synclient not reflecting xorg.conf settings

English Hardware
1

Here are the xorg.conf settings for my HP Compaq F700 series laptop’s touchpad, which works fine at the login screen:

Section "InputDevice"
  Driver       "synaptics"
  Identifier   "Mouse[3]"
  Option       "AccelFactor" "0.01"
  Option       "BottomEdge" "4890"
  Option       "CircScrollDelta" "0"
  Option       "CircScrollTrigger" "0"
  Option       "CircularScrolling" "0"
  Option       "Device" "/dev/input/mice"
  Option       "EdgeMotionMaxSpeed" "15"
  Option       "EdgeMotionMinSpeed" "15"
  Option       "Emulate3Buttons" "on"
  Option       "EmulateMidButtonTime" "75"
  Option       "FingerHigh" "30"
  Option       "FingerLow" "30"
  Option       "HorizScrollDelta" "20"
  Option       "LeftEdge" "1332"
  Option       "MaxSpeed" "0.5"
  Option       "MaxTapMove" "110"
  Option       "MaxTapTime" "180"
  Option       "MinSpeed" "0.2"
  Option       "Name" "Touchpad"
  Option       "Protocol" "auto-dev"
  Option       "RightEdge" "5669"
  Option       "SHMConfig" "on"
  Option       "TopEdge" "1011"
  Option       "UpDownScrolling" "1"
  Option       "Vendor" "ALPS"
  Option       "VertScrollDelta" "20"
  Option       "ZAxisMapping" "4 5"
EndSection

After I log in, the touchpad stops working, and synclient reflects completely different settings:

synclient -l
Parameter settings:
    LeftEdge             = 1900
    RightEdge            = 5400
    TopEdge              = 1900
    BottomEdge           = 4000
    FingerLow            = 53
    FingerHigh           = 58
    MaxTapTime           = 180
    MaxTapMove           = 220
    MaxDoubleTapTime     = 180
    SingleTapTimeout     = 180
    ClickTime            = 100
    FastTaps             = 0
    EmulateMidButtonTime = 75
    VertScrollDelta      = 100
    HorizScrollDelta     = 0
    VertEdgeScroll       = 1
    HorizEdgeScroll      = 1
    VertTwoFingerScroll  = 0
    HorizTwoFingerScroll = 0
    MinSpeed             = 0
    MaxSpeed             = 0
    AccelFactor          = 0
    EdgeMotionMinZ       = 30
    EdgeMotionMaxZ       = 160
    EdgeMotionMinSpeed   = 1
    EdgeMotionMaxSpeed   = 400
    EdgeMotionUseAlways  = 0
    UpDownScrolling      = 1
    LeftRightScrolling   = 1
    UpDownRepeat         = 1
    LeftRightRepeat      = 1
    ScrollButtonRepeat   = 100
    TouchpadOff          = 0
    GuestMouseOff        = 0
    LockedDrags          = 0
    RTCornerButton       = 2
    RBCornerButton       = 3
    LTCornerButton       = 0
    LBCornerButton       = 0
    TapButton1           = 1
    TapButton2           = 2
    TapButton3           = 3
    CircularScrolling    = 0
    CircScrollDelta      = 0.01
    CircScrollTrigger    = 0
    CircularPad          = 0
    PalmDetect           = 1
    PalmMinWidth         = 10
    PalmMinZ             = 200
    CoastingSpeed        = 0
    PressureMotionMinZ   = 30
    PressureMotionMaxZ   = 160
    PressureMotionMinFactor = 1
    PressureMotionMaxFactor = 1

Why?

2

I worked around this problem by unchecking the Touchpad option in Control Center -> Sessions. This is all that is in ~/.gconf/desktop/gnome/peripherals/touchpad/%gconf.xml:


<?xml version="1.0"?>
<gconf>
        <entry name="vert_scroll_delta" mtime="1213999892" type="int" value="100">
        </entry>
        <entry name="max_tap_time" mtime="1213999892" type="int" value="180">
        </entry>
        <entry name="off" mtime="1213999892" type="bool" value="false">
        </entry>
</gconf>

Also, this is an odd message considering that CoastingSpeedThreshold isn’t specified anywhere in these files:

gsynaptics-init

** (gsynaptics-init:25563): WARNING **: Using synclient
Unknown parameter CoastingSpeedThreshold
3

I have the same issue using GNOME in OpenSUSE 11.0 on an x86 laptop. I also found the resolution to be the same by deselecting the Touchpad startup program from Control Center > Sessions. A few items that I thought interesting was that (1) This issue does not seem to plague KDE3, as I was able to log into this session and all seemed well, but since I prefer GNOME over KDE I wanted a resolution to this using my preferred window manager, and (2) When I looked at the Command: field under the Startup Programs > Edit button in Sessions, I found the following syntax for the command:


gsynaptics-init --sm-disable

I’m not certain what the optional parameter performs, but am looking into this to see what the issue could be. By the way, I did not have this issue in 10.3, so I would assume it is something conflicting in the GNOME session between synclient and gsynaptics.

4

That shared memory flag is identified in the synaptics man page and discussed on the GSynaptics SourceForge page.