How to adjust Acer Travelmate touchpad in Xenialpup?(Solved)

[number77]

With clickpad=0, functionality was lost everywhere.
No hurry for me here.

[number77]

Update on touchpad problems:
I have given the Acer to my partner and she uses windows. Win 10 still has some problems with the touchpad, its a rotten idea realy, no dedicated mouse buttons.
Thank you greengeek for all your effort on this problem, as a spin off I have learnt alot about the control of the touchpad for future use. I am sorry to hear of your family problems and hope they are resolving.
All the best number77
P.S.
Thanks Mike Walsh and Mikeslr also.
I know this is the easy way out.

[greengeek]

Sorry to be late back - I did find some info that I think could be useful for anyone having this same issue of mouse jumping around when making mouseclicks or tapping on clickpads.

See this thread:
https://askubuntu.com/questions/128023/ ... en-i-click

It suggests a couple of changes you could try within the synclient settings:

If you are using synclient, you might try to increase the FingerLow value.
here is how I did with my computer:

Code: Select all

synclient | grep FingerLow
    FingerLow      = 30
synclient FingerLow=35

Note that FingerLow cannot be higher than FingerHigh. So change this value as well if needed.

And also:

After digging through the available options to synclient it would seem that

Code: Select all

Option "HorizHysteresis" "40"
Option "VertHysteresis" "40"

effectively prevents the pointer from "skipping" when I click.

And from this other thread:
https://askubuntu.com/questions/127829/ ... tu-12-04-u

One poster said use:

Code: Select all

synclient FingerLow=35
synclient FingerHigh=40

and another:

You may want to try entering "synclient" in the terminal to see what your FingerHigh & FingerLow values are. In my case, the movement was occurring with taps being recognized as released too early. You can see explanations of the different synclient values here: http://manpages.ubuntu.com/manpages/luc ... ics.4.html Note that FingerLow can't be set higher than FingerHigh, so both will have to be changed as you adjust FingerLow. I used
FingerLow=55
&
FingerHigh=60
which eliminated the issue for me. If this fixes the malfunction, you will need to create an executable script to run at startup and resume

but also:

had a similar problem on my Toshiba Satellite and followed the above instructions. However, 35-40 didn't help and 55-60 was too much and the touch pad wasn't responsive at all. I figured out the following works best for me.

FingerLow = 45
FingerHigh = 50

[number77]

I haven not given up but there a few things I need to sort out before I try your suggestions.
Win 10 installed itself to the whole partition so no room for xenial until I partition the hdd and as its the first uefi hdd I have used I am working on that. Also none of my boot usb keys work so I am working on that too. Another also is I do not have sole use anymore.
I will get back.

[bigpup]

Use Lick to install alongside Windows 10.
http://murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic.php?t=61404
No need to partition or do anything but use Lick to do the install.

[number77]

Use Lick to install alongside Windows 10.
http://murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic.php?t=61404
No need to partition or do anything but use Lick to do the install.

I will try that bigpup when I get the Acer away from my partner.

[number77]

Is it going to matter that lick 1.3.1-win32 is 32 bit and the win10 on the acer is 64 bit.

[number77]

Use Lick to install alongside Windows 10.
http://murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic.php?t=61404
No need to partition or do anything but use Lick to do the install.

I used lick to install xenial64-7.5 iso on a blank partition on the acer but do not get any choice of os. What have I forgotten

[bigpup]

Need to ask this in the Lick topic.

This is from the Lick readme
UEFI Systems with Secure Boot

Windows 8, 8.1 and 10

Windows 8 and up have a feature called 'Fast Startup'. This cannot be enabled if LICK is installed. LICK disables Fast Startup upon installation.

LICK supports secure boot, but requires a manual step during the first reboot.

On the first reboot, if you see a blue screen with writing, press enter to select OK.
Press enter again to select Enroll Hash.
Use the up and down arrow keys to highlight loader.efi, and press enter.
Press the down arrow to select Yes, then press enter.
Use the down arrow to highlight Exit, then press enter.

On subsequent reboots, these steps will not need to be taken.

[greengeek]

Hi Number77 - a couple of questions:

1) When the travelmate is turned off can you hear and feel any clicking if you press down on the touchpad?

2) When running windows does your touchpad perform a rightclick when you press firmly at the bottom right hand corner? (and what about the top right corner?)

3) When running windows, what happens if you use a non conductive object (plastic pen or ruler etc) to press down on the centre of the touchpad? Does it behave like a left click?

(ok that's more than a couple of questions but hey, it's nearly christmas).

[number77]

1) Yes there is a definite click when off.
2) Right click works in the bottom corner only.
3) The non conductive pen does nothing at all, it needs a finger.

I am still trying to get puppy loaded without destroying win 10 and am working through bigpups suggestions. Why the world seems hung up on win 10 I don't know as it is really awful and I think its up to 40gb now on the hdd.

[greengeek]

1) Yes there is a definite click when off.
2) Right click works in the bottom corner only.
3) The non conductive pen does nothing at all, it needs a finger.

