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I simply do not have the option for "two-finger scrolling" available in my "Mouse and Touchpad" settings. I have tried a lot of terminal commands that I have found in the forums with no success. Who has a solution that will enable two-finger scrolling?

A little about me:

Ubuntu 12.04.1 LTS \n \l

Built-in Pointing Device
    Type: Mouse
    Interface: PS/2
    Buttons: 2

~$ xinput list
⎡ Virtual core pointer                      id=2    [master pointer  (3)]
⎜   ↳ Virtual core XTEST pointer                id=4    [slave  pointer  (2)]
⎜   ↳ PS/2 Synaptics TouchPad                   id=15   [slave  pointer  (2)]
⎣ Virtual core keyboard                     id=3    [master keyboard (2)]
    ↳ Virtual core XTEST keyboard               id=5    [slave  keyboard (3)]
    ↳ Power Button                              id=6    [slave  keyboard (3)]
    ↳ Video Bus                                 id=7    [slave  keyboard (3)]
    ↳ Power Button                              id=8    [slave  keyboard (3)]
    ↳ Sleep Button                              id=9    [slave  keyboard (3)]
    ↳ WebCam SC-13HDL10931N                     id=10   [slave  keyboard (3)]
    ↳ AT Translated Set 2 keyboard              id=14   [slave  keyboard (3)]

Screenshot of system settings:

7
  • Have you tried utouch,touchegg? Have you read this answer?
    – Hckr
    Nov 11, 2012 at 23:32
  • I have tried touchegg, getting more errors that have to do with my own ineptitude. But was unable to solve the problem. In any case, its my understanding that 12.04 ships with these settings built-in. Why aren't mine here?
    – Ian
    Nov 11, 2012 at 23:49
  • Please provide the output of the following command: grep -i synaptic /var/log/dmesg. Maybe you can find there something.
    – Salem
    Nov 12, 2012 at 0:26
  • Also, there's this link that may help you.
    – Salem
    Nov 12, 2012 at 0:36
  • 1
    I'm pretty sure that the device has to be able to support two finger scrolling to have it enabled. May 1, 2013 at 0:06

3 Answers 3

2

Don't waste too much time waiting for GUI configurators to catch up to the hardware. Learn to set configs in text files or interactively in terminal. Here's how.

If synclient returns the properties not found message, it means your system is using libinput, not synaptics, as the driver. Check your /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d, if nothing is in there, I'd expect an Ubuntu system to use synaptics, so I'm surprised you get no return from "synclient -l" or shch. But on Fedora, the default would be to use libinput, so maybe your config is surfing a new wave.

If you are running the libinput driver, you can see by running

xinput list-props 15

where 15 is the name of your touchpad device. If you get output like this, as I do when using libinput, then you will know where you are.

Device "HID 413c:3010':
    Device Enabled (139):   1
    Coordinate Transformation Matrix (141): 1.000000, 0.000000, 0.000000, 0.000000, 1.000000, 0.000000, 0.000000, 0.000000, 1.000000
    libinput Accel Speed (276):     0.000000
    libinput Accel Speed Default (277):     0.000000
    libinput Accel Profiles Available (278):        1, 1
    libinput Accel Profile Enabled (279):   1, 0
    libinput Accel Profile Enabled Default (280):   1, 0
    libinput Natural Scrolling Enabled (273):       0
    libinput Natural Scrolling Enabled Default (274):       0
    libinput Send Events Modes Available (257):     1, 0
    libinput Send Events Mode Enabled (258):        0, 0
    libinput Send Events Mode Enabled Default (259):        0, 0
    libinput Left Handed Enabled (281):     0
    libinput Left Handed Enabled Default (282):     0
    libinput Scroll Methods Available (283):        0, 0, 1
    libinput Scroll Method Enabled (284):   0, 0, 0
    libinput Scroll Method Enabled Default (285):   0, 0, 0
    libinput Button Scrolling Button (286): 2
    libinput Button Scrolling Button Default (287): 274
    libinput Middle Emulation Enabled (288):        0
    libinput Middle Emulation Enabled Default (289):        0
    Device Node (260):      "/dev/input/event10"
    Device Product ID (261):        16700, 12304
    libinput Drag Lock Buttons (275):       <no items>
    libinput Horizonal Scroll Enabled (262):

You might consider trying to make libinput work, but if you don't want to, here's what to do to use synaptics instead.

