This touchpad problem is driving me crazy!!! [SOLVED]

If I have not asked you before, I'll ask now: post your xorg.conf and we'll see if we can help you out.

Newbie or not Newbie, there's always a question

and this is a quote from his/her previous post made into a new thread

Thats why I put the > in front of the lines so nobody would misunderstand.

The other thread just sits there for days with no other response. "carlops" responded with a suggestion on the 12th and I responded back, on the 12th, to clarify the part of xorg.conf he was talking about and asked another clarifying question. Nothing else has been posted to help.

Now is this the new user section of the forum or not? Is this not the section where new Mepis users go for help?

Now carlops ( I appreciate the help) seemed to be through with the thread. It's been three days and no response. The original thread was over 4 weeks old and hadn't been responded to until I did it a few days ago.

You tell me how to get others to look at the questions in the thread again to answer new questions, without starting a new thread that kicks it back up the line? If this forum had a way for the writer to delete his own threads (like PCLinuxOS does), I would have deleted my previous post to start afresh.

Well excuse me for overlooking the thread. If you check out my posts you can see that I've tried to help A LOT of people here and on mepislovers.org. Yours slipped through...

You could have bumped your post of course. Anyway, if you can post the xorg.conf, just the whole schebang, we WILL have a look at it.

BTW: I think it is good that people are NOT able to delete posts. That way, threads can always serve as proof in case of conflicts.

Newbie or not Newbie, there's always a question

Yesterday I added the "Option taptime=0" and # out the maxtaptime and maxtapmove. It worked. There was no longer any tapping enabled. Today tapping is back. Go figure. I have selected the synaptics button in x-assistant and disabled tapping through ksynaptics, but it doesn't work.

Section "InputDevice"
Identifier "Touchpad"
Driver "synaptics"
Option "Device" "/dev/psaux"
Option "Protocol" "auto-dev"
Option "LeftEdge" "1700"
Option "RightEdge" "5300"
Option "TopEdge" "1700"
Option "BottomEdge" "4200"
Option "FingerLow" "25"
Option "FingerHigh" "30"
Option "taptime=0"
#Option "MaxTapTime" "180"
#Option "MaxTapMove" "220"
Option "VertScrollDelta" "100"
Option "HorizScrollDelta" "0"
Option "MinSpeed" "0.25"
Option "MaxSpeed" "0.75"
Option "AccelFactor" "0.030"
Option "SHMConfig" "on"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
Driver "synaptics"
Identifier "ALPS Touchpad"
Option "Device" "/dev/input/mouse0"
Option "Protocol" "event"
Option "LeftEdge" "130"
Option "RightEdge" "840"
Option "TopEdge" "130"
Option "BottomEdge" "640"
Option "FingerLow" "7"
Option "FingerHigh" "8"
Option "taptime=0"
#Option "MaxTapTime" "180"
#Option "MaxTapMove" "110"
Option "EmulateMidButtonTime" "75"
Option "VertScrollDelta" "20"
Option "HorizScrollDelta" "0"
Option "MinSpeed" "0.25"
Option "MaxSpeed" "0.50"
Option "AccelFactor" "0.030"
Option "EdgeMotionMinSpeed" "200"
Option "EdgeMotionMaxSpeed" "200"
Option "UpDownScrolling" "1"
Option "CircularScrolling" "1"
Option "CircScrollDelta" "0.1"
Option "CircScrollTrigger" "2"
Option "SHMConfig" "on"
EndSection

Try this:

Delete the line taptime=0

The line MaxTapTime should be this:
Option "MaxTapTime "0"

Make sure to uncomment it as well.

Try if that works.

EDIT
BTW. In the serverlayout section make sure the touchpad line reads:
InputDevice "Touchpad" "AlwaysCore"

Newbie or not Newbie, there's always a question

I have already tried that.
I tried changing the maxtapmove to 0.
I tried using qsynaptics, but it will not load.
I have tried going back to the 14.4 driver, but it uninstalls ksynaptics.

