Lenovo t440 touchpad two finger click on Ubuntu 16.10

Question

Since last update (Ubuntu 16.10) the behaviour of the clickpad (touchpad that has no button other than the full area that can be clicked) has changed on my Lenovo t440p. The two-fingers click (that used to work on 16.04) is not working anymore but only the two-fingers tap is working. Moreover, the middle click with 3 fingers is not working as well. Any idea on how to reactive it?

~$ xinput list-props "TPPS/2 IBM TrackPoint"
Device 'TPPS/2 IBM TrackPoint':
    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 (283): 0.073529
    libinput Accel Speed Default (284): 0.000000
    libinput Accel Profiles Available (300):    1, 1
    libinput Accel Profile Enabled (301):   1, 0
    libinput Accel Profile Enabled Default (302):   1, 0
    libinput Natural Scrolling Enabled (285):   0
    libinput Natural Scrolling Enabled Default (286):   0
    libinput Send Events Modes Available (261): 1, 0
    libinput Send Events Mode Enabled (262):    0, 0
    libinput Send Events Mode Enabled Default (263):    0, 0
    libinput Left Handed Enabled (287): 0
    libinput Left Handed Enabled Default (288): 0
    libinput Scroll Methods Available (289):    0, 0, 1
    libinput Scroll Method Enabled (290):   0, 0, 1
    libinput Scroll Method Enabled Default (291):   0, 0, 1
    libinput Button Scrolling Button (303): 2
    libinput Button Scrolling Button Default (304): 274
    libinput Middle Emulation Enabled (295):    0
    libinput Middle Emulation Enabled Default (296):    0
    Device Node (264):  "/dev/input/event7"
    Device Product ID (265):    2, 10
    libinput Drag Lock Buttons (299):   <no items>
    libinput Horizonal Scroll Enabled (266):    1

~$ xinput list
⎡ Virtual core pointer                      id=2    [master pointer  (3)]
⎜   ↳ Virtual core XTEST pointer                id=4    [slave  pointer  (2)]
⎜   ↳ SynPS/2 Synaptics TouchPad                id=12   [slave  pointer  (2)]
⎜   ↳ TPPS/2 IBM TrackPoint                     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)]
    ↳ Video Bus                                 id=8    [slave  keyboard (3)]
    ↳ Sleep Button                              id=9    [slave  keyboard (3)]
    ↳ Integrated Camera                         id=10   [slave  keyboard (3)]
    ↳ AT Translated Set 2 keyboard              id=11   [slave  keyboard (3)]
    ↳ ThinkPad Extra Buttons                    id=14   [slave  keyboard (3)]

Cheers,

Jean.

Answer 1

You might not like the answer, but it involves removing libinput, a replacement for the synaptics driver. This slightly breaks Ubuntu, but is a viable work-around until the libinput team implements the two-finger tap functionality: https://www.reddit.com/r/linux/comments/4tr0ji/libinput_is_done/d5jx8g2

sudo apt remove xserver-xorg-input-libinput
sudo apt install xserver-xorg-input-synaptics

Then restart.

Since Gnome depends on libinput, the touchpad system settings will be missing configuration options for the touchpad and an apport error will be thrown during each login. To alleviate those problems:

synclient HorizTwoFingerScroll=1
synclient VertScrollDelta=-111
synclient HorizScrollDelta=-111

sudo apt remove apport

The synclient commands can be placed in the .profile file to automatically apply the touchpad changes when logging in. The ScrollDelta commands enable "Natural Scrolling", i.e., reverse the scroll direction by adding a minus to the coefficient.