touchpad won't respond to tap

Please post any bugs you have found
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litig8rtenn
Posts: 10
Joined: Fri 17 May 2013, 02:05

touchpad won't respond to tap

#1 Post by litig8rtenn »

just installed on old Dell inspiron. touchpad recognizes and responds, moving mouse pointer but won't respond to any taps. i don't have the computer with me to give more hardware info. i know it has 256 ram and was running xp.

Any help is appreciated.

npierce
Posts: 858
Joined: Tue 29 Dec 2009, 01:40

#2 Post by npierce »

Hello litig8rtenn,

Welcome to the forum.

Open a terminal window (click the desktop icon labeled "console") and enter this command:

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synclient TapButton1=1 MaxTapTime=180
If that helps, let us know, since it is only a temporary fix I or someone else can then tell you how to make it permanent.

If that doesn't help, please tell us what Puppy you are using (including the version number), and report the output you get from this command:

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grep -iE "Synaptics|Alps|Elantech|touch" /proc/bus/input/devices
(Note that this is a one-line command, but it may look like more than one line if your browser window is small.)

litig8rtenn
Posts: 10
Joined: Fri 17 May 2013, 02:05

problem fixed-thanks

#3 Post by litig8rtenn »

Thanks npierce! That solved the problem.

I had a little trouble at first. At my first shutdown yesterday I saved a file as instructed by the on-screen message. That saved some of my own touchpad tweaks through the setup/mouse/keyboard wizard that I tried before finding this forum.

When I booted this morning and loaded the save file my touchpad wouldn't respond at all-not even to movement. I had to shutdown and restart with the option to not load that personal file. Then the touchpad responded to movement but not taps, just as it had behaved to begin with. Then I followed your steps. The code synclient TapButton1=1 MaxTapTime=180 worked perfectly. The touchpad then accepted taps.

Then I decided to shutdown and named a new save file to include the change made through the command. When I re-booted and loaded the new save file the touchpad is working and responding to taps. So I guess that means my new save file is holding the correction. I then deleted the old save file and just kept the new one that includes the fix. I have re-booted several times and the fix appears permanent.

If I need to do anything else to make the fix permanent, any advice on that would be appreciated.

Thanks again.

npierce
Posts: 858
Joined: Tue 29 Dec 2009, 01:40

#4 Post by npierce »

You're welcome.

It sounds like your /root/.flSynclient file has been properly updated and so your new touchpad settings are being reloaded after you boot. That's good.

There is a more traditional way to make the change permanent, which involves editing the xorg.conf file, but that is unnecessary as long as the settings are being reloaded from the /root/.flSynclient file. So if your touchpad is now working well for you, you need do nothing else.

Good luck with your new Puppy, and welcome again to the forum.

litig8rtenn
Posts: 10
Joined: Fri 17 May 2013, 02:05

need to edit xorg.conf file

#5 Post by litig8rtenn »

I'm back again with a variation.

When I posted before I was running Puppy Slacko 5.5 windows installer in addition to Windows XP as a dual boot. I decided to wipe the hard drive with Darik Boot and Nuke and use only Puppy. I booted from iso file loaded onto usb jump drive.

Booted fine but then the touchpad won't respond to taps without entering the command, synclient TapButton1=1 MaxTapTime=180. This time saving the personal file did not hold. When I rebooted the non-response returned.

So it appears I need to edit the xorg.conf file. Also, I want to install the Puppy Slacko 5.5 to the hard drive and not coninue using the usb booting method. I think there are a number of tutorials about how to do that, including drive partitioning. However, if there is a particular tutorial you can recommend, that would be appreciated.

npierce
Posts: 858
Joined: Tue 29 Dec 2009, 01:40

#6 Post by npierce »

Hi litig8rtenn,

Make a backup of your /etc/X11/xorg.conf file, then edit it as follows:

Look for a section that begins like this:

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Section "InputDevice"
   Identifier "Synaptics Mouse"
   Driver "synaptics"
There may or may not already be some options listed there.

If you see options for "TapButton1" or "MaxTapTime", modify the values appropriately. If those options aren't listed, add them before the EndSection line:

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   Option "TapButton1" "1"
   Option "MaxTapTime" "180"
I am unfamiliar with any of the installation tutorials that you mentioned (having never actually installed a Puppy), so can't recommend one.

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