Tweaking your Synaptics Touchpad (laptops) : Ubuntu (6.06.1 / 6.10)
I just found this new tweak today and I’m really excited about it. The more I look into what is possible with an Ubuntu desktop the more amazed I am. Honestly, if you haven’t tried Ubuntu before (or you know someone who hasn’t) you REALLY should. Things just don’t get easier than this.
This tutorial will outline how to configure your synaptics touchpad (for laptops) via a nice pretty GUI interface. Allowing configuration for general settings (on / off, etc) to scrolling and tapping. You can even change the settings so that you can do a 360 around your touchpad to scroll up/down! Now we’re talking!
First of all, as we do with anything related to the desktop and graphics we MAKE A BACKUP. You might want to use the below command to backup your current xorg.conf file.
sudo cp /etc/X11/xorg.conf /etc/X11/xorg.conf-backup
We then add one simple line to the xorg configuration. Simply look for this area of your file:
Section "InputDevice"Identifier "Synaptics Touchpad"
Driver "synaptics"
Option "SendCoreEvents" "true"
Option "Device" "/dev/psaux"
Option "Protocol" "auto-dev"
Option "HorizScrollDelta" "0"
EndSection
and add one more option to the bottom above “EndSection”
Option "SHMConfig" "on"
At this point save the new file and restart your desktop using: sudo /etc/init.d/gdm restart or ctrl-alt-backspace.
After you’ve logged back into your system (Ooh, if for some reason X does not work after rebooting you can simply revert your changes by replacing the backup file again. Use: sudo cp /etc/X11/xorg.conf-backup /etc/X11/xorg.conf) we’ll need to add the package that allows us to configure everything. Install QSynaptics using the command below (or find it using Synaptic Package Manager)
sudo aptitude install qsynaptics
After the installation is complete you can very easily manage tweak your laptop’s touchpad. Some of the options are:
- On / Off
- Scrolling On / Off, Normal or Circular
- Horizontal & Vertical Scrolling speeds
- One, Two or Three Finger tapping options
Press “ALT-F2″ and type “qsynaptics” to run the QSynaptic GUI Manager and config to your hearts content. If someone reminds me I’ll edit this to include a desktop menu launcher.
Adjust your settings the way you’d like them and make your desktop your own! This is one cool hack–one of my favorites!
technorati tags:synaptic, touchpad, laptop, notebook, ubuntu, configure