Here is what I did to compile and make appletouch functional. I'm still learning, so if there is a better way to do any of this, please feel free to correct me. Also, there is more tweaking I'd like to do, but these are the basic instructions for you to be able to experiment. According to appletouch.c, appletouch applies to the following Mac laptops:
/* PowerBooks Feb 2005, iBooks G4 */
/* PowerBooks Oct 2005 */
/* Core Duo MacBook & MacBook Pro */
/* Core2 Duo MacBook & MacBook Pro */
/* Core2 Duo MacBook3,1 */
Summary: Use the original appletouch make file (from the authors), with the newest appletouch.c (from the kernel tree), changing a few values.
1. Get the Makefile. Download the most recent appletouch package from:
The most recent one I see today is appletouch-0.08.tar.bz2. It is outdated, but I'm only using the Makefile from this. I'm going to extract "Makefile" to ~/appletouch/ for this example.
2. Download the appletouch.c from the kernel tree (kernel.ubuntu.com/git) which matches your kernel version. In my case, I'm downloading from the Precise tree:
kernel.ubuntu.com/git --> projects (top link) --> ubuntu/ubuntu-precise.git > tree (upper left hand link) > drivers > input > mouse > appletouch.c : raw
Direct link to appletouch.c's directory in Precise's tree, as of today (If you have a different kernel, or this link doesn't work, you'll need to find it manually):
From here, click the "raw" link to the right of "appletouch.c" to download the raw file. Put this file into ~/appletouch/
Ubuntu seems to have named the raw file "drivers_input_mouse_appletouch.c". If yours downloads with that filename, rename it to "appletouch.c"
3. We should now have the directory ~/appletouch with the following 2 files in it:
appletouch.c (from the kernel tree)
Makefile (from the appletouch website)
4. Install kernel headers (if you don't already have them installed):
sudo apt-get install Linux-headers-$(uname -r)
5. Modify appletouch.c with new sensitivity values. In my case (PowerBook5,8 ) I changed:
#define ATP_FUZZ 16
#define ATP_THRESHOLD 5
to
#define ATP_FUZZ 0
#define ATP_THRESHOLD 3
6. Compile appletouch.c. Open up a terminal and run the following commands:
cd ~/appletouch
make
7. Disable current appletouch (with rmmod) and test your new appletouch driver (with insmod) to see if the settings work:
sudo rmmod appletouch
sudo insmod appletouch.ko
8. If you are not satisfied with the touchpad behavior, go back to step 5 and adjust settings.
If you want to go back to default appletouch in the mean time (if your new settings are unusable, for example), you can unload your new driver, and insert the original with:
sudo rmmod appletouch
sudo modprobe appletouch
9. If this works for your machine, backup your original appletouch driver:
sudo mv /lib/modules/$(uname -r)/kernel/drivers/input/mouse/appletouch.ko /lib/modules/$(uname -r)/kernel/drivers/input/mouse/appletouch_OLD.ko
10. Make the new driver the default appletouch driver by copying it to the drivers directory:
sudo cp appletouch.ko /lib/modules/$(uname -r)/kernel/drivers/input/mouse/appletouch.ko
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