Touchpad double-tap holding is not working

Question

I used to be able to double-tap and hold on my touchpad to drag and drop things. Since I upgraded to oneric ocelot it only works 10% of the time. What program are they using to log the touchpad and how can I change it back. Both people who upgraded and who installed it directly reported the same problem so it appears to be the fault of oneric.

Answer 1

This solution woks for me

Go to: http://tombuntu.com/index.php/2011/10/31/fix-for-touchpad-trouble-in-ubuntu-11-10/

From the post:

One of the issues introduced by Ubuntu 11.10 on my Eee PC 901 is touchpad dragging. The tap-and-drag gesture, for moving the cursor with the mouse button depressed, is too sensitive. I have to tap as fast I can to activate the gesture every time

Run this command to get the timeout before a tap is interpreted as a single tap: synclient | grep "SingleTapTimeout"

On my system this option was set to 180, which is too fast. Run this command to double the timeout to 360: synclient SingleTapTimeout=360

Thanks go to Tom.

Answer 2

I have a half answer for you and am having the same problem. The 10% of the time it works you are probably tapping twice very fast, that's when it actually works as you want. You can change your behavior (tap faster twice then drag) to get what you want, but a fuller solution fixing the double tap timing along with drag would be ideal.

I have no real solution but can tell you something that doesn't work but should. Go to launcher / search using the super key (windows key usually), type mouse, then choose "Mouse and Touchpad". You can change the double click time spacing and double click will trigger with longer time between taps but the double click then drag motion won't be affected. I personally notice this when trying to select text. I'd upvote this post but don't have enough repuation... Accept this as a partial answer and I'll upvote when I get enough rep. Hope this helps, found any better solution?

Answer 3

I found a persistent fix, even after suspending, following these steps.

First, create a file with your configuration script:

echo synclient SingleTapTimeout=320 FastTaps=1 > ~/etc/touchpad_settings.sh

Second, make it executable:

chmod +x ~/etc/touchpad_settings.sh

And finally, run the following command replacing "<user>" with your user name:

gsettings set org.gnome.settings-daemon.peripherals.input-devices hotplug-command "/home/<user>/etc/touchpad_settings.sh"

Then reboot, or logout & login, or suspend & resume, or restart GNOME.

Enjoy!

For more information about this fix, see this blog post.

Answer 4

For me the issue was generated by Option "TapAndDragGesture" "0" so I have set it to 1 and it works now

to do a temp test run this command
synclient TapAndDragGesture=1

then if it is ok you can edit your xorg configuration file /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/... to make it permanent

as reference:

man synaptics

or
- https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Touchpad_Synaptics

Config example:
- https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Touchpad_Synaptics/10-synaptics.conf_example

here my file content

Section "InputClass"
  Identifier "touchpad catchall"
  Driver "synaptics"
  MatchIsTouchpad "on"
    # Enable touchpad
    Option "TouchpadOff"        "0"
    # Allow run-time configuration
    # Option "SHMConfig"           "on"  # deprecated
    # Edge Limits
    Option "LeftEdge" "1748"
    Option "RightEdge" "5640"
    Option "TopEdge" "1274"
    Option "BottomEdge" "4752"
    # Speed
    Option "MinSpeed" "1.0"
    Option "MaxSpeed" "1.6"
    Option "AccelFactor" "0.032"
    # Pressure
    Option "FingerLow" "24"
    Option "FingerHigh" "29"
    Option "FingerPress" "255"
    # Tapping Detection
    Option "MaxTapTime" "180"             # 0 disables tap
    Option "MaxTapMove" "29"
    Option "MaxDoubleTapTime" "180"
    Option "SingleTapTimeout" "200"
    Option "ClickTime" "100"
    Option "TapAndDragGesture" "1"
    # Corner Tap Buttons
    Option "RTCornerButton" "0"
    Option "RBCornerButton" "0"
    Option "LTCornerButton" "0"
    Option "LBCornerButton" "0"
    # Scrolling Edges
    Option "VertEdgeScroll" "0"
    Option "VertScrollDelta" "100"
    Option "HorizEdgeScroll" "0"
    Option "HorizScrollDelta" "100"
    # Circular Scrolling
    Option "CircularScrolling" "0"
    Option "CircScrollDelta" "0.1"
    Option "CircScrollTrigger" "0"
    Option "FastTaps" "1"
    # Tapping as Buttons (number of fingers)
    Option "TapButton1" "1"
    Option "TapButton2" "2"
    Option "TapButton3" "3"
    # Tap Dragging
    Option "LockedDrags" "0"
    Option "LockedDragTimeout" "5000"
    # Tap Gesture Dragging
    # Two Finger Scrolling
    Option "VertTwoFingerScroll" "1"
    Option "HorizTwoFingerScroll" "1"
    # Corner Coasting
    Option "CornerCoasting" "0"
    Option "CoastingSpeed" "20"
    Option "CoastingFriction" "50"
    # Kernel Event Protocol
    Option "GrabEventDevice" "1"
    # Edge Ignore Boundaries
    Option "AreaLeftEdge" "0"
    Option "AreaRightEdge" "0"
    Option "AreaTopEdge" "0"
    Option "AreaBottomEdge" "0"
    # Trackstick
    Option "TrackstickSpeed" "40"
    # Circular Trackpad
    Option "CircularPad" "0"
    # Multi-function Buttons
    Option "ClickFinger1" "1"
    Option "ClickFinger2" "1"
    Option "ClickFinger3" "1"
    # Edge Movements
    Option "FastTaps" "0"
    # Tapping as Buttons (number of fingers)
    Option "TapButton1" "1"
    Option "TapButton2" "2"
    Option "TapButton3" "3"
    # Tap Dragging
    Option "LockedDrags" "0"
    Option "LockedDragTimeout" "5000"
    # Tap Gesture Dragging
    Option "EdgeMotionMinZ" "29"
    Option "EdgeMotionMaxZ" "159"
    Option "EdgeMotionMinSpeed" "1"
    Option "EdgeMotionMaxSpeed" "401"
    Option "EdgeMotionUseAlways" "0"
    # Pressure Motion
    Option "PressureMotionMinZ" "29"
    Option "PressureMotionMaxZ" "159"
    Option "PressureMotionMinFactor" "1"
    Option "PressureMotionMaxFactor" "1"
    # Emulations
    Option "EmulateMidButtonTime" "75"
    Option "EmulateTwoFingerMinZ" "280"
    Option "EmulateTwoFingerMinW" "70
    # Palm Detection
    Option "PalmDetect" "1"
    Option "PalmMinWidth" "10"
    Option "PalmMinZ" "199"
EndSection