The touchpad is set at "AlwaysCore"

lemme see your entire xorg.conf please

edit (again)

and the output of: cat /proc/bus/input/devices

Newbie or not Newbie, there's always a question

Section "ServerLayout"
Identifier "XFree86 Configured"
Screen 0 "Screen0" 0 0
#Screen 0 "ATIScreen" 0 0
#Screen 1 "Screen1" RightOf "Screen0"
#Option "Xinerama" "true"
#Option "Clone" "true"
InputDevice "Keyboard0" "CoreKeyboard"
#InputDevice "PS/2 Mouse" "CorePointer"
InputDevice "USB Mouse" "CorePointer"
InputDevice "Touchpad" "AlwaysCore"
#InputDevice "ALPS Touchpad" "SendCoreEvents"
#InputDevice "Appletouch" "SendCoreEvents"
#InputDevice "Stylus" "SendCoreEvents"
#InputDevice "Eraser" "SendCoreEvents"
#InputDevice "Cursor" "SendCoreEvents"
#InputDevice "Serial Mouse" "CorePointer"
EndSection

Section "ServerFlags"
Option "AllowMouseOpenFail" "true"
EndSection

Section "Files"
# Xorg 7.0 font paths
FontPath "/usr/share/X11/fonts/misc:unscaled"
FontPath "/usr/share/X11/fonts/Type1"

# Legacy font paths
FontPath "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/misc:unscaled"
FontPath "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/Type1"

# Other font paths
FontPath "/usr/share/fonts/truetype/arphic"
FontPath "/usr/share/fonts/truetype/freefont"
FontPath "/usr/share/fonts/truetype/kochi"
FontPath "/usr/share/fonts/truetype/ttf-bitstream-vera"
FontPath "/var/lib/defoma/x-ttcidfont-conf.d/dirs/TrueType"

EndSection

Section "Module"
Load "dbe"
Load "dri"
Load "extmod"
Load "freetype"
Load "glx"
Load "type1"
Load "v4l"
Load "vbe"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
Identifier "Keyboard0"
Driver "keyboard"
Option "CoreKeyboard"
Option "XkbModel" "pc105"
Option "XkbLayout" "us"
Option "XKbOptions" ""
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
Identifier "Serial Mouse"
Driver "mouse"
Option "Protocol" "Microsoft"
Option "Device" "/dev/ttyS0"
Option "Emulate3Buttons" "false"
Option "Emulate3Timeout" "70"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
Identifier "Touchpad"
Driver "synaptics"
Option "Device" "/dev/psaux"
Option "Protocol" "auto-dev"
Option "LeftEdge" "1700"
Option "RightEdge" "5300"
Option "TopEdge" "1700"
Option "BottomEdge" "4200"
Option "FingerLow" "25"
Option "FingerHigh" "30"
Option "MaxTapTime" "0"
Option "MaxTapMove" "220"
Option "VertScrollDelta" "100"
Option "HorizScrollDelta" "0"
Option "MinSpeed" "0.25"
Option "MaxSpeed" "0.75"
Option "AccelFactor" "0.030"
Option "SHMConfig" "on"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
Driver "synaptics"
Identifier "ALPS Touchpad"
Option "Device" "/dev/input/mouse0"
Option "Protocol" "event"
Option "LeftEdge" "130"
Option "RightEdge" "840"
Option "TopEdge" "130"
Option "BottomEdge" "640"
Option "FingerLow" "7"
Option "FingerHigh" "8"
Option "MaxTapTime" "0"
Option "MaxTapMove" "110"
Option "EmulateMidButtonTime" "75"
Option "VertScrollDelta" "20"
Option "HorizScrollDelta" "0"
Option "MinSpeed" "0.25"
Option "MaxSpeed" "0.50"
Option "AccelFactor" "0.030"
Option "EdgeMotionMinSpeed" "200"
Option "EdgeMotionMaxSpeed" "200"
Option "UpDownScrolling" "1"
Option "CircularScrolling" "1"
Option "CircScrollDelta" "0.1"
Option "CircScrollTrigger" "2"
Option "SHMConfig" "on"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
Identifier "Appletouch"
Driver "synaptics"
Option "Device" "/dev/psaux"
Option "Protocol" "auto-dev"
Option "LeftEdge" "100"
Option "RightEdge" "1120"
Option "TopEdge" "50"
Option "BottomEdge" "310"
Option "FingerLow" "25"
Option "FingerHigh" "30"
Option "MaxTapMove" "220"
Option "TapButton1" "1"
Option "TapButton2" "3"
Option "TapButton3" "2"
Option "MinSpeed" "0.79"
Option "MaxSpeed" "0.88"
Option "AccelFactor" "0.0015"
Option "SHMConfig" "on"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
Identifier "PS/2 Mouse"
Driver "mouse"
Option "Protocol" "auto"
Option "Device" "/dev/psaux"
Option "Emulate3Buttons" "false"
Option "Emulate3Timeout" "70"
Option "ZAxisMapping" "4 5"
Option "Buttons" "5"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
Identifier "USB Mouse"
Driver "mouse"
Option "Device" "/dev/input/mice"
Option "Protocol" "ExplorerPS/2"
Option "ZAxisMapping" "4 5"
Option "Buttons" "5"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
Identifier "Stylus"
Driver "wacom"
Option "Mode" "Absolute"
Option "Type" "stylus"
Option "Device" "/dev/input/wacom"
Endsection

