Appletouch trackpad unbearably slow

Probably needs to be filed against xorg-driver-synaptics ...

I experienced the same on my 12" powerbook 1.5GHz (reporting as a powerbook6,8) running xubuntu/Dapper Flight5.

The fix is to add some lines to the synaptics touchpad configuration in /etc/X11/xorg.conf
(As descibed in http://www.popies.net/atp/)

Section "InputDevice"
   Identifier "Synaptics Touchpad"
   Driver "synaptics"
   Option "SendCoreEvents" "true"
   Option "Device" "/dev/input/mice"
   Option "Protocol" "auto-dev"
   Option "LeftEdge" "0"
   Option "RightEdge" "850"
   Option "TopEdge" "0"
   Option "BottomEdge" "645"
   Option "MinSpeed" "0.4"
   Option "MaxSpeed" "1"
   Option "AccelFactor" "0.02"
   Option "FingerLow" "55"
   Option "FingerHigh" "60"
   Option "MaxTapMove" "20"
   Option "MaxTapTime" "100"
   Option "HorizScrollDelta" "0"
   Option "VertScrollDelta" "30"
   Option "SHMConfig" "on"
EndSection

I should add this is the state the default install leaves it in. I installed ubuntu as server and then the xubuntu packages as descibed at https://wiki.ubuntu.com/InstallingXubuntu
So this effects new installs as well as upgrades.

The mouse control-panel not being able to update is probably because we have "Option SHMConfig" disabled for security reasons. bug #37234.

I have had these lines and it worked......almost. The trackpad responds better but with no precission at all. I´ve just downloaded the latest release (Ubuntu 6.06 LTS) and unfortunatly the team behind this great project didn´t fix this really annoying bug.

This is also a problem with the live CDs, where I don't think it's possible to amend the xorg.conf file at all so this is a show stopper bug for the live CD.

Tested Edubuntu on a 1.5Ghz PowerBook 12" (however last time I checked it also affected the Ubuntu live CDs)

sudo rmmod appletouch && sudo modprobe appletouch in a terminal directly after log in works around it for me ... seems rather like a module/kernel issue

I can confirm this bug on the PowerBook 5,6 (12/15/17in 1.5Ghz-1.67Ghz) on Edgy 6.10 final. Really kills the experience on the live cd.

Yes well, some pompous fool decide it was a massive security risk and
refused to fix it.

I am a security professional, security to the point where you completely
break things is just plain stupid.

I am sure there could have been a workaround to mitigate this "huge"
security hole, or at least a way to allow the user to make the decision to
turn it on and accept the risk, or go buy a USB muse.

Well. I dont use Ubuntu anymore, I am tired of this bug and my none working
USB wireless. Its just too hard.

On 11/22/06, Timothy Smith <email address hidden> wrote:
>
> I can confirm this bug on the PowerBook 5,6 (12/15/17in 1.5Ghz-1.67Ghz)
> on Edgy 6.10 final. Really kills the experience on the live cd.
>
> --
> Appletouch trackpad unbearably slow
> https://launchpad.net/bugs/33762
>

I can confirm this bug also exists on the Powerbook 6,8 (12in 1.5Ghz) in Edgy final. That means it occurs on the 12in 1.5Ghz model and the 1.5-1.6Ghz 15in/17in models. They're the same release family.

https://wiki.ubuntu.com/LaptopTestingTeam/ApplePowerbookG4_1.2Ghz_1.67Ghz

https://wiki.ubuntu.com/LaptopTestingTeam/ApplePowerbookG4_12in_1.5Ghz

This bug is still occurring in Feisty 12.24.06 on the Powerbook 6,8

I have the problem with kernel 2.6.20-12, but not with 2.6.20-9. So I don't know if it's really a synaptics-driver problem.

Not sure if this should be a separate bug due to different architecture, but on 7.04 i386 beta, this behavior is exhibted on macbook core 2 duo.

This is a departure from previous feisty releases, where the trackpad was overly sensitive.

A temporal solution is to add to /etc/rc.local
sudo rmmod appletouch && sudo modprdo appletouch

I have filed a new bug for this under the kernel, since appletouch is part of the kernel.
https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/102680

Again, I don't know if my problem is the same as this bug since I'm on x86, and this bug is for powerpc, but I believe it is.

I managed to fix this by changing the SendCoreEvents line in xorg.conf to
Option "CorePointer"

Then I get better acceleration...

This only works on Gutsy, though - it breaks the trackpad on Feisty...

Can we get a fix in Gutsy?

OK - I've managed to fix this for all OSs, and in all cases.

Make the following changes to the default Xorg.conf:

1. Change

Option "SendCoreEvents" "true"

in the Synaptics section to

Option "CorePointer"

2. Change

InputDevice "Configured Mouse"

at the end of the file to

InputDevice "Configured Mouse" "SendCoreEvents"

3. Move

InputDevice "Synaptics Touchpad"

to before the Configured Mouse Line

4. Restart X

After doing so, you should be able to adjust pointer acceleration as you wish.

This has been fixed with recent releases..