Sunday, November 12, 2006

Ubuntu on Powerbook G4 (Trackpad Synaptics Two finger scroll multibutton emulation)

After such a long title (mainly for tagging reasons) I suppose I have to write a long article.
One of the things I didn't really like about Ubuntu standard configuration, was the track-pad.
In fact, although correctly recognized (using the synaptics Xorg driver) default was really poor: the mouse moved so slowly it was unusable. For the first hours you can use an external three button mouse and live happily. However, I wanted to fix my track-pad. I found some articles on the net.
There are plenty of blog posts on this subject and if you use synaptics as a key you find even more. This is a good starting point. However, I strongly advise to read synaptics manual (man synaptics). It is synaptics with a trailing s, not synaptic, the package manager.
If you read the manual, you get a lot of informations about how to configure your trackpad. You also have some GUI configurators (gsynaptics, ksynaptics, qsynaptics). They offer less
Options (but are easier to use).
While I was able to set tracking speed and acceleration correctly (mainly using the link I posted) I'm still somewhat unsatisfied with scrolling facilities. Two finger scroll does not seem to work, and edge scrolling (using the edges of the trackpad to scroll) is far from perfect.
The best thing is that I can use tapping to emulate buttons. Tapping in the right upper corner is a middle click and right lower a right click. Now I can use the powerbook without an external mouse.
I'm to post my xorg.conf. And remember... using 'radeon' codecs instead of 'ati' should be a good thing (I've not investigated, I only read it somewhere)
My XOrg:
# /etc/X11/xorg.conf (xorg X Window System server configuration file) 
# 
# This file was generated by dexconf, the Debian X Configuration tool, using 
# values from the debconf database. 
# 
# Edit this file with caution, and see the /etc/X11/xorg.conf manual page. 
# (Type "man /etc/X11/xorg.conf" at the shell prompt.) 
# 
# This file is automatically updated on xserver-xorg package upgrades *only* 
# if it has not been modified since the last upgrade of the xserver-xorg 
# package. 
# 
# If you have edited this file but would like it to be automatically updated 
# again, run the following command: 
#   sudo dpkg-reconfigure -phigh xserver-xorg  
Section "Files"         
FontPath        "/usr/share/X11/fonts/misc"         
FontPath        "/usr/share/X11/fonts/cyrillic"         
FontPath        "/usr/share/X11/fonts/100dpi/:unscaled"         
FontPath        "/usr/share/X11/fonts/75dpi/:unscaled"         
FontPath        "/usr/share/X11/fonts/Type1"         
FontPath        "/usr/share/X11/fonts/100dpi"         
FontPath        "/usr/share/X11/fonts/75dpi"         
FontPath        "/usr/share/fonts/X11/misc"         # path to defoma fonts         
FontPath        "/var/lib/defoma/x-ttcidfont-conf.d/dirs/TrueType" 
End
Section "Module"         
        Load        "i2c"         
        Load        "bitmap"         
        Load        "ddc"         
        Load        "dri"         #
        Load        "dbe"         
        Load        "extmod"         
        Load        "freetype"         
        Load        "glx"         
        Load        "int10"         #
        Load        "record"         #
        Load        "v4l"         
        Load        "type1"         
        Load        "vbe" 
End
Section "InputDevice"         
Identifier        "Generic Keyboard"         
Driver                "kbd"         
        Option                "CoreKeyboard"         
        Option                "XkbRules""xorg"         
        Option                "XkbModel""pc105"         
        Option                "XkbLayout""it"         
        Option                "Xkb
        Options""lv3:ralt_switch"         
        Option                "XkbVariant""nodeadkeys" 
End
Section "InputDevice"         
Identifier        "Configured Mouse"         
Driver                "mouse"         
        Option                "Device""/dev/input/mice"         
        Option                "Protocol""ExplorerPS/2"         
        Option                "ZAxisMapping""4 5"         
        Option                "Emulate3Buttons""true" 
End
Section "InputDevice"          
Identifier         "Synaptics Touchpad"          
Driver                 "synaptics"          
        Option                "CorePointer"         
        Option                 "SendCoreEvents""true"          
        Option                 "Device""/dev/psaux"          
        Option                 "Protocol""auto-dev"          
        Option                 "SHMConfig""true"          
        Option                 "MinSpeed""0.30"          
        Option                 "MaxSpeed""1.10"          
        Option                 "EdgeMotionMinSpeed""200"          
        Option                 "EdgeMotionMaxSpeed""200"          
        Option                 "FastTaps""1"          
        Option                 "MaxTapTime""100"          
        Option                 "AccelFactor""0.030"          
        Option                 "HorizScrollDelta""0"          
        Option                "VertTwoFingerScroll""1"         
        Option                "HorizTwoFingerScroll""1"         
        Option                "CircularScrolling""1"         
        Option                "CircScrollTrigger""0"         
        Option                 "FingerLow""1"          
        Option                 "FingerHigh""3"          
        Option                 "LeftEdge""80"          
        Option                 "TopEdge""80"          
        Option                 "RightEdge""850"                  
        Option                 "BottomEdge""560"          
        Option                 "TapButton1""1"  
End
Section "Device"         
Identifier        "ATI Technologies, Inc. RV350 NP [Mobility Radeon 9600/9700 M10/M11]"         
Driver                "radeon"         
BusID                "PCI:0:16:0"         
        Option                "UseFBDev""true"         
End
Section "Monitor"         Identifier        "Generic Monitor"         
        Option                "DPMS" 
End
Section "Screen"         
Identifier        "Default Screen"         
Device                "ATI Technologies, Inc. RV350 NP [Mobility Radeon 9600/9700 M10/M11]"         
Monitor                "Generic Monitor"         
Default
        Depth        24         Sub
Section "Display"                 
        Depth                1                 
        Modes                "1280x786"         
End
Subsection "Display"                 
        Depth                4                 
        Modes                "1280x786"         
End
Subsection "Display"                 
        Depth                8                 
        Modes                "1280x786"         
End
Subsection "Display"                 
        Depth                15                 
        Modes                "1280x786"         
End
Subsection "Display"                 
        Depth                16                 
        Modes                "1280x786"         
End
Subsection "Display"                 
        Depth                24                 
        Modes                "1280x786"         
End 
End
Section "ServerLayout"         
Identifier        "Default Layout"         
Screen                "Default Screen"         
InputDevice        "Generic Keyboard"         
InputDevice        "Synaptics Touchpad"         
InputDevice        "Configured Mouse" 
End
Section "DRI"         
Mode        0666 
End

No comments: