[ltp] [R40] middle `mouse' button above touchpad

[Patrick Drechsler]

mukesh agrawal wrote on 25 Jan 2004 01:46:21 MET:

> On Sat, 24 Jan 2004, Patrick Drechsler wrote:
>
>> > With kernel 2.6.0-mm2,
>>
>>  ...kernel 2.4.20...
>
> I never got the middle button to work with a 2.4 kernel.
>
> Having said that, when I finally got around to using a 2.6
> kernel, it was with a newer version of the synaptics driver for
> XFree86, so I'm not sure which change is the important one.

Thanks for this valuable piece of information. I have the
impression that everybody else is using kernel 2.6.

>> patrick@trurl:~> locate synaptic
>> /usr/X11R6/lib/modules/input/synaptics_drv.o
>>
>> Sorry, I don't know how to check if it's installed...
>
> It needs to be specified in your XF86Config (or XF86Config-4)
> file.
>
> Assuming that synaptics_drv is specified in your config file,
> check the X server log file (usually /var/log/XFree86.0.log) to
> see whether the driver loaded successfully.
>
> Note: for some reason, the synaptics driver failed to load on
> my system when the file was called synaptics_drv.o. I had to
> rename it to synaptics.o. FWIW, I'm using synaptics-0.12.2.

I will be testing this some time in the future. At the moment I
don't have the time to mess around with my system because I
depend upon it.

>> > it works on my T40.
>>
>> Not on my R40... :-(
>
> I didn't have it working in 2.4 either.

...upgrading for a gimmick... I'll put it on my todo-list. I
hardly use the mouse anyway except for stuff like xfig..


[...trackpoint & touchpad working...]

> As I understand it, the way things work is:
>
> 1. If you disable the touchpad, then the OS sees the trackpoint directly.
>    So the trackpoint works as a regular three-button mouse. (And probably
>    with the scroll wheel-like functionality as well.)
>
> 2. With the touchpad enabled, the OS commuicates with the touchpad. The
>    trackpoint events have to go through the touchpad before getting to the
>    OS. And, in the default mode, the touchpad doesn't pass through some
>    events correctly (e.g. middle-button events).
>
> 3. Either the synaptics driver for XFree86, or the Synaptics input device
>    driver for kernel 2.6 fixes this.
>
>    I would guess that the XFree86 synaptics driver is responsible for
>    enabling the "advanced features" of the touchpad (multi-finger taps,
>    scroll wheel emulation), while the kernel driver configures
>    pass-through properly.
>
>    I don't know if the kernel driver for synaptics touchpads has been
>    back-ported to 2.4.

[...]

Thanks for the lengthy input! I'll test it as soon as I get
around.

Regards

Patrick, who thought that this would be a lot simpler...

PS: I mainly use the keyboard so I'm not really sticking my
heart into getting the touchpad to work...
-- 
Computers are good at following instructions, 
but not at reading your mind.        -- Donald Knuth