[solved]Touch pad "mouse" buttons

[mike-chipper]

I have 10.04 installed on a Dell laptop. The left button on the touch pad is not behaving properly. Is there a way to tweak this for speed and duration on the "click"?
This is what I see, and it is quite intermittant except for the auto (down) scrolling which I want to kill also:
1. Click a dialog box button (Like OK) or the close window (X) and it most of the time works but sometimes the graphic shows "button down" and nothing happens, multiple clicks are usually ignored. A slight movement on the touch pad seems to cause "button up" to issue and the action is completed. (Icons wanting double clicks may take several, again intermittant)
2. Icons put in the menu bar sometimes ignore the single click, but if I double click I get 2 programs running, same issue I'm sure.
3. Run away scrolling, possibly related, get a big document or web page and click the "down arrow" on the scroll bar expecting it to jump down a little, sometimes it takes off and scrolls to the end. Very annoying.

Installing a USB mouse and using it ONLY there are absolutely no problems, it performs very well and as expected. I suspect the touch pad driver is at fault but can find no way to tweak it.

I appreciate any ideas, it is just an annoying problem and I'd like to fix it. Thanks in advance.

[GreyGeek]

Re: Touch pad "mouse" buttons

Systemsettings --> Keyboard & Mouse --> Touchpad

[mike-chipper]

Re: Touch pad "mouse" buttons

Hi GreyGeek, good to hear from you again.
That is the first thing I tried. I got it not to work at all, but found no settings for the buttons themselves. I am not sure why it is holding in the "down" position but it is more likely than not to do this behavior. BTW, this thing has 2 sets of buttons, one set for the pad the other for the finger scroll button. Both left buttons are the same so it is not a mechanical issue (the evil monopoly xp works)
I am not trying to get the pad to accept a tap for the button, yet, that can get annoying too.

I still think this "sticking" is what causes the scroll bar's down arrow to "stick" and run to the bottom of any document or web page. The external usb mouse works great, so it seems to be related to some kind of driver for that touchpad. (Dell D600 Latitude)

The evil monopoly lets me adjust click speed, that is what I wanted to try, even if I have to edit some configuration file hidden and place numbers in to attempt to fix.
Thanks!

[oshunluvr]

Re: Touch pad "mouse" buttons

If you're using an xorg.conf file you can adjust tons of things on your touchpad...

examples:

Section "InputDevice"
Identifier "Synaptics Touchpad"
Driver "synaptics"
Option "SendCoreEvents" "true"
Option "Device" "/dev/psaux"
Option "Protocol" "auto-dev"
Option "LeftEdge" "120"
Option "RightEdge" "830"
Option "TopEdge" "120"
Option "BottomEdge" "650"
Option "FingerLow" "14"
Option "FingerHigh" "15"
Option "MaxTapTime" "0"
Option "MaxTapMove" "0"
Option "MaxDoubleTapTime" "0"
Option "ClickTime" "0"
Option "EmulateMidButtonTime" "75"
Option "VertScrollDelta" "10"
Option "HorizScrollDelta" "0"
Option "MinSpeed" "0.45"
Option "MaxSpeed" "0.75"
Option "AccelFactor" "0.020"
Option "EdgeMotionMinZ" "30"
Option "EdgeMotionMaxZ" "160"
Option "EdgeMotionMinSpeed" "200"
Option "EdgeMotionMaxSpeed" "200"
Option "EdgeMotionUseAlways" "0"
Option "UpDownScrolling" "1"
Option "TouchpadOff" "0"
Option "GuestMouseOff" "0"
Option "LockedDrags" "0"
Option "RTCornerButton" "2"
Option "RBCornerButton" "3"
Option "LTCornerButton" "0"
Option "LBCornerButton" "0"
Option "TapButton1" "0"
Option "TapButton2" "0"
Option "TapButton3" "0"
Option "CircularScrolling" "0"
Option "CircScrollDelta" "0.1"
Option "CircScrollTrigger" "2"
Option "CircularPad" "0"
Option "SHMConfig" "true"
EndSection

[mike-chipper]

Re: Touch pad "mouse" buttons

Thanks, I will try it tomorrow, I seem to have forgot where that file lives. In reviewing the example I didn't see anything for the physical button "click" timing. will look on mine tomorrow, thank you for the reply... mike

[GreyGeek]

Re: Touch pad "mouse" buttons

IF you have it, which I doubt, it would be under /etc/X11

If you create xorg.conf by hand that's where you should put it.

Or, you can use Xorg (man pages will tell you how) to creat xorg.conf.