Based on the answer to Q1, i feel that the touchpad should definitely be responding to a firm press from a non-conductive object.
Could you try the test from Q3 again - but pressing at bottom left of the touchpad (rather than in the centre). You will need to place the cursor over something "activatable" (like a menu button) and see if a firm press on the touchpad creates a left click. Use a blunt-tipped object as you will have to press as firmly as you did when you got an audible click when clicking the pad in Q1 when power was off)

Sorry to be focusing on this point but it is critical to getting your touchpad properly configured.

[number77]

bigpup
lickgrub.cfg is installed in C: drive but I am not asked what os to use, it boots straight into win 10.
Before I got your second half of message telling me about the blue screen and press enter I tried it, didnt know what the blue screen meant so it timed out and went straight on to win 10. I did un install the iso with lick, rebooted and reinstalled the iso. Still no choice of os. Any ideas.

[number77]

1) Yes there is a definite click when off.
2) Right click works in the bottom corner only.
3) The non conductive pen does nothing at all, it needs a finger.

Based on the answer to Q1, i feel that the touchpad should definitely be responding to a firm press from a non-conductive object.
Could you try the test from Q3 again - but pressing at bottom left of the touchpad (rather than in the centre). You will need to place the cursor over something "activatable" (like a menu button) and see if a firm press on the touchpad creates a left click. Use a blunt-tipped object as you will have to press as firmly as you did when you got an audible click when clicking the pad in Q1 when power was off)

Sorry to be focusing on this point but it is critical to getting your touchpad properly configured.

Non conducting object has no effect at all. The blunt end of biro does not do anything at all, the touchpad clicks but nothing else.
My wife has a pointer to work her tablet but that also has no effect at all.

[bigpup]

You need to ask this on the Lick topic.
http://murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic.php?t=61404

[greengeek]

Non conducting object has no effect at all. The blunt end of biro does not do anything at all, the touchpad clicks but nothing else.
My wife has a pointer to work her tablet but that also has no effect at all.

Are you able to get into bios?

There will be a setting that allows you to choose "advanced" as an option for the touchpad. It will probably say something like "Load the I2C driver or advanced features will not work"
Don't change the setting - i just want to know what it is set to at present. (This will affect both Windows and Xenial touchpad behaviour)

[number77]

Non conducting object has no effect at all. The blunt end of biro does not do anything at all, the touchpad clicks but nothing else.
My wife has a pointer to work her tablet but that also has no effect at all.

Are you able to get into bios?

There will be a setting that allows you to choose "advanced" as an option for the touchpad. It will probably say something like "Load the I2C driver or advanced features will not work"
Don't change the setting - i just want to know what it is set to at present. (This will affect both Windows and Xenial touchpad behaviour)

I can get in to bios but there is no advanced touchpad setting. I should say that I am running win 10 and trying to get xenial64 to dual boot so I am a bit delayed at present.

[greengeek]

I have just got access to a similar model of Acer and I can see what you are describing.

When using Xenial the pad is not behaving the same way it does under windows. I will try to find some settings that make it more stable.

At first glance it appears we need to forget the underlying touchpad click function (ie: full depth press for mouse clicks) as that confuses the multifinger touch sensitivity of the overlying touchpad. (Full depth press only seems useful for lasso/highlight function)

Looks like we need to focus on using the light tap-to-click functionality for registering clicks.

One thing I don't see is how you perform a right click with one finger?

When you get access back to Xenial can you clarify that? Where/how does rightclick operate?

cheers!

[number77]

I have just got access to a similar model of Acer and I can see what you are describing.

When using Xenial the pad is not behaving the same way it does under windows. I will try to find some settings that make it more stable.

At first glance it appears we need to forget the underlying touchpad click function (ie: full depth press for mouse clicks) as that confuses the multifinger touch sensitivity of the overlying touchpad. (Full depth press only seems useful for lasso/highlight function)

Looks like we need to focus on using the light tap-to-click functionality for registering clicks.

One thing I don't see is how you perform a right click with one finger?

When you get access back to Xenial can you clarify that? Where/how does rightclick operate?

cheers!

Still working on the installation of xenial. The easiest way for right click was two finger click. Will check this when I am back in business.

[greengeek]

I now have access to a couple of Travelmates which use similar touchpad/clickpads as the B113 so i can hopefully try various touchpad settings and come up with some useful suggestions.

It is clear that flsynclient is limited in it's scope and does not allow adjustment of all of the underlying synclient parameters - especially when using clickpads. This leaves the user in the position of having to manually adjust the synclient parameters one by one (or by using scripts - which i will post later).

The first problem I encountered was how do I reset the synclient settings to normal after playing with some of the parameters?

I came up with a utility that allows the user to make a backup of the synclient settings before making any changes, and reload them later if necessary after having a play with the touchpad/clickpad adjustments.

The utility appends a timestamp to the backup file so it allows the user to make multiple backups, alter the name to make each one meaningful, and choose which one to reload later (the timestamp helps identify which was the original starting file).

Hopefully it will be self explanatory.

(Even if you normally use flsynclient on other touchpads this utility can still be useful for keeping a backup of touchpad settings)