To make the system use synaptics drivers, copy this file

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

Into /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d. Rename that, changing 50 to 90 so it loads later in the sequence. If you do have a libinput config file in /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d, move it somewhere else.

In that syaptics config file, do some editing. Leave the first 2 stanzas the same. In the last one, you can put your settings. Here's what I use these days if I use synaptics:

Section "InputClass"
    Identifier "Default clickpad buttons"
    MatchDriver "synaptics"
    Option "SoftButtonAreas" "50% 0 66% 0 0 0 0 0"
    Option "TapButton2" "2"
    Option "TapButton3" "3"
    Option "CoastingFriction" "5"
    Option "CoastingSpeed" "8"
    Option "AccelFactor" "0.1"
    Option "PalmDetect" "1"
    Option "PalmMinWidth" "4"
    Option "PalmMinZ" "30"
    Option "VertEdgeScroll" "1"
    Option "FingerHigh" "35"
    Option "FingerLow" "20"
EndSection

If you don't know what settings you want, you can test in the command line. Find ones you like, then put in file. LIke this

synclient -l

lists all settings, then test some like

synclient VertEdgeScroll=0 FingerHigh=30

When you do that, the cursor will respond differently right away. Of course, when you change settings in xorg.conf.d, you need to log out and log in again.

Now, since you are (probably) using libinput, you might stop where you are and instead consider learning to configure libinput. It is the new thing, the way things will be (probably), and the way things are in Fedora now. It is a much less configurable device, but it is trying to get right the basic fundamentals and then forget the rest.

libinput is mostly usable the way it is, but it does not have tap to click enabled. You go through the same process you did before, copying a file from /usr/share/X11/xorg.conf.d, except this time get the one for libinput. That needs almost no changes, except to insert this one line in the very last stanza.

 Section "InputClass"
    Identifier "MyTouchpad"
    MatchIsTouchpad "on"
    Driver "libinput"
    Option "Tapping" "on
 EndSection

If you do that, then I think you will get two finger drag and some other basics.

The libinput driver is not so full of features, it is trying to get the basics correct, hopefully we won't think we need all those features. However, on many devices (you'll see people yelling about this everywhere), the automatic, simple feature settings are not working exactly right. On my Dell Precision 5510, most things work fine, but the automatic palm detection by "exclusion zones" is iffy for me. most of the rest is fine.

Reading

  1. Why libinput has fewer settings:

http://who-t.blogspot.com/2016/04/why-libinput-doesnt-have-lot-of-config.html

  1. The theoretical document which explains why the exclusion zones should fix the palm problem once and for all

https://wayland.freedesktop.org/libinput/doc/latest/palm_detection.html

(even though it does not do it yet with some kernels on some computers at the moment)

1

Here's what did the trick in my Acer Nitro 5:

  1. Go to the BIOS setup;
  2. If there is no 'Touchpad' option in the 'main' tab, press Ctrl+S; it should instantly appear.
  3. Select 'Touchpad' and change from PS2 to I2C;
  4. Save and reboot.
0

First you should try if any of the following group of commands enables the two-finger scrooling:

synclient VertTwoFingerScroll=1
synclient HorizTwoFingerScroll=1

synclient EmulateTwoFingerMinW=5
synclient EmulateTwoFingerMinZ=48

If it works, then you can either create a script to enable this as suggested here, or using xorg.conf.

Source:

3
  • Thank you again Salem, I get the following message: Couldn't find synaptics properties. No synaptics driver loaded?
    – Ian
    Nov 12, 2012 at 0:02
  • 1
    Followup: Synaptics touchpad drivers are installed, verified in ubuntu software center but no ouput when using synclient -l command: ~$ synclient -l Couldn't find synaptics properties. No synaptics driver loaded?
    – Ian
    Nov 12, 2012 at 0:09
  • 1
    Anyone have an idea? Still working on this...
    – Ian
    Nov 12, 2012 at 17:36

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