Feedback on Synaptics with ClickPad

[Thierry Moreau]

Hi,

first of all thanks for supporting this fairly new pointer device 
configuration.

I encounter this because I install Linux from a barebone distribution 
(Crux 3.1) for reasons unrelated to the X system.

Configuration summary:
Kernel 3.16.1
xorg-xf86-input-synaptics 1.8.0
xorg.conf manually edited.
Lenovo Thinkpad Edge E540 (same as T440)

I see two difficulties:

Despite
     Option        "ClickFinger2"    "0"
     Option        "ClickFinger3"    "0"
in the configuration, xev still reports button events for buttons 2, 4, 
and 5 (mixed with buttons 1 and 3, so they woud be unreliable) when I 
play with 2 or 3 fingers on the clickpad.

I guess I can live with predictable buttons 1 and 3, so I can patch 
(dirty) the source to ignore other button values. But maybe my whole 
experience with the clickpad/linux combination is affected more 
seriously by the second difficulty (I do not have much experience with a 
fully functional and ergonomics touchpad ...).

So I venture to expose my second difficulty in which my own ignorance 
may be part of the problem.

I have doubts about the X and Y coordinates translation in my 
configuration. From the X log file portion attached below, the following 
two lines worry me:

[ 42758.110] (--) synaptics: SynPS/2 Synaptics TouchPad: x-axis range 
1472 - 5112 (res 42)
[ 42758.110] (--) synaptics: SynPS/2 Synaptics TouchPad: y-axis range 
1408 - 3834 (res 42)

My concern is that the geometry parameters expressed as percentage in 
the configuration would be distorted by the above ranges not being 
zero-based. For instance, the configuration lines:

[ 42758.110] (**) Option "SoftButtonAreas" "50% 0 82% 0 0 0 0 0"
[ 42758.110] (**) Option "SecondarySoftButtonAreas" "58% 0 0 8% 42% 58% 
0 8%"

In order to be autonomous in advancing this troubleshooting, I lack 
basic knowledge of the X system configuration and properties mechanisms. 
E.g. why the above ClickFinger options do not appear effective, or the X 
and Y axis orientations, or a utility to display raw mouse events (xev 
reports coordinates for the monitored window).

As a summary, I was able to advance the installation details (up-to-date
software, kernel configuration, xorg.conf well adjusted to system
configuration) and the device basically works for me. However, 
fine-tuning the touchpad parameters remains difficult.

I may provide additional details if it can help you improve the 
synaptics linux support. Thanks a lot for this!

