Ubuntu
xserver-xorg-input-synaptics package

two-finger scrolling does not work on Dell Studio 15 (1555) via gui config

Bug #476866 reported by Philip Guyton on 2009-11-06

This bug report is a duplicate of: Bug #308191: Multitouch support not available for Synaptics touchpads v7.2. Edit Remove

This bug affects 16 people

Affects		Status	Importance	Assigned to	Milestone
	xserver-xorg-input-synaptics (Ubuntu)	Incomplete	Low	Unassigned

Bug Description

Binary package hint: xserver-xorg-input-synaptics

In 9.10 going to system - preferences - mouse - touchpad (tab) and selecting:-
Two-finger scrolling
does not enable this feature. But edge scrolling is then disabled.

But if I then enter:-

xinput set-int-prop "SynPS/2 Synaptics TouchPad" "Synaptics Two-Finger Pressure" 32 40

it works fine (thanks to Bug #422224 for pointing me in the right direction)

This I have automated via /usr/share/hal/fdi/policy/20thirdparty/11-x11-synaptics.fdi

by adding along side the other machine exeptions listed:-

which I think is doing the same thing by reference to:-
http://manpages.ubuntu.com/manpages/karmic/man4/synaptics.4.html
which states:-
Option "EmulateTwoFingerMinZ" "integer"
               For touchpads not capable of detecting multiple fingers (Alps),
               this sets the Z pressure threshold to emulate a two finger
               press. Property: "Synaptics Two-Finger Pressure

But this as I understand it is enabling emulation of multi touch capability by way of a work around and also using deprecated hal!

However this would only be necessary if this synaptics pad did not support multi touch but given that this same machine is able to do pinch zoom in vista I would have though that it could do multi touch.

guided by:-
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/SynapticsCapabilitesListing
and first enabling SHM in synaptics driver by adding the following line in the above machine exception
<merge key="input.x11_options.SHMConfig" type="string">true</merge>
From watching the f column produced by
synclient -m 100
only "1" finger is reported, this seems inconsistent with pinch zoom capability.

dmesg | grep Touchpad
gives:-
[ 6.018770] Synaptics Touchpad, model: 1, fw: 7.2, id: 0x1c0b1, caps: 0xd04731/0xa40000

From Bug #422224 "two-finger scrolling does not work on Acer AO531h" it would seem there are others who suspect
they have multi touch but are having to use emulation (post #10 and #15). Based on the reporter of 422224's dmesg they have the same touch pad as me.

Please let me know how I can help to clarify / properly fix this. My meager efforts on the matter have only got thus far.

I have opened a fresh bug as 422224 specified a different machine and I though that this title might help others searching with this problem. I will comment on 422224 to this end as they are probably duplicates but I am not sure yet.

Thanks to anyone for their attention and hope this helps to provide a work around for someone until more progress can be made.

ProblemType: Bug
Architecture: i386
Date: Fri Nov 6 18:43:32 2009
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 9.10
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 9.10 "Karmic Koala" - Release i386 (20091028.5)
MachineType: Dell Inc. Studio 1555
Package: xserver-xorg-input-synaptics 1.1.2-1ubuntu7 [modified: usr/share/hal/fdi/policy/20thirdparty/11-x11-synaptics.fdi]
ProcCmdLine: BOOT_IMAGE=/boot/vmlinuz-2.6.31-14-generic root=UUID=e7aabfd5-50fa-4b47-a8f2-f4103a7c71bc ro quiet splash noapic
ProcEnviron:
LANG=en_GB.UTF-8
SHELL=/bin/bash
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 2.6.31-14.48-generic
RelatedPackageVersions:
xserver-xorg 1:7.4+3ubuntu7
libgl1-mesa-glx 7.6.0-1ubuntu4
libdrm2 2.4.14-1ubuntu1
xserver-xorg-video-intel 2:2.9.0-1ubuntu2
xserver-xorg-video-ati 1:6.12.99+git20090929.7968e1fb-0ubuntu1
SourcePackage: xserver-xorg-input-synaptics
Uname: Linux 2.6.31-14-generic i686
XorgConf: Error: [Errno 2] No such file or directory: '/etc/X11/xorg.conf'
XsessionErrors:
(gnome-settings-daemon:1740): GLib-CRITICAL **: g_propagate_error: assertion `src != NULL' failed
(polkit-gnome-authentication-agent-1:1820): GLib-CRITICAL **: g_once_init_leave: assertion `initialization_value != 0' failed
(nautilus:1782): Eel-CRITICAL **: eel_preferences_get_boolean: assertion `preferences_is_initialized ()' failed
(gnome-panel:1775): Gtk-WARNING **: gtk_widget_size_allocate(): attempt to allocate widget with width -12 and height 24
dmi.bios.date: 07/03/2009
dmi.bios.vendor: Dell Inc.
dmi.bios.version: A07
dmi.board.name: 0D176M
dmi.board.vendor: Dell Inc.
dmi.board.version: A07
dmi.chassis.type: 8
dmi.chassis.vendor: Dell Inc.
dmi.chassis.version: A07
dmi.modalias: dmi:bvnDellInc.:bvrA07:bd07/03/2009:svnDellInc.:pnStudio1555:pvrA07:rvnDellInc.:rn0D176M:rvrA07:cvnDellInc.:ct8:cvrA07:
dmi.product.name: Studio 1555
dmi.product.version: A07
dmi.sys.vendor: Dell Inc.
fglrx: Not loaded
system:
distro: Ubuntu
architecture: i686kernel: 2.6.31-14-generic

