Macbook Pro 9,2 trackpad and media button problems
 

I'm currently running Slackware 14.1 (freshly installed today) and did install lm-sensors to get my fan working properly.

I am having difficulty finding out what I need to install for my trackpad and the media (Function) buttons to get them to work right.

Trackpad: overly sensitive it seems, and tends to jump around when I am typing causing me to type in other areas of the paragraph and clicks on things I have not even gone near such as ads and links for other pages. When I enable "disable touchpad while typing" it takes a few seconds for me to be able to move the mouse due to the limitation of not being able to set the seconds (or milliseconds) between typing and enabling use of the trackpad. That is very frustrating. Also the trackpad randomly selects text when I am scrolling through a page, it just happened when I was trying to scroll down when creating this thread.

Function buttons/media buttons:
Works:
F1 (lower screen brightness)
F2 (raise screen brightness)

Doesn't work:
F3 (OS X-specific)
F4 (OS X-specific Launchpad)
F5 (lower keyboard backlight LED)
F6 (raise Keyboard backlight LED)
F7 (previous song/video)
F8 (play/pause audio/video)
F9 (next song/video)

I'd like to get F5 and F6 working, if not F5-F9) I can figure something out for the F3 and F4 later as I will just set it to trigger something, or I may never work with them.

I would also like to set Command as the button for Control as I am used to using Command+C or V to copy and paste and it's now unnatural for me to try to use Control which is very far to the left and uncomfortable for my hand to try to access. I have tried figuring out how to use xmodmap over the years and have not bee successful in switching Control and Command. Plus I'd like to map Command to be used instead of Alt/Option for Cmd+Tab to switch between open apps.

If someone has a guide to fix these things, please direct me to it or them. I'm frustrated but prefer Linux over OS X and would prefer to spend most of my time in Linux.

Thank you.

F5 (lower keyboard backlight LED)
F6 (raise Keyboard backlight LED)

I believe you need `applesmc` for that. You may have that already, I can't recall and have not used a Mac in a while. You can control LED backlights by incrementing or decrementing the values in /sys/class/leds/smc::kbd_backlight/brightness and you can map the keys themselves through your KDE's System Settings > Shortcuts and Gestures > Global Keyboard Shortcuts.

F7 (previous song/video)
F8 (play/pause audio/video)
F9 (next song/video)

These can all be mapped through System Settings (in KDE) or XFCE's control panel.

Set Command as the button for Control

That can also be done through System Settings > Input > Keyboard. The "Command" key will be called "Super" in the GUI, but otherwise it is trivial to make Super [Command] act just like a control key. Alt-tab will still be alt-tab (you are probably used to command-tab) but you can change that too in System Settings > Shortcuts and Gestures > Global Keyboard Shortcuts.



Of course a lot of the keyboard stuff can also be done with Xmodmap so that it works independently of the desktop environment but I won't get into that unless you want it, since it does require figuring out keycodes and stuyy like that. Not hard, just a whole 'nother post.

For your trackpad, that's a little more difficult. I have never loved how the touchpads on Macs work under Linux, but I believe you can control various attributes of it with `synclient`.

Type just `synclient` for a list of all available configuration options. You may have to fiddle with things like the speed and acceleration and palm detection. It's kind of a pain, and I never really got it to work as well as I'd like. Definitely take your time to try out different settings. Once you find the settings you like, dump the synclient commands into /etc/rc.d/rc.local and they will be triggered automatically at boot.

I used to be a Mac guy, too. The best thing I did was to stop using Macs and bought a System 76. Full compatibility with Linux out-of-the-box and quite decent hardware (for a PC; yeah, it's not metal, but at least it uses hardware that plays nice with open source). I'm not saying throw out the Mac, I'm just saying, for next time :-)

Thank you, notKlaatu. Love your username, btw. I can't find applesmc as an available option to download in slackware, but I am having problems finding much of anything through packages.slackware.com. I can't even find gedit or mousepad, which I'm sure is in there somewhere. I did just check and I do have applesmc installed and I have enabled it but it hasn't changed anything that I have noticed.

I will look through /sys/class/leds/smc::kbd_backlight/brightness.

I do not have KDE, though I do use XFCE. I was able to switch command and control but still when copying and pasting it requires control to do it. I am not sure how to map those functions.

I see I have synclient installed but will have to work with it like you said.

Yes, my next computer will likely be a PC and I will look into System 7. Thank you. :)