Two finger scroll with T61 Synaptics Touchpad

[cjauvin]

I own a T61 Thinkpad (type=6465), bought in 2008 and running Ubuntu 10.04. I recently ordered from Lenovo/IBM Parts a new palm rest because its touchpad buttons don't work properly anymore.

I was told that I needed a palm rest with the id 42W2958, which had been substituted, for some reason, to part 42W3821 (they said it was compatible though).

The new palm rest I received is identical to the original one I had, except for one small but annoying detail: the touchpad hardware doesn't support two finger scrolling, which I use heavily. I tried everything I could to "activate" it (if such a thing is possible) but to no avail.

With this command, it's very clear that both hardwares are different:

Code: Select all

$ xinput list-props "SynPS/2 Synaptics TouchPad" | grep Capa
Synaptics Capabilities (291):	1, 1, 1, 1, 1 # <- original touchpad (2-finger-scroll = second to last column)
Synaptics Capabilities (291):	1, 1, 1, 0, 0 # <- new touchpad

Can someone help me figure out a way to solve this problem, in terms of part # I should (try) to replace with, or maybe some magical software solution that I'd have overlooked?

[Rameneater90]

Hay there, you could try this to force-enable it.

1. Install "Pointing Devices"

2. Open System / Preferences / Pointing Devices and disable Vertical and Horizontal Scrolling.

3. Open a terminal (ctrl + alt + t) and execute this commands:

synclient HorizTwoFingerScroll=1
synclient VertTwoFingerScroll=1
synclient EmulateTwoFingerMinZ=40
synclient EmulateTwoFingerMinW=8


4.Open a terminal (ctrl + alt + t) and execute this commands:

gconf-editor


5. Navigate and find this key: /desktop/gnome/peripherals/touchpad/scroll_method

6. Assign the value '2'

7.Open a terminal (ctrl + alt + t) and execute this commands:

cat /usr/share/X11/xorg.conf.d/50-synaptics.conf


8. Copy the Identifier name, in my case, it was "touchpad catchall"

Identifier "touchpad catchall"


9. Execute this command, as a Super User.

sudo nano /usr/share/X11/xorg.conf.d/50-twofingerscroll.conf


10. Type this, making sure to put your Identifier.

Section "InputClass"
Identifier "touchpad catchall"
MatchProduct "SynPS/2 Synaptics TouchPad"
MatchDevicePath "/dev/input/event*"
Option "VertTwoFingerScroll" "on"
Option "EmulateTwoFingerMinW" "8"
Option "EmulateTwoFingerMinZ" "40"
EndSection


It then should work. Mewp

[cjauvin]

Hi,

Thanks for the reply, I wasn't expecting one anymore!

I actually returned the palm rest a couple of days ago, and am awaiting a new one. I'm pretty sure it won't solve the problem however, because they will supposedly send the same part again (they don't recognize the problem as I described it, they insist it's that software related).

In fact I'm pretty sure it's rather an hardware/firmware issue, because of the simple tests I performed: on both Windows and Linux, swapping the two palm rest, without changing any config option, yields different available two-finger scroll capability values: to me that's quite clear that the two parts are different at a lower level.

So about your solution.. I guess that what it does is "emulate" the two-finger scroll, as I saw with many posts on other sites. I tried it already and it kinda works, but not as well as with my original touchpad, unfortunately (seems less precise and reliable).

I will try it however (when I receive my replacement palm rest), and let you know if it works.

Best regards,

Christian