Is it possible to set a defined area for multitouch gestures on an Synaptics touchpad?

Question

I have a HP dm1z with one of those button-less click pads. I'm running Oneiric beta, and the multitouch functionality works - I'm able to two finger scroll and move windows with a 3 finger gesture. However, drag and drop doesn't work , since it thinks I'm two-finger scrolling.

This would be fixed if I could set the bottom edge of the touchpad to not count for multitouch gestures, but I would like to still be able to use it for simple pointer movement.

I know AreaBottomEdge would completely disable it; I'm looking for a way to only disable the multitouch features on that section. Is this possible?

Answer 1

You can specify edges for touchpad as well as manipulate them. There are much more options.

First of all list your configurations.

synclient -l | awk '/=/{printf "Option \"%s\" \"%s\"\n",$1,$3}'

and try changing them to your need. Here is the sample. I think you should look into this as well.

First test temporarily with synclient command

E.g.

synclient LeftEdge=####

After you are satisfied with your test make it permanent in the /usr/share/X11/xorg.conf.d/50-synaptics.conf with options you require.

Answer 2

This may help http://linux.die.net/man/5/synaptics It shows the capability of behavior can be configured with parameters.

Answer 3

I've been searching for a "similair" feature for my touch pad for ages. Apple solves this very elegantly by letting you hold one finger down and "dragging" with the other finger. Basically keeping track of which finger is "pressed" down, and which is doing the "dragging" manouver

This feature is kind of coming in ubuntu 12.04 LTS, you can download and test it out from http://www.theorangenotebook.com/2012/02/call-for-testing-clickpad.html but it requires precise Pangolin (12.04) beta, as a minimum

:) happy dragging!

-Tomodachi