How to configure Synaptics TouchPad

English Hardware
1

I have a new HP ENVY 14 laptop with OpenSuSE 11.3 installed, running the Gnome desktop. The laptop has a Synaptics TouchPad. By default, many of the touchpad settings are turned off, e.g. single tap to click. I’m trying to set them in /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/20-synaptics.conf:


Section "InputClass"
    Identifier "touchpad catchall"
    Driver "synaptics"
    MatchIsTouchpad "on"
    MatchDevicePath "/dev/input/event*"
        Option "SHMConfig" "on"
        Option "TapButton1" "1"
        Option "TapButton2" "3"
        Option "VertEdgeScroll" "on"
        Option "HorizEdgeScroll" "on"
        Option "VertTwoFingerScroll" "on"
        Option "HorizTwoFingerScroll" "on"
        Option "VertScrollDelta" "75"
        Option "HorizScrollDelta" "100"
        Option "CircularScrolling" "on"
        Option "CircScrollTrigger" "2"
        Option "EmulateTwoFingerMinZ" "0"
        Option "CoastingSpeed" "5"
EndSection

However, these settings do not take effect. Here is the output from synclient -l|grep TapButton:


    TapButton1              = 0
    TapButton2              = 0
    TapButton3              = 0

And here’s an excerpt from /var/log/Xorg.0.log:


    10.615] (II) config/udev: Adding input device SynPS/2 Synaptics TouchPad (/dev/input/event0)
    10.615] (**) SynPS/2 Synaptics TouchPad: Applying InputClass "evdev touchpad catchall"
    10.615] (**) SynPS/2 Synaptics TouchPad: Applying InputClass "touchpad catchall"
    10.615] (II) LoadModule: "synaptics"
    10.616] (II) Loading /usr/lib64/xorg/modules/input/synaptics_drv.so
    10.617] (II) Module synaptics: vendor="X.Org Foundation"
    10.617]     compiled for 1.8.0, module version = 1.2.2
    10.617]     Module class: X.Org XInput Driver
    10.617]     ABI class: X.Org XInput driver, version 9.0
    10.617] (II) Synaptics touchpad driver version 1.2.2
    10.617] (**) Option "Device" "/dev/input/event0"
    10.676] (II) SynPS/2 Synaptics TouchPad: x-axis range 1472 - 5672
    10.676] (II) SynPS/2 Synaptics TouchPad: y-axis range 1408 - 4550
    10.676] (II) SynPS/2 Synaptics TouchPad: pressure range 0 - 255
    10.676] (II) SynPS/2 Synaptics TouchPad: finger width range 0 - 15
    10.676] (II) SynPS/2 Synaptics TouchPad: buttons: left double triple
    10.676] (II) SynPS/2 Synaptics TouchPad: supports multi-touch finger detection
    10.676] (II) SynPS/2 Synaptics TouchPad: is Clickpad device
    10.676] (**) Option "SHMConfig" "on"
    10.676] (**) Option "EmulateTwoFingerMinZ" "0"
    10.676] (**) Option "VertScrollDelta" "75"
    10.676] (**) Option "HorizScrollDelta" "100"
    10.676] (**) Option "VertEdgeScroll" "on"
    10.676] (**) Option "HorizEdgeScroll" "on"
    10.676] (**) Option "VertTwoFingerScroll" "on"
    10.676] (**) Option "HorizTwoFingerScroll" "on"
    10.676] (**) Option "TapButton1" "1"
    10.676] (**) Option "TapButton2" "3"
    10.676] (**) Option "CircularScrolling" "on"
    10.676] (**) Option "CircScrollTrigger" "2"
    10.676] (**) Option "CoastingSpeed" "5"
    10.702] (--) SynPS/2 Synaptics TouchPad: touchpad found
    10.702] (**) SynPS/2 Synaptics TouchPad: always reports core events
    10.711] (II) XINPUT: Adding extended input device "SynPS/2 Synaptics TouchPad" (type: TOUCHPAD)
    10.711] (**) SynPS/2 Synaptics TouchPad: (accel) keeping acceleration scheme 1
    10.711] (**) SynPS/2 Synaptics TouchPad: (accel) acceleration profile 0
    10.711] (**) SynPS/2 Synaptics TouchPad: (accel) acceleration factor: 2.000
    10.711] (**) SynPS/2 Synaptics TouchPad: (accel) acceleration threshold: 4
    10.732] (--) SynPS/2 Synaptics TouchPad: touchpad found
    10.732] (II) config/udev: Adding input device SynPS/2 Synaptics TouchPad (/dev/input/mouse0)
    10.732] (EE) No input driver/identifier specified (ignoring)

I’ve verified that the settings I’m trying to set work when I set them using synclient, e.g. synclient TapButton1=1 enables tap to click.

I’m brand new to Linux and OpenSuSE so I’m not even sure this is the preferred way to set up my touchpad. I’d appreciate any help diagnosing this problem.

2

According to this thread No Synaptics Touchpad , you should be able to get it to work.

3

The problem is not that the touchpad doesn’t work. It works fine. I can configure all the settings I want through synclient including 1 and 2 finger tap-to-click, two finger horizontal and vertical scrolling, three finger gestures, etc.

The problem is that I can’t configure the settings with Xorg so they take effect when I boot up. I’ve seen many other postings in many other forums where people have used similar Xorg config files to make this happen. I just can’t see why it’s not working in my case. I’m using Option “TapButton1” “1” in 20-synaptics.conf that was mentioned in the post you quoted. It doesn’t seem to take effect, however. The only way I’ve found to configure the touchpad is with synclient commands.

4

I think gnome has its own little touchpad configuration found under the Mouse settings under Control Center. There you can set tap to click etc.

5

GNOME only allows a very few mouse settings to be configured: Right-Handed/Left-Handed, Pointer Speed, Drag and Drop, and Double-Click Timeout. None of the Synaptics touchpad features can be configured using the GNOME Mouse control panel, not even tap to click.

Xorg provides configuration options for all the supported Synaptics TouchPad features. I just don’t seem to be able to make them work.

6

Hi, I am just as disapointed as you with the **** touchpad configuration. I have also tried setting from within /etc/X11/xorg.conf and /etc/X11/20-synaptics.conf. Also I tried several combinations (setting options in xorg.conf and 20-synaptics.conf) but no luck.

Have you tried gpointing-device-settings? this one seems the best config. tool for the touchpad, but… still the options seems not to take effect.

I could only patch it creating a batch file (.sh) with the synclient options I wanted to activate.

I know that gnome-mouse-properties have some options, but its VERY uncomplete. I.E. my notebook dv7 has a big touchpad… so I would like to activate the palm detection options shown in synclient… and its imposible to get it working right (I am starting to think its a bug in the driver :frowning:

Hope someone can help!

Thanks