# Settings for wacom eraser
Section "InputDevice"
Identifier "Eraser"
Driver "wacom"
Option "Mode" "Absolute"
Option "Type" "eraser"
Option "Device" "/dev/input/wacom"
Endsection

# Settings for wacom cursor (mouse)
Section "InputDevice"
Identifier "Cursor"
Driver "wacom"
Option "Mode" "Relative"
Option "Type" "cursor"
Option "Device" "/dev/input/wacom"
Endsection

Section "Monitor"
Identifier "Monitor0"
VendorName "unknown"
ModelName "unknown"
Option "DPMS" "true"
HorizSync 30-82
VertRefresh 55-70
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
Identifier "Monitor1"
VendorName "unknown"
ModelName "unknown"
Option "DPMS" "true"
HorizSync 30-82
VertRefresh 55-70
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
Identifier "ATIMonitor"
VendorName "unknown"
ModelName "unknown"
Option "DPMS" "true"
HorizSync 30-82
VertRefresh 55-70
EndSection

Section "Device"
Identifier "Card0"
Driver "i810"
BoardName "unknown"

Screen 0
#Option "UseDisplayDevice" "dfp"
#Option "MonitorLayout" "crt,crt"
#BusID "PCI:1:0:0"
#Option "sw_cursor" # needed for some ati cards
#Option "hw_cursor"
#Option "NoAccel"
#Option "ShowCache"
#Option "ShadowFB"
#Option "UseFBDev"
#Option "Rotate"
Option "UseInternalAGPGART" "no"

# savage special options, use with care
#Option "NoUseBios"
#Option "BusType" "PCI"
Option "DmaMode" "None"

# nvidia special options, use with care
Option "CursorShadow" "1"
Option "CursorShadowAlpha" "63"
Option "CursorShadowYOffset" "2"
Option "CursorShadowXOffset" "4"
Option "FlatPanelProperties" "Scaling = native"
Option "NoLogo" "false"
Option "UseEDID" "true"
Option "AddARGBGLXVisuals" "true"
Option "RenderAccel" "true"
#Option "AllowGLXWithComposite" "true"
EndSection

Section "Device"
Identifier "Card1"
Driver "i810"
BoardName "unknown"

Screen 1
#Option "MonitorLayout" "crt,crt"
#BusID "PCI:1:0:0"
EndSection

Section "Screen"
Identifier "Screen0"
Device "Card0"
Monitor "Monitor0"
DefaultColorDepth 16

SubSection "Display"
Depth 8
Modes "1280x800" "1280x768" "1024x768" "800x600"
EndSubSection
SubSection "Display"
Depth 15
Modes "1280x800" "1280x768" "1024x768" "800x600"
EndSubSection
SubSection "Display"
Depth 16
Modes "1280x800" "1280x768" "1024x768" "800x600"
EndSubSection
SubSection "Display"
Depth 24
Modes "1280x800" "1280x768" "1024x768" "800x600"
EndSubSection
SubSection "Display"
Depth 32
Modes "1280x800" "1280x768" "1024x768" "800x600"
EndSubSection

