How To: Setting up Touchpad on a Laptop – A Complete Guide — page 3

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3. Configuring Xorg:

You need to inform Xorg about your touchpad device, there is basically 3 steps:

  1. Load the synaptics module
  2. Create and fill the device section for your synaptics touchpad
  3. Add the newly created Input device to your server layout

First of all, you need to edit xorg.conf. To do so, use your preferred text editor. I personnaly use vi when I’m doing administration tasks.

sudo vi /etc/X11/xorg.conf

And then tell Xorg to load the synaptics driver, to do so, go to the Section “Module” and add the following line if it is not already present:

Load    "synaptics"

Then create a new Section “InputDevice” where you will put:

For laptop having a ALPS touchpad (this is the one I use, so it is tested and works fine on my box:

Section "InputDevice"
Driver "synaptics"
Identifier "touchpad"
Option "Device" "/dev/psaux"
Option "Protocol" "auto-dev"
Option "LeftEdge" "130"
Option "RightEdge" "840"
Option "TopEdge" "130"
Option "BottomEdge" "640"
Option "FingerLow" "7"
Option "FingerHigh" "8"
Option "MaxTapTime" "180"
Option "MaxTapMove" "110"
Option "EmulateMidButtonTime" "75"
Option "VertScrollDelta" "20"
Option "HorizScrollDelta" "20"
Option "MinSpeed" "0.25"
Option "MaxSpeed" "0.50"
Option "AccelFactor" "0.030"
Option "EdgeMotionMinSpeed" "200"
Option "EdgeMotionMaxSpeed" "200"
Option "UpDownScrolling" "1"
Option "CircularScrolling" "1"
Option "CircScrollDelta" "0.1"
Option "CircScrollTrigger" "2"
Option "SHMConfig" "on"

#always useful
Option "Emulate3Buttons" "on"
EndSection

For laptop using a synaptics touchpad, not the one I own so this should works but I’m waiting for your coments guys :wink: :

Section "InputDevice"
Driver "synaptics"
Identifier "touchpad"
Option "Device" "/dev/psaux"
Option "Protocol" "auto-dev"
Option "LeftEdge" "1700"
Option "RightEdge" "5300"
Option "TopEdge" "1700"
Option "BottomEdge" "4200"
Option "FingerLow" "25"
Option "FingerHigh" "30"
Option "MaxTapTime" "180"
Option "MaxTapMove" "220"
Option "VertScrollDelta" "100"
Option "MinSpeed" "0.09"
Option "MaxSpeed" "0.18"
Option "AccelFactor" "0.015"
Option "SHMConfig" "on"
#always usefull
Option "Emulate3Buttons" "on"
EndSection

and then, tell the ServerLayout about your new device, go to the Section “ServerLayout” and add the following like just before EndSection:

InputDevice "touchpad" "AlwaysCore"

Yeah, this should be all good. You need to restart your X server (Ctrl-Alt-Backspace) and all the nice features of your touchpad should be enabled.

On Next page, I’m going to explain what those directives stands for. You might want to go directly to the page after to see how to use the features of your touchpad.