Take a look at our
ThinkPads.com HOME PAGE
For those who might want to contribute to the blog, start here: Editors Alley Topic
Then contact Bill with a Private Message

SK-8855 with tpmiddle working on Desktop PC?

Performance, hardware, software, general buying and gaming discussion..
Post Reply
Message
Author
surfbro
Posts: 14
Joined: Thu Nov 12, 2020 3:33 pm
Location: Vancouver, BC Canada

SK-8855 with tpmiddle working on Desktop PC?

#1 Post by surfbro » Thu Nov 12, 2020 4:46 pm

Would love to get some input to figure out if this is possible or not.

I have 10 Thinkpads, and I am used to typing on the classic 7 row keyboard found in the xx20 series (and modified to work with xx30 series). Now I have finally manage to find an SK-8855 USB Keyboard (JP swapped to the US keyboard) and I recently built a gaming Desktop PC running Windows 7 Professional.

I cannot get used to a standard desktop Keyboard + Mouse combo as I have got so used to using my classic keyboard and love the productivity that it gives me while I can keep both hands on the keyboard at all times, without having to take off my hand to use the mouse. I have learned to do graphic design on the trackpoint alone, so I want to keep it that way.

I became obsessed with using tpmiddle.exe (https://sdx1.net/tools/tpmiddle/) after having run Debian on my w530, and loving the middle click and scroll with the trackpoint + middle click to open new tabs while hovering over an active link (makes browsing the web faster). These were built into Linux by default I believe, but on Windows we needed tpmiddle to mimic that same functionality.

The Lenovo drivers for this keyboard (https://support.lenovo.com/ca/en/solutions/migr-73183) do not come close to the level of functionality as tpmiddle. The stock drivers make browsing slow, and there is no middle click whatsoever. I have tried to recreate tpmiddle by using w10wheel, wiz mouse, and SmoothScroll, but they are not close. The closest I have got is using SmoothScroll, but the browsing speed is not the same over all applications. For example, browsing with SmoothScroll on Firefox is snappy and quick, but then on Notepad it is incredibly slow, and there is still NO middle click with SmoothScroll Alone. w10wheel and Wiz Mouse give me middle click functionality, and somewhat decent scrolling, but it is choppy and not smooth like Smoothscroll alone or tpmiddle.

Does anyone have any experience in successfully installing the Synaptics drivers required for tpmiddle to work on a desktop computer? I have spent hours trying to figure it out, and the closest I've got was this thread on the Thinkpad forums:

viewtopic.php?f=18&t=118125&hilit=sk+8855

Please let me know if this is a possiblity. I want to keep what I know and proceed to using my new custom built PC, with the same level of productivity that I had on my Thinkpad Laptop. I have also looked at the Tex Shinobi (https://mechanicalkeyboards.com/shop/in ... ail&p=6169) but it is not identical to xx20 series keyboard. It may be the next best thing as it has speed functions built onto the bottom, but the price tag is hefty.

Picture of the connector board if anyone is interested: https://imgur.com/a/k3VSonX

Thanks
Last edited by surfbro on Thu Nov 12, 2020 7:52 pm, edited 1 time in total.

atagunov
Senior Member
Senior Member
Posts: 921
Joined: Thu Apr 02, 2020 3:11 pm
Location: London, UK

Re: SK-8855 with tpmiddle working on Desktop PC?

#2 Post by atagunov » Thu Nov 12, 2020 6:44 pm

surfbro wrote:
Thu Nov 12, 2020 4:46 pm
Keyboard is detected, and can scroll via middle click when dragging, but middle click does not work to open tabs and such
Hi there! No direct experience here, but I still got a couple of questions to ask. Most importantly, do you have another mouse to try with middle click? Does that other mouse work the way you want it to? And - to help others help you better - which operating system are you using?

P.S. would you also be the person posting here as IBMfan700 ? :) The two topics look quite similar and it might be easier to continue discussion in one place
X220, 2 *T520

surfbro
Posts: 14
Joined: Thu Nov 12, 2020 3:33 pm
Location: Vancouver, BC Canada

Re: SK-8855 with tpmiddle working on Desktop PC?

#3 Post by surfbro » Thu Nov 12, 2020 7:55 pm

atagunov wrote:
Thu Nov 12, 2020 6:44 pm
surfbro wrote:
Thu Nov 12, 2020 4:46 pm
Keyboard is detected, and can scroll via middle click when dragging, but middle click does not work to open tabs and such
Hi there! No direct experience here, but I still got a couple of questions to ask. Most importantly, do you have another mouse to try with middle click? Does that other mouse work the way you want it to? And - to help others help you better - which operating system are you using?

P.S. would you also be the person posting here as IBMfan700 ? :) The two topics look quite similar and it might be easier to continue discussion in one place
Hello! I had summarized more of my approach and typed it all out after originally posting, so I think I was able to be much more descriptive of my goals with this SK-8855 keyboard becoming a desktop alternative to the xx20 series keyboard w/tpmiddle functionality.

I am not IBMfan700, I have been lurking here for a while, my old username used to be corebootx220 but I don't remember the password or have access to my recovery email unfortunately, so I created a fresh account.

