Multi touch for any,all synaptics touchpad
Multi-touch became trendy after iphone came up with it. We are seeing many new laptops with multi-touch. At hardware level, there is nothing special that you need, to make multi-touch work. You can also do two-finger scroll and two-finger tap to right/middle click. Also, three-finger tap, but, for me it is very hard to press three fingers at the same time(1 out of 10).
Create new file
gksudo gedit /etc/hal/fdi/policy/11-x11-synaptics.fdiPaste the following code into the file and save it.
<?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.SHMConfig" type="string">On</merge>
<merge key="input.x11_options.EmulateTwoFingerMinZ" type="string">90</merge>
<merge key="input.x11_options.VertTwoFingerScroll" type="string">1</merge>
<merge key="input.x11_options.HorizTwoFingerScroll" type="string">1</merge>
<merge key="input.x11_options.TapButton1" type="string">1</merge>
<merge key="input.x11_options.TapButton2" type="string">3</merge> <!--two finger tap -> middle clieck(3) -->
<merge key="input.x11_options.TapButton3" type="string">2</merge> <!--three finger tap -> right click(2). almost impossible to click -->
</match>
</device>
</deviceinfo>
Restart hal and enjoy multitouch touchpad.
sudo /etc/init.d/hal restart
Update: Diagnosing your touchpad for multi-finger-sensing-capability
Few people have problem with this not working, while it works for few others. This is posted in ubuntu forumssynclient -m 100Fifth column in the output f is number of fingers on your touchpad. Put two or more fingers on your touchpad and watch the column. If you see it more than one, this should work for you.
Comments
How about sensible touch-pad software where the user can turn-off tapping and use the touch-pad the way it was designed for, moving the pointer!
To Anonoymos No. 2. click on [system]>[Prefrences>[Touchpad]>[Tapping] and uncheck (untick) the taping enable box. Then the tapping part will be turned off.
ThanksThanksThanks.
Scroll works but right click double tap does not. I still have the button for that which is actually better.
Thanks for the tip.
Just curious about the dis/advantages, of making /etc/hal/fdi/policy/11-x11-synaptics.fdi versus editing /etc/X11/xorg.conf
On my installation of Ubuntu 8.04 (running on a Compaq Evo N800C, with a Synaptics 5.9 Touchpad) I've enabled two finger scrolling and more via the following edits to /etc/X11/xorg.conf:
insertions to Section "InputDevice"
Option "HorizEdgeScroll" "0"
Option "VertEdgeScroll" "0"
Option "SHMConfig" "on"
Option "VertTwoFingerScroll" "1"
Option "HorizTwoFingerScroll" "1"
Option "TapButton2" "3"
Thanks,
Bhaskar
So I have more files in there:
/e/h/f/policy> ls
11-x11-synaptics.fdi 20-ntfs-config-read-policy.fdi@ preferences.fdi shmconfig.fdi
Maybe there's a conflict?
I think I'll turn this feature off, since I could always use the right edge of the pad to do scroll.
Thanks anyway pal!
thanks
sudo rm /etc/hal/fdi/policy/11-x11-synaptics.fdi
Then type:
sudo /etc/init.d/hal restart
sudo rm /etc/hal/fdi/policy/11-x11-synaptics.fdi
Then type:
sudo /etc/init.d/hal restart
With the 6.7 touchpad, I also couldn't get the right-click functionality; I'm not sure why.
When I run synclient I only ever get it detecting one finger :(
I'm using Jaunty as well and synclient doesn't seem to regconize multi touch, so i haven't dared to proceed with the instructions yet ..... it's really nice to have 2 finger scrolling thou...
On Ubuntu 9.05 UNE
synclient always reports 1 finger
Please see:
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/xserver-xorg-input-synaptics/+bug/355071
and (tells how to set-up synaptics to support multi-touch emulation if hw support is not present):
http://blog.twinapex.fi/2009/10/11/setting-up-multi-touch-scrolling-for-ubuntu-9-10-karmic-koala-linux-on-asus-eee-1005ha-netbook/
Setting synclient TapButton2=2 works great. I added that to a script to run every time I log in.
Hope it helps.
Anyone know how we might do 3 finger slide (or 2 if 3 is not possible) to do ctrl+tab (slide right) or ctrl+shift+tab (slide rleft)?
I also wanted to point out that Apple /iPhone did *not* come up with multi-touch. They merely released one of the first widely available devices the average person could obtain.
Cheers,
Robert~
Multitouch is simply the ability to recognize multiple points of contact on the touch surface. That is occurring here.
What you are defining as "multitouch" is actually specific gestures which utilize multitouch. Pinch to zoom is one gesture, two-finger scrolling is another. There's a practically infinite number of gestures possible, the fact that some of them aren't used in this case doesn't mean it's "not multitouch."
In short, pull your head out of your Apple.
Is there any chance of a fix such as you have suggested, but for the Elantech Touchpad?
help?
first, it didnt worked for me and synclient always reports 1 finger on the pad, no matter how many i put on there. but then i took a closer look at the other parameters, a very quick glance at the manual and it didnt took me 5mins to get it working.
EmulateTwoFingerMinZ is way too high (and imo not needed if your pad supports multitouch native and you dont have to emulate it ^^) and EmulateTwoFingerMinW is needed if your pad does not support multitouch native. for me Z=50 and W=6 works perfect.
you windo, aehm, ubuntu users should really learn how to proper work on a linux system :P RTFM guys!
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