Clickpads

Synaptics Clickpads are (unfortunately) used on a number of laptops and netbooks, and are widely known to be unpleasant to use. While the default Ubuntu configuration basically works, it can be at times even more painful than on other platforms. In an effort to make the Clickpad more user-friendly when used with ubermix, ubermix versions 0.910+ and 1.04+ include a custom driver and configuration, which you can install by following these steps:

1. Press ctrl-alt-t to open a terminal
2. Type "/usr/local/lib/clickpad/fix.sh"
3. Reboot

This installation basically replaced the Synaptics clickpad driver with a newer version, and installs a "quirk" file to adjust the settings for clickpads. This quirk file looks like this for ubermix v1.04+:

Section "InputClass"
 Identifier "HP Clickpad"
 MatchIsTouchpad "on"
 MatchDevicePath "/dev/input/event*"
 Driver "synaptics"
 Option "HorizHysteresis" "150"
 Option "HorizHysteresis" "150"
EndSection

and like this for v0.9x:

Section "InputClass"
 Identifier "HP Clickpad"
 MatchIsTouchpad "on"
 MatchDevicePath "/dev/input/event*"
 Driver "synaptics"
 Option "TopEdge" "0"
 Option "BottomEdge" "3800"
 Option "AreaBottomEdge" "4200"
 Option "RBCornerButton" "1"
 Option "LBCornerButton" "1"
 Option "JumpyCursorThreshold" "150"
 Option "TouchButtonArea" "40"
EndSection

For a full definition of the options in these quirk files, as well as the hundred or so others available:

1. Open a terminal (ctrl-alt-t)
2. Type "man synaptics".

To tinker with the options on a live machine, in the terminal (ctrl-alt-t):

1. Type "synclient" to see all the current settings
2. Type "synclient [option]=[value] . For example: synclient BottomEdge=3800

When you find a group of settings you like, you can make the permanent by updating the quirk file. To do so, open a terminal (ctrl-alt-t) and:

for v1.04+:

sudo gedit /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/52-synaptics-more-quirks.conf

for v0.9x:

sudo gedit /usr/share/X11/xorg.conf.d/52-synaptics-quirks.conf