Make the touchpad smoother?

**s0l1dsnak3123** · April 26th, 2012

Hi there! I managed to get 12.04 running on my Macbook Pro 8,1, and I'm very happy as a result! I'd now like to make it my mission to refine it down to perfection.

My main gripe with ubuntu right now is a relatively small one: the touchpad driver, in comparison with OSX, is no where near as nice for me, in my humble opinion (that is literally the only real problem I have!).

I also reckon it's more likely to be a configuration issue than a code issue, so I was wondering if anyone knew how to refine it?

This is what I'm used to from OSX:

When I drag with 3 fingers I simulate a left click and drag
When I drag with 4 fingers I move to a different workspace
When I drag 2 fingers to the right, the scrollbar goes to the left

**Kallun** · April 28th, 2012

Hi s0l1dsnak3123,

You can achieve this with Touchegg, however I don't believe it's working in 12.04, it seems to present a segmentation fault. I haven't read up on it recently though, so perhaps there's progress?

**s0l1dsnak3123** · April 28th, 2012

Originally Posted by Kallun

Hi s0l1dsnak3123,

You can achieve this with Touchegg, however I don't believe it's working in 12.04, it seems to present a segmentation fault. I haven't read up on it recently though, so perhaps there's progress?

Yep, segfaults for me also.

**watgrad** · April 28th, 2012

Did you get bluetooth working? This is the only thing that I cannot get to work on my macbookpro 8.1

**s0l1dsnak3123** · April 28th, 2012

Originally Posted by watgrad

Did you get bluetooth working? This is the only thing that I cannot get to work on my macbookpro 8.1

It works out of the box for me, I have the following hardware:

Code:

00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation 2nd Generation Core Processor Family DRAM Controller (rev 09)
00:01.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation Xeon E3-1200/2nd Generation Core Processor Family PCI Express Root Port (rev 09)
00:01.1 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation Xeon E3-1200/2nd Generation Core Processor Family PCI Express Root Port (rev 09)
00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation 2nd Generation Core Processor Family Integrated Graphics Controller (rev 09)
00:16.0 Communication controller: Intel Corporation 6 Series/C200 Series Chipset Family MEI Controller #1 (rev 04)
00:1a.0 USB controller: Intel Corporation 6 Series/C200 Series Chipset Family USB Universal Host Controller #5 (rev 05)
00:1a.7 USB controller: Intel Corporation 6 Series/C200 Series Chipset Family USB Enhanced Host Controller #2 (rev 05)
00:1b.0 Audio device: Intel Corporation 6 Series/C200 Series Chipset Family High Definition Audio Controller (rev 05)
00:1c.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 6 Series/C200 Series Chipset Family PCI Express Root Port 1 (rev b5)
00:1c.1 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 6 Series/C200 Series Chipset Family PCI Express Root Port 2 (rev b5)
00:1c.2 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 6 Series/C200 Series Chipset Family PCI Express Root Port 3 (rev b5)
00:1d.0 USB controller: Intel Corporation 6 Series/C200 Series Chipset Family USB Universal Host Controller #1 (rev 05)
00:1d.7 USB controller: Intel Corporation 6 Series/C200 Series Chipset Family USB Enhanced Host Controller #1 (rev 05)
00:1f.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corporation HM65 Express Chipset Family LPC Controller (rev 05)
00:1f.2 IDE interface: Intel Corporation 6 Series/C200 Series Chipset Family 4 port SATA IDE Controller (rev 05)
00:1f.3 SMBus: Intel Corporation 6 Series/C200 Series Chipset Family SMBus Controller (rev 05)
02:00.0 Ethernet controller: Broadcom Corporation NetXtreme BCM57765 Gigabit Ethernet PCIe (rev 10)
02:00.1 SD Host controller: Broadcom Corporation NetXtreme BCM57765 Memory Card Reader (rev 10)
03:00.0 Network controller: Broadcom Corporation BCM4331 802.11a/b/g/n (rev 02)
04:00.0 FireWire (IEEE 1394): LSI Corporation FW643 PCI Express 1394b Controller (PHY/Link) (rev 08)

**bradleyjones** · April 29th, 2012

In terms of configuration for the touchpad, touchegg is definately the way to go however it is not currently working in 12.04 due to problems with uTouch, see bug report - https://bugs.launchpad.net/utouch-geis/+bug/986886

To those people getting the segfaults with touchegg you can fix this by downloading the daily build directly from the touchegg's svn but until uTouch gets updated we are left waiting.

I wish there was a way just to configure the multitouch gestures be default as the ones provided by the synaptics driver actually work quite well I just don't really have a need for 3-finger screen movement or a four finger tap, would rather configure them to do something useful!

**phidia** · April 29th, 2012

Originally Posted by bradleyjones

In terms of configuration for the touchpad, touchegg is definately the way to go however it is not currently working in 12.04 due to problems with uTouch, see bug report - https://bugs.launchpad.net/utouch-geis/+bug/986886

To those people getting the segfaults with touchegg you can fix this by downloading the daily build directly from the touchegg's svn but until uTouch gets updated we are left waiting.

I wish there was a way just to configure the multitouch gestures be default as the ones provided by the synaptics driver actually work quite well I just don't really have a need for 3-finger screen movement or a four finger tap, would rather configure them to do something useful!

I think mulitouch can be quite useful and there are more options than just screen movement.

Does anyone have experience with battery life on a mbp using 12.04 and if so how does it compare to OS X?

**watgrad** · May 3rd, 2012

Originally Posted by phidia

I think mulitouch can be quite useful and there are more options than just screen movement.

Does anyone have experience with battery life on a mbp using 12.04 and if so how does it compare to OS X?

I am finding that battery life is much improved. It is comparable to OSX - can't say for sure how close, because I rarely use OSX anymore...but I'm getting about 5 hrs use on one charge.