-- Thierry Moreau

--- Attachment
[ 42758.085] (II) config/udev: Adding input device SynPS/2 Synaptics 
TouchPad (/dev/input/event5)
[ 42758.085] (**) SynPS/2 Synaptics TouchPad: Applying InputClass "evdev 
touchpad catchall"
[ 42758.085] (**) SynPS/2 Synaptics TouchPad: Applying InputClass 
"touchpad catchall"
[ 42758.085] (**) SynPS/2 Synaptics TouchPad: Applying InputClass 
"Default clickpad buttons"
[ 42758.085] (II) Using input driver 'synaptics' for 'SynPS/2 Synaptics 
TouchPad'
[ 42758.085] (**) SynPS/2 Synaptics TouchPad: always reports core events
[ 42758.085] (**) Option "Device" "/dev/input/event5"
[ 42758.110] (II) synaptics: SynPS/2 Synaptics TouchPad: found clickpad 
property
[ 42758.110] (II) synaptics: SynPS/2 Synaptics TouchPad: found top 
buttonpad property
[ 42758.110] (--) synaptics: SynPS/2 Synaptics TouchPad: x-axis range 
1472 - 5112 (res 42)
[ 42758.110] (--) synaptics: SynPS/2 Synaptics TouchPad: y-axis range 
1408 - 3834 (res 42)
[ 42758.110] (--) synaptics: SynPS/2 Synaptics TouchPad: pressure range 
0 - 255
[ 42758.110] (--) synaptics: SynPS/2 Synaptics TouchPad: finger width 
range 0 - 15
[ 42758.110] (--) synaptics: SynPS/2 Synaptics TouchPad: buttons: left 
double triple
[ 42758.110] (--) synaptics: SynPS/2 Synaptics TouchPad: Vendor 0x2 
Product 0x7
[ 42758.110] (**) Option "SoftButtonAreas" "50% 0 82% 0 0 0 0 0"
[ 42758.110] (**) Option "SecondarySoftButtonAreas" "58% 0 0 8% 42% 58% 
0 8%"
[ 42758.110] (--) synaptics: SynPS/2 Synaptics TouchPad: touchpad found
[ 42758.110] (**) SynPS/2 Synaptics TouchPad: always reports core events
[ 42758.123] (**) Option "config_info" 
"udev:/sys/devices/platform/i8042/serio1/input/input6/event5"
[ 42758.123] (II) XINPUT: Adding extended input device "SynPS/2 
Synaptics TouchPad" (type: TOUCHPAD, id 9)
[ 42758.123] (**) synaptics: SynPS/2 Synaptics TouchPad: (accel) 
MinSpeed is now constant deceleration 2.5
[ 42758.123] (**) synaptics: SynPS/2 Synaptics TouchPad: (accel) 
MaxSpeed is now 1.75
[ 42758.123] (**) synaptics: SynPS/2 Synaptics TouchPad: (accel) 
AccelFactor is now 0.046
[ 42758.123] (**) SynPS/2 Synaptics TouchPad: (accel) keeping 
acceleration scheme 1
[ 42758.123] (**) SynPS/2 Synaptics TouchPad: (accel) acceleration profile 1
[ 42758.123] (**) SynPS/2 Synaptics TouchPad: (accel) acceleration 
factor: 2.000
[ 42758.123] (**) SynPS/2 Synaptics TouchPad: (accel) acceleration 
threshold: 4
[ 42758.123] (--) synaptics: SynPS/2 Synaptics TouchPad: touchpad found
[ 42758.123] (II) config/udev: Adding input device SynPS/2 Synaptics 
TouchPad (/dev/input/mouse0)
[ 42758.123] (**) SynPS/2 Synaptics TouchPad: Ignoring device from 
InputClass "touchpad ignore duplicates"
[ 42758.123] (II) config/udev: Adding input device TPPS/2 IBM TrackPoint 
(/dev/input/event6)
[ 42758.123] (**) TPPS/2 IBM TrackPoint: Applying InputClass "evdev 
pointer catchall"
[ 42758.123] (II) Using input driver 'evdev' for 'TPPS/2 IBM TrackPoint'
[ 42758.123] (**) TPPS/2 IBM TrackPoint: always reports core events
[ 42758.123] (**) evdev: TPPS/2 IBM TrackPoint: Device: "/dev/input/event6"
[ 42758.123] (--) evdev: TPPS/2 IBM TrackPoint: Vendor 0x2 Product 0xa
[ 42758.123] (--) evdev: TPPS/2 IBM TrackPoint: Found 3 mouse buttons
[ 42758.123] (--) evdev: TPPS/2 IBM TrackPoint: Found relative axes
[ 42758.123] (--) evdev: TPPS/2 IBM TrackPoint: Found x and y relative axes
[ 42758.123] (II) evdev: TPPS/2 IBM TrackPoint: Configuring as mouse
[ 42758.123] (**) evdev: TPPS/2 IBM TrackPoint: YAxisMapping: buttons 4 
and 5
[ 42758.123] (**) evdev: TPPS/2 IBM TrackPoint: EmulateWheelButton: 4, 
EmulateWheelInertia: 10, EmulateWheelTimeout: 200
[ 42758.123] (**) Option "config_info" 
"udev:/sys/devices/platform/i8042/serio1/serio2/input/input7/event6"
[ 42758.123] (II) XINPUT: Adding extended input device "TPPS/2 IBM 
TrackPoint" (type: MOUSE, id 10)
[ 42758.123] (II) evdev: TPPS/2 IBM TrackPoint: initialized for relative 
axes.
[ 42758.123] (**) TPPS/2 IBM TrackPoint: (accel) keeping acceleration 
scheme 1
[ 42758.123] (**) TPPS/2 IBM TrackPoint: (accel) acceleration profile 0
[ 42758.123] (**) TPPS/2 IBM TrackPoint: (accel) acceleration factor: 2.000
[ 42758.123] (**) TPPS/2 IBM TrackPoint: (accel) acceleration threshold: 4
[ 42758.123] (II) config/udev: Adding input device TPPS/2 IBM TrackPoint 
(/dev/input/mouse1)
[ 42758.123] (II) No input driver specified, ignoring this device.
[ 42758.123] (II) This device may have been added with another device file.
----- End