Zhong Jiang asks:

After setting up my system to work and configuring it, my touchpad’s tap-to-click is disabled by default. I followed the Debian wiki guide on enabling tapping through creating a conf file but now I cannot scroll vertically or horizontally. After reviewing online for multiple answers: creating new sections in xorg.conf and using a configuration utility. I’m not sure what’s the definite solution is, but here’s my xorg.conf file which I’ve generated earlier:

Section "ServerLayout"
 Identifier "X.org Configured"
 Screen 0 "Screen0" 0 0
 InputDevice "Mouse0" "CorePointer"
 InputDevice "Keyboard0" "CoreKeyboard"
 EndSection

Section "Files"
 ModulePath "/usr/lib/xorg/modules"
 FontPath "/usr/share/fonts/X11/misc"
 FontPath "/usr/share/fonts/X11/cyrillic"
 FontPath "/usr/share/fonts/X11/100dpi/:unscaled"
 FontPath "/usr/share/fonts/X11/75dpi/:unscaled"
 FontPath "/usr/share/fonts/X11/Type1"
 FontPath "/usr/share/fonts/X11/100dpi"
 FontPath "/usr/share/fonts/X11/75dpi"
 FontPath "/var/lib/defoma/x-ttcidfont-conf.d/dirs/TrueType"
 FontPath "built-ins"
 EndSection

Section "Module"
 Load "record"
 Load "dri"
 Load "glx"
 Load "dbe"
 Load "dri2"
 Load "extmod"
 Load "synaptics"
 EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
 Identifier "Keyboard0"
 Driver "kbd"
 EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
 Identifier "Mouse0"
 Driver "mouse"
 Option "Protocol" "auto"
 Option "Device" "/dev/input/mice"
 Option "ZAxisMapping" "4 5 6 7"
 Option "VertTwoFingerScroll" "1" # multitouch
 Option "HorizTwoFingerScroll" "1" # multitouch
 Option "VertEdgeScroll" "1"
 EndSection

I only included the relevant sections, this isn’t the full file.

If you have any advice or ideas for me to try, I would really appreciate it.

Browser: Chrome 22
System: Linux
Tagged: debian, linux, Linux Questions, touchpad

4 Answers -

0 votes

Ramon Fletcher

November 2, 2012

Can you tell us more about your Hardware. Did you choose debian for a particular reason or are you willing to try other distro’s

Zhong Jiang

I have Synaptics PS/2 Port Touchpad, I’ve chosen Debian for its stability and an alternative to Ubuntu. I’m not yet willing to install other distributions.

November 3, 2012

I’m not an expert and what little I do know is more on the Ubuntu side but will have a look into it for you.

The only thing I could suggest at present is that you try to get a copy of the original Xorg.conf and change start the modifications over again. Might be that you made a simple mistake in your previous attempt.

Boni Oloff

Looks like complicated, Since i am not a linux guy, then i cant get a good answer for you.
Hope some Linux Master see this question.

November 5, 2012

What type of Laptop do you have and what kernel are you running. Ur xorg.conf file seems to be missing lines in particular

Option “TapButton1″ “1
Option “TapButton2″ “2″ # multitouch
Option “TapButton3″ “3″ # multitouch
Option “VertEdgeScroll” “1″.

I would suggest cut a pasting the entire code under heading
“Debian squeeze, kernel 2.6.32-4 and later, Xorg 7.5″

reboot and see how this goes and also keep me up to date

Hp Pavilon dv6z 3000, kernel 3.2 bpo, at first I cannot tap using the touchpad but when I look at this guide that says to create a conf file:options psmouse proto=imps.

Running:
modprobe -r psmouse modprobe psmouse proto=imps

That’s the first time I’ve installed Debian running 2.5.32amd64. I’m not sure adding that options would matter anymore since I have the tapping function enabled.

November 9, 2012

I think you’ve listened to too many suggestions. I would have only followed the changes suggested in:

http://wiki.debian.org/SynapticsTouchpad.

When you did the modprobe stuff it may have changed the driver to one that is not best suited for your hardware. My suggestion would be to undo what you have already done or reinstall if you can’t undo it. After that just do the suggestions in the above site.
Keep us informed.

November 10, 2012