Multitap with synaptic touchpad

[cmatheson]

Hello,

I've read in the synaptics(4) manpage that the synaptic touchpads support multi-tap/scrolling for most models (as far as I can tell, recent synaptics touchpads are supported, but Alps are not). I have a synaptics touchpad in a new HP 550 laptop. I'm pasting the relevant parts of my Xorg.0.log below, but I'll post my questions here:

1 - I don't see any acknowledgement of the multitap options in the log--why is that?
2 - Am I safe to assume that my hardware supports multitap? How can I know for sure?
3 - Is there anything else I need to do to make this work?

Xorg.0.log output:

(II) Synaptics touchpad driver version 0.15.2
(II) Touchpad: x-axis range 1472 - 5472
(II) Touchpad: y-axis range 1408 - 4448
(**) Option "Device" "/dev/input/event7"
(**) Option "SHMConfig" "true"
(--) Touchpad touchpad found
(**) Option "SendCoreEvents"
(**) Option "CorePointer"
(**) Touchpad: always reports core events
(II) evaluating device (Touchpad)
(II) XINPUT: Adding extended input device "Touchpad" (type: TOUCHPAD)
(II) Touchpad: x-axis range 1472 - 5472
(II) Touchpad: y-axis range 1408 - 4448
(--) Touchpad touchpad found
(II) config/hal: Adding input device Macintosh mouse button emulation
(II) LoadModule: "evdev"

(II) Loading /usr/lib/xorg/modules/input//evdev_drv.so
(II) Module evdev: vendor="X.Org Foundation"
compiled for 1.5.2, module version = 2.0.99
Module class: X.Org XInput Driver
ABI class: X.Org XInput driver, version 2.1
(**) Macintosh mouse button emulation: always reports core events
(**) Macintosh mouse button emulation: Device: "/dev/input/event0"
(II) Macintosh mouse button emulation: Found x and y relative axes
(II) Macintosh mouse button emulation: Found 3 mouse buttons
(II) Macintosh mouse button emulation: Configuring as mouse
(II) XINPUT: Adding extended input device "Macintosh mouse button emulation" (type: MOUSE)
(**) Macintosh mouse button emulation: YAxisMapping: buttons 4 and 5
(**) Macintosh mouse button emulation: EmulateWheelButton: 4, EmulateWheelInertia: 10, EmulateWheelTimeout: 200
(II) config/hal: Adding input device SynPS/2 Synaptics TouchPad
(II) Synaptics touchpad driver version 0.15.2
(II) SynPS/2 Synaptics TouchPad: x-axis range 1472 - 5472
(II) SynPS/2 Synaptics TouchPad: y-axis range 1408 - 4448
(**) Option "Device" "/dev/input/event7"
(--) SynPS/2 Synaptics TouchPad touchpad found
(**) SynPS/2 Synaptics TouchPad: always reports core events
(II) XINPUT: Adding extended input device "SynPS/2 Synaptics TouchPad" (type: TOUCHPAD)
(II) SynPS/2 Synaptics TouchPad: x-axis range 1472 - 5472
(II) SynPS/2 Synaptics TouchPad: y-axis range 1408 - 4448
(WW) SynPS/2 Synaptics TouchPad can't grab event device, errno=16
(--) SynPS/2 Synaptics TouchPad touchpad found


TIA,
Cam

[wgrant]

What do you mean by multi-tap?

[cmatheson]

What do you mean by multi-tap?

Sorry, I mean tapping with two or three fingers to simulate right/middle mouse clicks, and also using two-fingers to scroll (like on a mac).

[wgrant]

Two- and three-finger tapping are on by default. You can use the HAL example in the X config documentation to enable two-finger scrolling.

[cmatheson]

Thanks for the response. I wasn't aware that these things were configured in HAL now. Anyway, I've created the following file (/etc/hal/fdi/policy/synaptics.fdi):

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="ISO-8859-1"?>
<deviceinfo version="0.2">
<device>
<match key="input.x11_driver" string="synaptics">
<merge key="input.x11_options.SHMConfig" type="string">true</merge>
<merge key="input.x11_options.VertTwoFingerScroll" type="string">true</merge>
</match>
</device>
</deviceinfo>


This isn't working either (also, the SHMConfig option definitely isn't taking hold, because synclient no longer works). Is there a way to check that hal is passing the right parameters along to X?

Thanks

[wgrant]

You will have to at least restart X, and possibly your whole system.

[cmatheson]

Ok, I logged out of X, and restarted HAL. I do see the VertTwoFingerScroll option in my Xorg.0.log now, and synclient is working. Unfortunately, the two finger scroll still doesn't work. I've tried running synclient -m and using two fingers on the pad, but it the 'f' column doesn't ever register 2. Any other ideas?

Thanks again,
Cam

[wgrant]

It looks like your touchpad doesn't report multiple fingers - are you sure it's physically capable of it?

[cmatheson]

I'm not sure--how can I know if my touchpad is capable or not? It's a synaptic brand touchpad manufactured this year. Everything I've read in the docs leads me to believe this should work--but I haven't been able to find out how to know whether or not this touchpad supports two-finger input for sure.

Thanks.

[wgrant]

It looks very unlikely that it does, but perhaps check in Windows just to be sure?