org/
     Description:         LXDE keyboard and mouse configuration tool

* x11-apps/xinput
     Available versions:  1.6.1 1.6.2
     Homepage:            http://xorg.freedesktop.org/
     Description:         Utility to set XInput device parameters

* x11-apps/xinput_calibrator
     Available versions:  0.7.5 {gtk}
     Homepage:            https://www.freedesktop.org/wiki/Software/xinput_calibrator
     Description:         A generic touchscreen calibration program for X.Org

Found 3 matches

In meantime I replied to you in my post above.

Summer Deep · 10-23-2016, 03:18 PM

Deleted post: duplicate.

Summer Deep · 10-23-2016, 03:20 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by zk1234

Thanks for reporting this issue. I will have a look at this in the nearest future .

....though it's maybe not quite as bad as appears from my previous post. The control settings only revert to default if the player quits the game then reloads a saved game - within a continuous playing session the settings remain intact.