# Only the official NVIDIA driver supports twinview
# these setting are an example
Option "TwinView" "false"
Option "SecondMonitorVendorName" "unknown"
Option "SecondMonitorModelName" "unknown"
Option "SecondMonitorHorizSync" "30-82"
Option "SecondMonitorVertRefresh" "55-70"
#Option "MetaModes" "1024x768, 1024x768"
Option "TwinViewOrientation" "RightOf"
Option "ConnectedMonitor" "dfp,dfp"
EndSection

Section "Screen"
Identifier "Screen1"
Device "Card1"
Monitor "Monitor1"
DefaultColorDepth 16

SubSection "Display"
Depth 8
Modes "1280x800" "1280x768" "1024x768" "800x600"
EndSubSection
SubSection "Display"
Depth 15
Modes "1280x800" "1280x768" "1024x768" "800x600"
EndSubSection
SubSection "Display"
Depth 16
Modes "1280x800" "1280x768" "1024x768" "800x600"
EndSubSection
SubSection "Display"
Depth 24
Modes "1280x800" "1280x768" "1024x768" "800x600"
EndSubSection
SubSection "Display"
Depth 32
Modes "1280x800" "1280x768" "1024x768" "800x600"
EndSubSection
EndSection

Section "Screen"
Identifier "ATIScreen"
Device "Card0"
Monitor "ATIMonitor"
DefaultColorDepth 24

SubSection "Display"
Depth 24
Modes "1280x800" "1280x768" "1024x768" "800x600"
EndSubSection
EndSection

Section "DRI"
Mode 0666
EndSection

Section "Extensions"
Option "Composite" "Enable"
EndSection

I: Bus=0011 Vendor=0001 Product=0001 Version=ab41
N: Name="AT Translated Set 2 keyboard"
P: Phys=isa0060/serio0/input0
S: Sysfs=/class/input/input0
H: Handlers=kbd event0
B: EV=120013
B: KEY=4 2000000 3802078 f840d001 f2ffffdf ffefffff ffffffff fffffffe
B: MSC=10
B: LED=7

I: Bus=0003 Vendor=046d Product=c00e Version=1100
N: Name="Logitech USB-PS/2 Optical Mouse"
P: Phys=usb-0000:00:1d.0-1/input0
S: Sysfs=/class/input/input1
H: Handlers=mouse0 event1
B: EV=7
B: KEY=70000 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
B: REL=103

I: Bus=0011 Vendor=0002 Product=0008 Version=0000
N: Name="PS/2 Mouse"
P: Phys=isa0060/serio4/input1
S: Sysfs=/class/input/input2
H: Handlers=mouse1 event2
B: EV=7
B: KEY=70000 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
B: REL=3

I: Bus=0011 Vendor=0002 Product=0008 Version=7321
N: Name="AlpsPS/2 ALPS GlidePoint"
P: Phys=isa0060/serio4/input0
S: Sysfs=/class/input/input3
H: Handlers=mouse2 event3
B: EV=f
B: KEY=420 0 70000 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
B: REL=3
B: ABS=1000003

You obviously have an ALPS touchpad, so the serverlayout is not correct.

#InputDevice "PS/2 Mouse" "CorePointer"
InputDevice "USB Mouse" "CorePointer"
InputDevice "Touchpad" "AlwaysCore"
#InputDevice "ALPS Touchpad" "SendCoreEvents"

should be changed to:
#InputDevice "PS/2 Mouse" "CorePointer"
InputDevice "USB Mouse" "CorePointer"
#InputDevice "Touchpad" "AlwaysCore"
InputDevice "ALPS Touchpad" "AlwaysCore"

Also, in the ALPS Touchpad section, change:
Option "Device" "/dev/input/mouse0"
to
Option "Device" "/dev/psaux"

I don't know if that last thing will work for sure, but I think it will (quite possibly by just changing that, you'll lose the tapping)

Newbie or not Newbie, there's always a question

You are right, I do have an ALPS touchpad, but I have tried the suggestions with just ALPS enabled, then just Synaptics enabled, then both. Nothing stops the tapping.

