Configure mousepad double-tap to work the way I want?

Question

I have a laptop with an Ubuntu 11.10/Win7 dual boot system. In Windows, I use double-stroke to scroll, which I've got working in Ubuntu as well. This I did by changing the settings under System Settings\Mouse and Touchpad - real easy.

However, in Windows I can also use double-tap as a "middle click" in some contexts - for example, if I double-tap a tab in Chrome, the tab closes; if I double-tap a link, it opens in a new tab. In Ubuntu, double-tap instead behaves like a right-click. On double tap in both the previous examples, a context menu is shown instead of the action I want.

How do I change this configuration in Ubuntu to do what I want and am used to?

Answer 1

There is no good way to do this. This plagues me as well, but I've gotten used to hitting both mouse buttons to get middle-click. A bug has been reported as well.

It has been happening for quite some time. There are some workarounds, such as making a script run the following at startup:

synclient TapButton2=2; synclient TapButton3=3;

But when you come out of suspend or hibernate the problem will come back up and you'll have to run it manually.

So short answer, it's a problem without a good resolution, but you can kinda work around it in an unsatisfactory fashion.

Answer 2

If you want your double-finger tap to be middle-click permanently you could check which TapButton works with which configuration with synclient as user28857 suggests and change it permanently on /usr/share/X11/xorg.conf.d/50-synaptics.conf. What you need to do is:

gksu gedit /usr/share/X11/xorg.conf.d/50-synaptics.conf

Section "InputClass"
        Identifier "touchpad catchall"
        Driver "synaptics"
        MatchIsTouchpad "on"
        MatchDevicePath "/dev/input/event*"
            Option "TapButton1" "1"
            Option "TapButton2" "2" or "3"
            Option "TapButton3" "3" or "2" 
 EndSection

This article although from ArchLinux explains well on touchpad configuration for synaptics touchpad which most laptops are.