How do I configure my mouse touch pad?

[ajb123]

I've got an Acer travelmate series laptop with a touch pad mouse control.

I'm struggling to find how to turn the pad off. i.e tapping the pad acts as a mouse click.

 

It's frustrating the hell out of me! ;)

[Mhn]

If you use kde you can install ksynaptics, then you can change settings from kde control center.

[scarecrow]

Most Acer laptops have an Alps touchpad, not a Synaptics one... the synaptics driver does not work with it.

Can you specify the laptop model?

[ajb123]

Sorry for the delay in replying. The model is Travelmate 2356xm.

[pmpatrick]

Post your /etc/X11/xorg.conf file. That's the graphics configuration file. I pretty sure you can edit that file to get the behaviour you want. If you look in the "InputDevice" section, you should see a line like:

 

Option "MaxTapTime" "<some integer>"

 

If you set that to:

 

Option "MaxTapTime" "0"

 

That should disable tapping on the pad. You need to be root to edit xorg.conf and the changes won't take effect until you restart X.

[ajb123]

Thanks for the reply.

 

Is there some way of explaining that a little better?

 

I feel abit ignorant for saying it, but i'm really new to linux. Sorry.

[arctic]

Your mouse, keyboard, monitor and graphics are configured through one major file, which is known as the famous /etc/X11/xorg.conf file. When you browse with e.g. Konqueror to the /etc/X11 directory you will see that file, but you will have to open it as root user, for security reasons.

In order to edit the file, open a terminal (the black monitor icon), type

su (hit Enter)

enter the password which will be masked and hit Enter again. it will look similar to this:

[tomcat@localhost ~]$ su
Passwort: 
[root@localhost tomcat]#

You are now root user. Now open the file with an editor. If you use KDE, kate is an option, if you use Gnome, then gedit should do the job.

[root@localhost tomcat]# kate /etc/X11/xorg.conf

The file will be opened now. Scroll down until you get to the "InputDevice" section. There is a line like this:

Option "MaxTapTime" "2"

Change it, so it reads

Option "MaxTapTime" "0"

Once that is done, save the file and exit. Now press ctrl+alt+backspace for restarting the X server. Log in and check if it works now. If not, post the contents of the /etc/X11/xorg.conf file here (e.g. as an attachement) so we can take a look at the file and what could be wrong.

[neddie]

There may be many ways to disable the tapping, but I use the option

Option "TouchpadOff" "2"

I don't have a MaxTapTime option, although I do have a MaxTapMove which might be yet another way of disabling it.

[Guest emazur]

From a linux newbie, I just wanted to say thanks to everyone who contributed to this thread, it helped me get my own tap click disabled by adding the maxtaptime 0 thing (system is presario 1210jp with synaptics pad). I want to make it easier for the next person (FYI I am using Gnome 2.16, the default when I installed Mandriva):

1) log out if you are not currently logged in as the root user (click "System" -> log out...)

2) log in as:

user: root

password:

3) on the desktop, double click the Computer icon, double click Filesystem, double click "etc", double click "X11" then double click the xorg.conf file which should open in the gedit program

4) you have to find where your touchpad is, in my case it looked this this:

 

Section "InputDevice"

Identifier "SynapticsMouse1"

Driver "synaptics

Option "SHMConfig" "on"

 

5) add (or edit) the following line:

Option "MaxTapTime" "0"

 

Now it looks like this:

 

Section "InputDevice"

Identifier "SynapticsMouse1"

Driver "synaptics"

Option "SHMConfig" "on"

Option "MaxTapTime" "0"

 

6) close and save the file, and restart Mandriva by typing on your keyboard:

ctrl+alt+backspace

 

Next time you log in tap click should be disabled

 

The going into terminal and doing the su thing didn't work for me, that's why i wrote all this (I'm guessing su means "switch user", and I could do that. Gnome is the default manager on my installation so I'm guessing I can't use that "kate" editor, so I typed:

gedit /etc/X11/xorg.conf

and it gave me some error, something about mismatch I think)

[neddie]

The going into terminal and doing the su thing didn't work for me, that's why i wrote all this (I'm guessing su means "switch user", and I could do that. Gnome is the default manager on my installation so I'm guessing I can't use that "kate" editor, so I typed:

gedit /etc/X11/xorg.conf

and it gave me some error, something about mismatch I think)

Recommending that people log into the desktop as root is a bad idea. If you can't use the su command then there's something wrong with your system, you should start a new thread about that explaining the problem and we can try to help you fix it. Assuming you're running Mandriva, su should work and that's the way you should do it. If gedit didn't work then something else is wrong, and again somebody on the forum should be able to help you fix it in a new thread.

[Guest Chuck Yoghurt]

Recommending that people log into the desktop as root is a bad idea. If you can't use the su command then there's something wrong with your system, you should start a new thread about that explaining the problem and we can try to help you fix it. Assuming you're running Mandriva, su should work and that's the way you should do it. If gedit didn't work then something else is wrong, and again somebody on the forum should be able to help you fix it in a new thread.

 

I'm reading this post with interest as the flicking mousepad syndrome is peeing me off too!

 

Following your advice i'll make these changes from the command line as root, and not from the desktop. Only trouble is, I don't know how to edit a script (if that is what you call a file such as "xorg.conf") from the command line!

 

Anybody enlighten me? I'm fairly new! :unsure:

[ianw1974]

A nice easy one, which I still use a lot is nano.

 

urpmi nano

 

or use the gui installer for installing the nano package. Then, just from console window:

 

su (enter root password when prompted)
nano -w /etc/X11/xorg.conf

 

then make your changes, when finished press CTRL-X together, and then press Y to save the file. Then log out and back in again for the changes to take effect.

 

Alternatively, you can do it in the gui, by pressing ALT-F2 to get a run window, and then you can tick a box to run the program as root. If you are using KDE:

 

kwrite /etc/X11/xorg.conf

 

or gnome:

 

gedit /etc/X11/xorg.conf

 

and save the file in the normal manner.

[Guest Chuck Yoghurt]

Well Ian,

 

I've tried the above fix for my mousepad, and I can't really tell any difference!

 

BUT

 

I now have a nice little command line editor - nano!

 

Thanks for your help!

 

Chuck

[neddie]

Did you restart X (Ctrl-Alt-Backspace) or reboot after editing the xorg.conf? The changes only take effect next time X starts.

Also, did you check for typos? Post your xorg.conf here if you're not sure.