Middle mouse click emulation on trackpad, how can I set it?

Question

I've just updated to Ubuntu 11.10 and I'm using Unity. Since the update I can no longer use 'Middle Clicks' with the Track-pad. Tab-browsing in Firefox has become a pain :(

I used to swap the 'three finger tap' middle click and the 'two finger tap' right click, since I nearly never use right clicks. This was done trough the mouse configuration I guess but I can't find it now.

Where can I set this?

To make things even worse the three finger tap does nothing, so middle clicks are not possible at all since the update.

How can I fix this?

I know I can remove the install (i got a separate home partition) and install an old version but I would like to use the actual software and recent Unity if possible.

Answer 1

leoperbo's answer worked for me with Ubuntu 12.04 but I had to change the 266 number at leoperbo's suggested command. You shouldn't use this command without carefully finding the 3-digit number

xinput set-int-prop NN 266 8 2 3 0 0 1 2 3

The other command though should work without problems (had numbers for the setup which didn't make sense hence that I changed them)

xinput set-prop "ETPS/2 Elantech Touchpad" "Synaptics Tap Action" 2, 3, 0, 0, 1, 2, 3

Just in case I wrote the following guide to find your NN and 266 for your touchpad. At the end also I explain the values you set so you can choose your optimal settings. Also you should probably read leoperbo's answer for setting it up permanently

1st use the following command in the terminal

xinput list

You will get something like this

⎡ Virtual core pointer                      id=2    [master pointer  (3)]
⎜   ↳ Virtual core XTEST pointer                id=4    [slave  pointer  (2)]
⎜   ↳ ETPS/2 Elantech Touchpad                  id=13   [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)]
    ↳ 1.3M WebCam                               id=10   [slave  keyboard (3)]
    ↳ AT Translated Set 2 keyboard              id=11   [slave  keyboard (3)]
    ↳ Acer WMI hotkeys                          id=12   [slave  keyboard (3)]

What we need is the touchpad's id (in my case 13)

2nd use the following command in the terminal replacing the XX with the id number you found above

xinput list-props XX

You will get something like this

Device 'ETPS/2 Elantech Touchpad':
Device Enabled (144):   1
Coordinate Transformation Matrix (146): 1.000000, 0.000000, 0.000000, 0.000000, 1.000000, 0.000000, 0.000000, 0.000000, 1.000000
Device Accel Profile (269): 1
Device Accel Constant Deceleration (270):   2.500000
Device Accel Adaptive Deceleration (271):   1.000000
Device Accel Velocity Scaling (272):    12.500000
Synaptics Edges (273):  56, 1352, 34, 606
Synaptics Finger (274): 1, 1, 256
Synaptics Tap Time (275):   180
Synaptics Tap Move (276):   68
Synaptics Tap Durations (277):  180, 180, 100
Synaptics ClickPad (278):   0
Synaptics Tap FastTap (279):    1
Synaptics Middle Button Timeout (280):  75
Synaptics Two-Finger Pressure (281):    282
Synaptics Two-Finger Width (282):   7
Synaptics Scrolling Distance (283): 30, 30
Synaptics Edge Scrolling (284): 0, 0, 0
Synaptics Two-Finger Scrolling (285):   1, 0
Synaptics Move Speed (286): 1.000000, 1.750000, 0.129366, 40.000000
Synaptics Edge Motion Pressure (287):   30, 160
Synaptics Edge Motion Speed (288):  1, 123
Synaptics Edge Motion Always (289): 0
Synaptics Off (290):    2
Synaptics Locked Drags (291):   0
Synaptics Locked Drags Timeout (292):   5000
Synaptics Tap Action (293): 2, 3, 0, 0, 1, 3, 0
Synaptics Click Action (294):   1, 1, 0
Synaptics Circular Scrolling (295): 0
Synaptics Circular Scrolling Distance (296):    0.100000
Synaptics Circular Scrolling Trigger (297): 0
Synaptics Circular Pad (298):   0
Synaptics Palm Detection (299): 0
Synaptics Palm Dimensions (300):    10, 200
Synaptics Coasting Speed (301): 20.000000, 50.000000
Synaptics Pressure Motion (302):        ... of unknown type CARDINAL

Synaptics Pressure Motion Factor (303): 1.000000, 1.000000
Synaptics Resolution Detect (304):  1
Synaptics Grab Event Device (305):  1
Synaptics Gestures (306):   1
Synaptics Capabilities (307):   1, 0, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1
Synaptics Pad Resolution (308): 1, 1
Synaptics Area (309):   0, 0, 0, 0
Synaptics Noise Cancellation (310): 7, 7
Device Product ID (263):    2, 14
Device Node (264):  "/dev/input/event11"

What we need to find above is this line

    Synaptics Tap Action (293): 2, 3, 0, 0, 1, 3, 0

and note down the number inside the ( ), which in my case is 293

3rd and final command at the terminal ( Replace XX with the id and YYY with the number inside the ( ) which for my laptop were XX=13 and YYY=293 )

xinput set-int-prop XX YYY 8 2 3 0 0 1 2 3

The values 2 3 0 0 1 2 3 are the following settings at the correct order 0=disabled 1=left click 2=middle 3=right

Option "RTCornerButton"
Which mouse button is reported on a right top corner tap.

Option "RBCornerButton"
Which mouse button is reported on a right bottom corner tap.

Option "LTCornerButton"
Which mouse button is reported on a left top corner tap.

Option "LBCornerButton"
Which mouse button is reported on a left bottom corner tap.

Option "TapButton1"
Which mouse button is reported on a non-corner one-finger tap.

Option "TapButton2"
Which mouse button is reported on a non-corner two-finger tap.

Option "TapButton3"
Which mouse button is reported on a non-corner three-finger tap.

Answer 2

To fix the middle click you can use the following command:

xinput set-int-prop NN 266 8 2 3 0 0 1 2 3

Where NN is the id of the mousepad device, you can see it with the command xinput list. 266 is the id of the property "Synaptics Tap Action" you can see it with xinput list-props NN. Example:

xinput set-prop "ETPS/2 Elantech Touchpad" "Synaptics Tap Action" 8, 9, 0, 0, 1, 2, 3

You have to run that command after each resume. To preserve your synaptics configuration after resume, you can follow this steps (from wiki.archlinux.org):

Gnome settings daemon may override existing settings (for example ones set in xorg.conf.d) for which there is no equivalent in any of the graphical configuration utilities. It is possible to stop gnome from touching mouse settings at all:

1. Run dconf-editor
2. Edit /org/gnome/settings-daemon/plugins/mouse/
3. Uncheck the active setting 

It will now respect your system's existing synaptics configuration.

It worked for me on Ubuntu 11.10 AND now I have:

Two-finger scrolling.
Middle Click with two fingers tap.
Right Click (tap at bottom right of scroll area).