Synaptics Touchpad Scroll Region

**waspbloke** · August 11th, 2008

I have installed and configured ubuntu 8.04 (me n00b) on my laptop, got everything working as I would like (even got Unreal Tournament working), all except the touchpad.

Basically, how do I set the size of the scoll region?

In windows there was a GUI applet in control panel to set the scroll region size. I have added the synaptics config package in ubuntu but it is fairly minimal. The xorg.conf file only contains a few lines:

Code:

Section "InputDevice"
	Identifier	"Synaptics Touchpad"
	Driver		"synaptics"
	Option		"SendCoreEvents"	"true"
	Option		"Device"	"/dev/psaux"
	Option		"Protocol"	"auto-dev"
	Option		"SHMConfig"	"on"
	Option		"HorizEdgeScroll"	"0"
EndSection

The problem I have is that in windows, I had the Vertical Scroll region clamped to a thin strip up the right edge, just about enough for the tip of my finger. However, in ubuntu the scroll region is set quite wide.

When I am scrolling and then I scoot my finger diagonally up to the top left for a menu action, the wider scroll region causes the page to scroll up away from the secton I was viewing.

This is annoying.

I have found this page:
http://gentoo-wiki.com/HARDWARE_Syna..._Configuration
which has various settings but it is not clear to me what if anything I can do.

Grateful for any help.

******* EDIT: Solved! ********

Okay, I have figured it out after some playing around.

I haven't seen this problem explicitly addressed in a forum search so for anybody else who hits this post, here's the cure:

In a terminal window, type:
man synaptics
This will display the manual giving a list and description of all the parameters.

In a terminal window, type:
synclient -l
This will list all the current values of the synaptics device parameters.

To test your new scroll region settings live, type:

synclient RightEdge=5400 (was 5072)
This shifts the right edge of the scroll region towards the right edge of the touchpad.

synclient VertScrollDelta=100 (was 60)
This increases the amount of vertical movement that must be performed before a scroll event is registered.

When you have finished testing the parameters you wish to adjust, type:
synclient -l
once more to confirm your new settings.

Then type:
sudo gedit /etc/X11/xorg.conf
and enter your password to open up the config file for editing.

Then add the options to the InputDevice section:

Code:

Section "InputDevice"
	Identifier	"Synaptics Touchpad"
	Driver		"synaptics"
	Option		"SendCoreEvents"	"true"
	Option		"Device"	"/dev/psaux"
	Option		"Protocol"	"auto-dev"
	Option		"SHMConfig"	"on"
	Option		"HorizEdgeScroll"	"0"
	Option		"RightEdge"	"5400"
	Option		"VertScrollDelta"	"100"
EndSection

Save it, close it and restart the session.

That's it. Hope that helps anyone else who wants to tinker with the touchpad settings.

**afeasfaerw23231233** · June 26th, 2009

Thanks! It solved my problem!

**timmyhiggy** · December 15th, 2009

Hi

I would love to do this but unfortunately my xorg.conf only has the following in it:

Code:

Section "Device"
	Identifier	"Configured Video Device"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
	Identifier	"Configured Monitor"
EndSection

Section "Screen"
	Identifier	"Default Screen"
	Monitor		"Configured Monitor"
	Device		"Configured Video Device"
EndSection

and synaptics isn't mentioned anywhere. What should I do to edit it?

**timmyhiggy** · December 17th, 2009

mini-bump...

**timmyhiggy** · December 23rd, 2009

What I want to know is whether it is ok to just add something like:

Section "InputDevice"
Identifier "Synaptics Touchpad"
Driver "synaptics"
Option "RightEdge=5900"
EndSection

To the xorg.conf I posted above.

**sometimes** · April 3rd, 2010

I found an answer to this here:
http://www.bhagwad.com/blog/2009/tec...jackalope.html

Worked for me to fix the width of the right-edge scroll zone in Karmic.