To answer your one question, yes middle wheel on my mouse when clicked, does open a new tab in my Chrome browser when hovering and clicking an active link.

crashnburn
ThinkPadder
ThinkPadder
Posts: 1724
Joined: Sat Apr 22, 2006 4:26 pm
Location: TX, USA & Bombay, India

Re: SK-8855 with tpmiddle working on Desktop PC?

#4 Post by crashnburn » Sat Nov 21, 2020 8:08 am

Making Note of this. Lets see what I can do / try in this space. I had no idea about this.
T61 8892-02U: 14.1"SXGA+/2.2C2D/4G/XP|Adv Mini Dock|30" Gateway XHD3000 WQXGA via Dual-link DVI
X61T 7767-96U: 12.1"SXGA+/1.6C2D/3G/Vista|Ultrabase
W510 4319-2PU: 15.6"FHD/i7-720QM/4G/Win7Pro64 (for dad)
T43 1875-DLU: 14.1"XGA/1.7PM-740/1G/XP (Old)

surfbro
Posts: 14
Joined: Thu Nov 12, 2020 3:33 pm
Location: Vancouver, BC Canada

Re: SK-8855 with tpmiddle working on Desktop PC?

#5 Post by surfbro » Fri Dec 04, 2020 9:13 pm

crashnburn wrote:
Sat Nov 21, 2020 8:08 am
Making Note of this. Lets see what I can do / try in this space. I had no idea about this.
That would be terrific. I would definitely be willing to pay you for your time in solving this! It means that much to me. I want to use the SK-8855 as a desktop solution, but without working tpmiddle, it makes more sense to stick with my w530/x230. Or even go the route of a modded x230 with newer i7 processor. Keep in touch!

pkiff
Moderator
Moderator
Posts: 1607
Joined: Wed May 05, 2004 9:17 am
Location: Toronto, Canada

Re: SK-8855 with tpmiddle working on Desktop PC?

#6 Post by pkiff » Sat Dec 12, 2020 10:46 am

This probably won't help you - I'm not 100% sure what all tpmiddle does that you need the most - but just as an FYI, the method I'm using does solve (for me at least) the problem of middle-clicking links and using the middle-click to scroll when working in most browsers.

I've been using the SK-8855 keyboards as desktop keyboards for maybe a decade or so. Though when I say "desktop" keyboards, what I actually mean are external keyboards that are attached to a (usually) closed Thinkpad. Historically, I found that having a Logitech mouse along with the USB Keyboard with Trackpoint has helped me to configure the keyboard better because it allowed me to install the Logitech SetPoint drivers. In Windows 7, I would install the Thinkpad keyboard drivers as well, and then tweak how the Thinkpad drivers interacted with the Logitech drivers. Currently, though, in Windows 10, it looks like I only have the Logitech SetPoint drivers installed, and am using the built-in Windows drivers for the Thinkpad keyboard.

I am able to use the middle button to invoke a scroll which is then controlled by the Trackpoint. And in most browsers, when I hover over a link, I can also use the middle button to open in a new tab. Though middle-button scrolling does not work in, for example, Notepad. It used to be that you could customize how specific programs worked with the scroll in the Thinkpad keyboard driver configuration somewhere. But I haven't bothered with that in a while. I switch back and forth between multiple laptops and I use keyboard-sharing software and I found it got too complicated trying to keep them all using the same complicated, and sometimes unreliable, driver tweaks. So now, it's pretty simple, and it relies on having SetPoint installed on all the machines.

A lot of the middle-click behaviour I think is not controlled exclusively by the operating system, but is configurable in specific programs. Browsers did not all used to have middle-click that worked. It's only in the past - maybe 5-7 years? - that middle-click would reliably open a link in all browsers. And some browsers have specific settings that allow users to control whether to open such links in a foreground or background tab.

You probably know all that (or you'll correct me with more details on how it actually works!), and you are probably aware of the limitations of using a different driver, but I thought I'd pipe in with some thoughts all the same, since this is a daily config for me.

Phil.
X1E Gen 4 · X1T 3rd Gen · W520 · Legacy: P52, T60p, X61T, 600X, 770Z
Nostalgic for: 600X PIII 850MHz in a SelectaDock III with 64MB Voodoo 5 5500 and Sound Blaster Audigy 5.1.

surfbro
Posts: 14
Joined: Thu Nov 12, 2020 3:33 pm
Location: Vancouver, BC Canada

Re: SK-8855 with tpmiddle working on Desktop PC?

#7 Post by surfbro » Sun Feb 21, 2021 10:22 pm

I appreciate you chiming in, and unfortunately as much as I would like to work with other 'workarounds' to get a similar type of experience, I am really trying to just stick to the original experience that tpmiddle brings. At this point I am going to have to set a bounty for a project since I am very desperate, and I know some others would probably benefit from having someone develop the exact experience that tpmiddle has brought to the Thinkpad laptops.

Post Reply
  • Similar Topics
    Replies
    Views
    Last post

Return to “Thinkpad - General HARDWARE/SOFTWARE questions”

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 32 guests