But, I'm too lazy to do it by hand, so I booted the PCLinuxOS 2010 distro and ran it as a LiveCD. Then, I mounted my Linux partition and copied the xorg.conf file that PCLOS created. Or at least I used to do that. Since Kubuntu switched from HAL to Upstart my GM45 video chip has been detected and configured nicely, so my Kubuntu LL installation does not have an xorg.conf file.

Once you have an /etc/X11/xorg.conf file you can edit it the way oshunluver suggests.

[mike-chipper]

Re: Touch pad "mouse" buttons

You are right, I do not have it. ( did sudo find -name xorg.conf )
Perhaps another method would be to remove Synaptics Touchpad and use something else. Seems to me I selected a standard mouse setting on one Distro and it worked. As long as it don't take 20 swipes to get the mouse pointer to move a few inches! It is not possible to enjoy a game even a simple game like solitaire with this button as is.
----------------------thank you, mike

[oshunluvr]

Re: Touch pad "mouse" buttons

Boy, GreyGeek, that IS lazy, but genius! LOL

[GreyGeek]

Re: Touch pad "mouse" buttons

Boy, GreyGeek, that IS lazy, but genius! LOL

You know what they say, "Laziness is the father of invention, necessity is its mother", or is it the other way around?

Mike-chipper's problem, which was mine before Upstart got my GM45 chip detected and configured correctly, could have been avoided if Kubuntu supplied a tool like XFDrake which would allow the user to create and/or tune an xorg.conf file. Then using PCLOS wouldn't be necessary.

[GreyGeek]

Re: Touch pad "mouse" buttons

....
Perhaps another method would be to remove Synaptics Touchpad and use something else.
...

I use a script which shuts off the touchpad because when I use it one of my thumbs eventually touches the pad someplace and my cursor flies off to that location on the screen. My text suddenly appears someplace else or something else gets activated. Very aggravating. So, I use a LogiTech USB mouse with a micro USB plug that doesn't protude two or three inches out from the port.

BTW, my 69 year old brain is having a hard time recalling where we met... The PCLOS forum or the Mandriva forum?

[mike-chipper]

Re: Touch pad "mouse" buttons

When I get off work... I can try one of those...
I have been on this and Mandriva forum, My desktop computer was ordered from Walmart about 5 yrs ago with Mandrake 7 installed. So, it works better with Linux. (but don't they all?)
Back to laptop:
I don't recall Ubuntu having this problem before and haven't used Kubuntu before so, it is new to me. Also had mint on it a while and didn't have this problem. I'll use the live cd and copy the file or at least the part I need. That could be useful. I'll explore those. -thanks

[mike-chipper]

Re: Touch pad "mouse" buttons

I tried a live CD for MINT based on Lucid... the buttons work fine. Same synaptic 1.2.2-1 Ubuntu driver. Interesting.
Could it be I need to change the "nice" value on this driver? IF so I am not sure how and where. I need to research some.
Giving it a higher priority may be all it needs. Too low priority could be an indication of the intermittent nature of this problem. ____________?think so?___________

[GreyGeek]

Re: Touch pad "mouse" buttons

Perhaps you could check out the config files for synaptic on Mint and compare them with

/etc/apt/apt.conf.d/99synaptic
/lib/udev/rules.d/66-xorg-synaptics.rules
/usr/lib/X11/xorg.conf.d/10-synaptics.conf

and see what the differences are?

[mike-chipper]

Re: Touch pad "mouse" buttons

Hi GreyGeek,
I located and manually compared the files, Mint didn't have the first file, 99synaptic. The other 2 were the same.

I have tweaked a bit, and even deleted synaptic touch pad. It worked without the synaptic touch pad driver, and then I used the GUI mouse tools and changed timings on the buttons, like repeat and the other numbers and had improvement. (a lot better actually)

I put synaptic t.p. back and the new timings seem to have stuck. Not a hundred percent but it is improved. Guess I keep trying. Maybe there are too many resources needed in KDE v.s. Gnome on the laptop.

It only has a gig of ram, which I thought would be fine for pretty much anything I'd do. But a PS shows a ton of stuff going on.
Thanks.... I'll play a bit more, it is better. The run away "down scroll" is real slow now, I'd like to just delete this "feature". For now, time to fire up the BBQ.

[mike-chipper]

Re: Touch pad "mouse" buttons

I have fixed this, by disabling composting. (system settings -> Desktop -> General tab, uncheck desktop effects.
Apparently resources /timings are limited and the touch pad and buttons suffer delays or skip to service the 3d effects.
Since they are disabled the mouse clicks work properly. (the game plays better and all is happy, will mark as solved but it is only fixed by removing a functioning effect.)
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------MIKE (thanks for all that gave suggestions, it was a fun ride)