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multitouch and gestures on older machines like T6x

Posted: Wed Nov 17, 2010 6:55 pm
by eyeland
Almost a year ago I discovered this thread on hardwarezone, where the OP had discovered that features such as multitouch and gestures can be enabled on most synaptics devices by using a HP synaptics driver instead of the one issued by eg. Lenovo.
I have been using this HP driver on my T61 for a long time while awaiting an update from Lenovo to do the same without using "unoriginal" drivers. As this has not happened to the best of my knowledge, I found that it must be time to raise the issue here. If this has already been done, feel free to direct me towards the right post and lecture me about how to use "our" search function :)
In here, I could only find this thread which deals with the subject in a different manner.
Recently I have been reinstalling to dualboot win7U64/Ubuntu aon my T61 and in this process I noticed a few things:
1: As mentioned in the post referenced above, multitouch (2finger at least) works “out of the box” in Ubuntu
2: The Lenovo-driver is “universal” and supports both machines with and without “native” support for multitouch (like T61 and T410s). By installing it on my T61, I do not obtain the functionality whereas I assume that it works when installed on a t410s)
3: The 2 HP drivers for xp and vista/7 that are linked by OP on hardwarezone are outdated, several have been released since, of which I am currently running the latest for win7 32/64 without any apparent issues.
Note that you need to remove the old driver and the ultranav utility for the install to work properly.
I tried installing the driver, allowing win7 to update it and finally allowing Lenovo update manager to update and install the Ultranav utility on to of the HP.
This resulted in the curious situation shown in the first pic, where the functionality remained but the controlpanel changed, not showing the settings for the new features. The second picture shows the CP with only the HP driver installed.
As stated, the HP driver has been running smoothly for more than a year, and I've come to be quite fond of the 2-fingerscroll and 3-finger app lancher as I never got comfortable with the stick...
I am experiencing a weird UI lag on the brightnesscontrol at the moment, but this is a new thing and I don't ascribe it to the Hp-driver but who knows.. I can't think of any disadvantages of not using the ultranav utility or using a “3.p-driver”, anything I didn't think about?
Appart from sharing this (which might be common knowledge in here) my real agenda is the question of how one might get the 2-finger pinchzoom to work. In the OP on the zone, it is argued that this feature turns on automatically on the devices that support it, but this seems odd to me? My unqualified intuition tells me that it should be possible given the other features, any input on that one?
Furthermore, I'd like any thoughts on why the Lenovo driver doesn't support (or at least activate) these features on my T61 considdering that the driver is compatible with T410s? (I tried the driver from the T410s supportpage with no luck ;)
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Re: multitouch and gestures on older machines like T6x

Posted: Tue Nov 30, 2010 4:21 pm
by eyeland
I am slightly suprised at how little attention this issue got?
Are there any disadvantages to this fix that I am unaware of? or is it merely common knowledge? or perhaps I am the only one here not using the trackpoint more than the touchpad? :)

Re: multitouch and gestures on older machines like T6x

Posted: Tue Nov 30, 2010 5:31 pm
by frankiepankie
Interesting!

Can i use this on T42 / R51 ?

Re: multitouch and gestures on older machines like T6x

Posted: Fri Dec 03, 2010 6:55 am
by eyeland
I didn't try in on a t4x, but as far as I undestand, it will work on most laptops with a Synaptics touchpad. I don't think it can hurt to try, so you could give it a shot and report back with the results.
Remember to uninstall the old drivers first :)
The drivers I linked is of a newer revision than the ones linked in the OP on hardwarezone, but they work fine for me.
I do seem to have an issue with a slight sluggishnes or laggyness of the onscreen display when adjusting LCD brightness but I doubt that the 2 issues are related.

Re: multitouch and gestures on older machines like T6x

Posted: Fri Dec 03, 2010 9:24 am
by frankiepankie
The only thing you have to install is the Synaptics driver from HP ? (sp49196.exe)

I am currently trying it on my T61, will try my FrankiePad (T40 with R51 mainboard) later this day.


I will let you know the results :)

Re: multitouch and gestures on older machines like T6x

Posted: Fri Dec 03, 2010 9:31 am
by eyeland
yearh, just the HP driver - you might have to uninstall both the ultranav driver and utility for it to work properly. It seems that you can install them again afterwards without loosing the new functionaout lity, you do however loose the ability to change their settings if you do this. Atm I am running without any of the Lenovo ultranav and everything seems stable

Re: multitouch and gestures on older machines like T6x

Posted: Fri Dec 03, 2010 9:42 am
by frankiepankie
I installed the driver on my T61 without any problems, but what are the exact benefits of it? What can i do to test the multitouch?

And do i need to enable the EdgeMotion or not?

Re: multitouch and gestures on older machines like T6x

Posted: Fri Dec 03, 2010 10:55 am
by eyeland
look at the 2 screenshots I posted. They depict the tp controlpanel before and after the install.
The driver will enable multitouch (2 fingerscroll, 3 finger swipe, 3 finger press for app launch as well as chiralmotion scroll ) and no, you do not need to enable edgemotion.