I changed the "device" option to /dev/psaux, but it didn't work.

The reason I had enabled the synaptics was because Warren said ksynaptics would only work if that was enabled.

What if you comment out all input devices except for the USB mouse? That would mean that it won't work at all. If it still keeps working, then the X server presumably keeps detecting it or something.

Doyou have the xorg.conf of PCLInuxOS handy? We could compare the differences.

Dumb question: you do restart X right, after every change? So not only logging out, but killing X with ctrl-alt-backspace?

Newbie or not Newbie, there's always a question

The problem is that I need it periodically when at work or roaming around the house. Here is what I did:

I unselected ALPS and selected Synaptics.
Touchpad is set to "AlwaysCore"
maxtaptime = 0

For some reason now the tapping has stopped, (I also changed "AlwaysCore" back to the installed "SendCoreEvents",still stopped), but the mouse is incredibly slow across the screen.

I set the minspeed to .25 (it was .09) and the max to 1.0 (it was .18). No change

So my problem is either I have a touchpad at normal speed with tapping or no tapping and molasses.

I did kill X and I don't have PCLinuxOS handy unless I reinstall it.

I do not exactly understand what you mean by saying you need it periodically....

In which section did you change the speed. Needs to be corresponding section. So in Touchpad section if you set inputdevice to touchpad.

Also, I think you ought to adjust the acceleration factor to increase speed.

Newbie or not Newbie, there's always a question

I usually have the laptop on the desk with a USB mouse plugged in. Sometimes I work in the living room using the touchpad or in the basement. So, I need the touchpad sometimes.

I changed the speeds in the corresponding section and I increased the acceleration factor from .030 to 1.00, but no difference.

I tried to install qsynaptics to see if there would be a difference, but it will not install saying that the synaptics driver has to be installed and sharing enabled in XF86Config.

But have you disabled the device completely? In that case it will indeed not respond to changes in xorg.conf. My idea is you need to enable the alps touchpad device and tweak settings in the corresponding section to disable tapping and increase speed....

Newbie or not Newbie, there's always a question

That's what we have been doing. I have never disabled it completely. That was your suggestion earlier.

We have been tweaking the ALPS section all afternoon. The only thing that stops the tapping is disabling ALPS, and enablig Synaptics, but then the synaptics section doesn't respond to speed adjustments.

That's right, it was my suggestion since some devices work as a PS2 mouse. BUt of course then it won't respond to speed settings in xorg.conf.

You might try that. Disable the alps and enable the PS2 mouse, if it behaves like a ps2 the speed will be OK. You need to set the device to /dev/psaux then

Newbie or not Newbie, there's always a question

I give up. The ALPS section does nothing and the synaptic section removes the tapping, but makes the mouse slower.

Suse, PCLinuxOS, Ubuntu, Freespire, never did this for whatever reason. Makes switching to Mepis a pain just to remove a simple feature like tapping. It's not even some exotic piece of hardware. Every laptop has them.

Thank you for your help though.

OK. Here's what I did.

I have an ALPS touchpad that wouldn't turn the tapping off. I didn't have this problem in PCLinuxOS or Suse or Ubuntu or etc...

What worked for me is the following:
1) Went into x-assistant to deselect ALPS and select Synaptics
2) This caused the tapping to stop, but the mouse was really slow.
3) Booted the PCLinuxOS livecd and copied xorg.conf to compare
4) Changed "MinSpeed" to .8, "MaxSpeed" to 1.0, and "Accel" to .015

That has caused the tapping to be controlled by ksynaptics and the speed to be normal. The tapping is also an issue on the Suse forums. Apparently the synaptics driver is "broken" for the ALPS touchpad (can't control tapping). May not be a big deal to most, but when I type, my thumbs are extended and I often graze the touchpad. I would find the cursor jumping all over the place as I typed.

Great find tigreseis! Yes, sometimes the "fine tuning" can be a PITA, and the only way to find it is by comparing distros. But isn't it great that we CAN compare distros and copy/paste between them (sometimes).

Thanks for bringing us up-to-date

Jon

No computer is magic, no operating system is magic, no website is magic. They all require human interaction, thought, and responsibility to work.