[clug] problems with my Ubuntu

Ian darkstarsword at gmail.com
Thu Aug 23 04:32:09 GMT 2007


Hi Julian,

Check out the info on this page:
http://ubuntuforums.org/archive/index.php/t-351058.html

Much of that is about manual configuration by editing the
/etc/X11/xorg.conf file. which will give you access to set all options
(including the two finger drag to scroll, multifinger tap to
right/middle click, decreasing sensitivity to try to fix your random
clicking problem and so on).

For a GUI frontend you have 3 choices that I am aware of. None of
these will provide access to every option you can change by manually
editing xorg.conf, but they may be useful to change things on the fly
or experiment with touchpad sensitivity to find an optimal value that
won't randomally click:

* gsynaptics (Designed for GNOME, but as far as I can see it doesn't
have some advanced options like two or three finger tap).
* qsynaptics (Qt based but should work in Gnome, has two/three finger
tap option, but doesn't look like it has the ability to set touchpad
sensitivity).
* ksynaptics (Designed specifically for KDE, and since it is a control
center module, probably won't help with GNOME, but keep it in mind in
case you ever install KDE).

If you want to use any of those programs, you will have to make one
manual modification to /etc/X11/xorg.conf file first, from a terminal
enter:
sudo gedit /etc/X11/xorg.conf

Then find the section starting with:
Section "InputDevice"
        Identifier      "Synaptics Touchpad"
And add the line:
        Option          "SHMConfig"     "on"
So all up that section should look like something like this:
...
Section "InputDevice"
        Identifier      "Synaptics Touchpad"
        Driver          "synaptics"
        Option          "SendCoreEvents"        "true"
        Option          "Device"        "/dev/psaux"
        Option          "Protocol"      "auto-dev"
        Option          "HorizScrollDelta"      "0"
        Option          "SHMConfig"     "on"
EndSection
...
Save and close the file, then restart X - the easiest way to do this
is (SAVE YOUR WORK FIRST) probably the hot-key Ctrl+Alt+Backspace,
otherwise rebooting the computer will work.

Let me/the list know if you have any trouble with this, or need
something I have  said clarified.

-Ian

On 23/08/07, Julian Milthorpe <jules.milthorpe at gmail.com> wrote:
> Hello CLUG,
>
> I installed Ubuntu 7.04 yesterday(yay!) and am just working out how
> everything works. I have come accross a few things that make me nervous
> however, so would appreciate any feedback you could provide on these issues.
>
> 1. No right click- I used to be able to right click by pushing the command
> button(I have a mac g4 PPC) and clicking the mouse button as usual. Now the
> only way I can figure out how to right click is by pushing the 'eject'
> button at the top right corner of my keyboard.
>
> 2. Mouse cursor clicks by itself- I have found that the cursor clicks
> occasionally wherever I have it placed. I find this especially annoying
> while typing emails. This problem never occurred before, so I am quite
> concerned.
>
> 3. no simple scrolling with mousepad- This feature worked on the macOSX. if
> two fingers were touching the mousepad at the same time, when dragged
> down/up the window would scroll. Can I get this feature for Ubuntu?
>
> 4. Eclipse for Ubuntu 7.04- Where can I find it!?
>
> My experience with Unix systems amounts to about nothing, so I am in the
> dark about everything here. Thus any help would be great.
>
> Sincerely
> Julian Milthorpe
> --
> linux mailing list
> linux at lists.samba.org
> https://lists.samba.org/mailman/listinfo/linux
>


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