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Generally one would select the ALPS GlidePoint driver
during installation. This driver works for the GlidePoint as well as the
popular Synaptics Touchpad. But you could manually do so by running the command
"mouseconf" as root.
If you are satisfied with the way your touchpad works
as it is, then there is no reason to do anything else. But there is a program
called "tpconfig" which provides some configurable options for your touchpad.
tpconfig
as of version 3.1.2 supports options such as disabling tapping, relative
vs absolute movement, and sleep mode. You may want to install this if
you think the tapping is too sensitive. Currently there's no adjustment
for sensitivity but it is possible to just turn it off completely.
Installating the RPM should work flawlessly.
Here is a list of tpconfig options not provided on the
webpage:
========================================================================
= =
= tpconfig version: 3.1.2 =
= =
= Synaptics Touchpad and ALPS GlidePad/Stickpointer configuration tool =
= =
= Copyright (C) 1997 C. Scott Ananian cananian@alumni.princeton.edu =
= Copyright (C) 1998-2001 Bruce Kall kall@compass.com =
= Last Modified (Version 3.1.2) by Bruce Kall, 4/23/2001 =
= =
= tpconfig comes with ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY. This is free software, =
= and you are welcome to redistribute it under the terms of the GPL. =
= =
========================================================================
Usage: tpconfig [OPTION]...
Configure a Synaptics TouchPad.
-i, --info display current TouchPad configuration
-x, --reset perform a software reset on the TouchPad
-q, --quiet, --silent suppress verbose output
-a display absolute/relative mode
--absolute, --relative set absolute/relative mode
-r, --rate=[0,1] display/set reporting rate
0 = normal, 1 = high
-t, --tapmode=[0-1] display/set tapping mode:
0 = no tap gestures
1 = tap and drag
-s, --sleep=[0-1] display/set sleep mode:
0 = disable, 1 = enable
--help display this help and exit
--version output version information
Report bugs to kall@compass.com
I don't really know what the sleep mode option does.
You'll have to ask the author of the program.
And here is the readme file, also not linked to from
the webpage. There's no man page for it, so I'm hoping that putting this
on the web will make it easier to find for some people.
Synaptics
tpconfig is a package to drive support for the Synaptics TouchPad
and ALPS Glidepad/Stickpointer under various flavors of UNIX,
although Linux is currently the primary target.
Linux does not like to share the PS/2 port. Currently you must kill
gpm before invoking tpconfig. For the same reason, tpconfig will not
currently run under X.
Suggested usage is to invoke tpconfig with your desired options
immediately before launching gpm in your startup sequence.
e.g., tpconfig --tapmode=0
The file 'touchpad' can be placed in /etc/rc.d/init.d (or whereever
your system startup scripts are stored) and then linking to it
in the correct directory for a particular run level.
TO DEBUG PROBLEMS:
a) bring up your system in single user mode.
b) run tpconfig manually (without gpm and X running).
If it still does not work, set DEBUG_LEVEL = DEBUG_HIGH
and pipe the output into a file to send to me (kall@compass.com).
Read the file COPYING to learn the terms under which this software is
distributed. Read INSTALL for installation instructions.
Mail suggestions and bug reports for this package to kall@compass.com.
Please include the package version number, which you can get by running
"tpconfig --version".
Current maintainer is: Bruce Kall: kall@compass.com
Basically it says that once you install it, it will
disable tapping for you.
If you want to configure other stuff, you have to boot the system
to the console first, kill "gpm" (the console server) as 'root' with
service gpm stop
, and then run tpconfig.
Configuring 3-button-emulation would be nice
for Mandrake Linux users.
Red Hat's mouse configuration program allows 3-button-emulation for anything.
To enable it (so you can paste what's in the clipboard with the 3rd button)
just open up '/etc/X11/XF86Config-4' with a text editor as root. Under the
input section should be the pointer section. Add these two lines:
Option "Emulate3Buttons"
option "Emulate3Timeout 50"
If that doesn't work, e.g. because of Mandrake resetting
'XF86Config-4' back to its default configuration for the ALPS Glidepoint,
try changing your mouse type to 'generic' with mouseconfig.
This should also get Mandrake Linux to add the 3-Button emulation settings
to the 'XF86Config-4' file and keep them there. The touchpad should continue
working.
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Most distributions come with all the drivers for wireless
networking precompiled as modules.
The problem I ran into was autodetection loading a different driver than
it should. Another problem was Mandrake Linux' 'DrakNet' not quite working
100% well with them.
To fix the first problem all you have to do is edit
the '/etc/pcmcia/wireless.opts' file as 'root', find your card, and change
the bind [driver name] line under that section to the correct
name.
For example I have the 'Dell TrueMobile' card, which
is an Orinoco device.
I could have changed the settings in "wireless.opts" but instead I went over
to theOrinoco
driver webpage and downloaded 'hermes.conf' to '/etc/pcmcia/'.
This file tells the 'pcmcia' service to load the correct and pre-installed
driver "orinoco_cs" for my card. Then I went back to "wireless.opts" and
entered the "ESSID" into the network ID it belonged to. I put that in the
very first section, which is intended to be used by any wireless card you
plug into the computer.
For more information about schemes and the cardctl
command, see the sample 'wireless.opts' file (actually named "PCMCIA.txt"
at the website) on the Orinoco driver website. cardctl scheme [schemename]
loads up predefined settings for the card.
To activate the network connection enter this as root:
ifup eth1 (or eth0)
There's is also a software package called 'wireless-tools'
(also available from the Orinoco page, if you want to read more about it).
It allows you to configure the card and also get some statistics. If you
run Mandrake Linux 8.1, the RPM can be found on CD1 of the download edition.
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I like to have my network devices not automatically
started on boot, because I use DHCP. When I'm booting without being connected,
the 'DHCP time out' wait takes a very long time and stalls the startup of
Linux considerably.
The setting in question is disabling the auto start
of the network devices at boot. You can configure this via the Mandrake network
configurator, DrakNet (Mandrake Control Center - Network & Internet -
Connection) while keeping DHCP enabled. To start networking by hand, you'd
have to issue to command
ifup eth0
as 'root' from a command line, which will then start
the DHCP client.
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I got this computer not so long ago. Here's a small
list of what works and what doesn't right after an installation of Mandrake
Linux:
- Suspend keys (Fn-Suspend) work great.
- APM functions such as powering off automatically
at shutdown work well.
- The screen saver blank screen doesn't turn off the
backlight. Haven't figured out how to get it to shut off the display
completely while still being powered on.
- Swapping the modular CDROM and Floppy around doesn't
work unless the swapping is done while powered off. It may work if you
boot up with the CDROM first, and then hot swap. But I'm not sure...
- The volume control keys don't work, have to use the
software mixer.
- Screen brightness controls keys work just fine.
- Sound and video were autodetected properly, as you
would expect ^_^.
- The built-in 3COM NIC and the Lucent WinModem were
also installed properly.
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