Tags:

Revision history for this message

Philip Guyton (phil-lxnet) wrote on 2009-11-06:

BootDmesg.txt Edit (53.6 KiB, text/plain; charset="utf-8")
CurrentDmesg.txt Edit (4.0 KiB, text/plain; charset="utf-8")
Dependencies.txt Edit (4.2 KiB, text/plain; charset="utf-8")
Lspci.txt Edit (15.3 KiB, text/plain; charset="utf-8")
Lsusb.txt Edit (600 bytes, text/plain; charset="utf-8")
PciDisplay.txt Edit (1.1 KiB, text/plain; charset="utf-8")
ProcCpuinfo.txt Edit (1.4 KiB, text/plain; charset="utf-8")
ProcInterrupts.txt Edit (1.5 KiB, text/plain; charset="utf-8")
ProcModules.txt Edit (3.0 KiB, text/plain; charset="utf-8")
UdevDb.txt Edit (115.7 KiB, text/plain; charset="utf-8")
UdevLog.txt Edit (247.0 KiB, text/plain; charset="utf-8")
XorgLog.txt Edit (82.6 KiB, text/plain; charset="utf-8")
XorgLogOld.txt Edit (83.1 KiB, text/plain; charset="utf-8")
Xrandr.txt Edit (10.7 KiB, text/plain; charset="utf-8")
glxinfo.txt Edit (16.6 KiB, text/plain; charset="utf-8")
monitors.xml.txt Edit (725 bytes, text/plain; charset="utf-8")
setxkbmap.txt Edit (233 bytes, text/plain; charset="utf-8")
xdpyinfo.txt Edit (19.2 KiB, text/plain; charset="utf-8")
xkbcomp.txt Edit (56.6 KiB, text/plain; charset="utf-8")

Revision history for this message

v1nsai (v1nsai) wrote on 2009-12-12:

Your 'meager efforts' have fixed it for me, thanks man!

As a side note, the command has to be entered after restarting. You can add an entry to Preferences > Startup Programs to run the command on startup.

Revision history for this message

MichalM (jafa81) wrote on 2009-12-28:

Same issue on Dell Studio 1557.

Command stated earlier fixes this issue.

xinput set-int-prop "SynPS/2 Synaptics TouchPad" "Synaptics Two-Finger Pressure" 32 40

Revision history for this message

Ricco (eric-escolano) wrote on 2010-01-01:

As Philip reported, the "fix" is not satisfactory at all, as it only emulates 2 fingers recognition whereas the touchpad is actually capable of multitouch recognition, but behaves as if it was not.

I hope a driver revision or something solves the issue !

By the way, I am experiencing this on a brand new Dell Studio 17 (1747) laptop, and I am using the emulation workaround for now. Actua

Thank you Philip for compiling all the info and links to other useful bugs worth reading in the same bug report.

Cheers,
Eric from France. ;)

Revision history for this message

Ricco (eric-escolano) wrote on 2010-01-01:

Oops, the touchpad clicked "post comment" while I was adding that I actually used the workaround found here : http://forum.ubuntu-fr.org/viewtopic.php?pid=3174954#p3174954

It consists in editing the /etc/profile file and adding the following lines :

Code:

xinput set-int-prop "SynPS/2 Synaptics TouchPad" "Synaptics Two-Finger Scrolling" 8 1 0
xinput set-int-prop "SynPS/2 Synaptics TouchPad" "Synaptics Two-Finger Pressure" 32 40
xinput set-int-prop "SynPS/2 Synaptics TouchPad" "Synaptics Two-Finger Width" 32 7

Bryce Harrington (bryce) on 2010-03-18

tags:

added: karmic

Revision history for this message

Aditya Bhargava (rightaditya) wrote on 2010-08-27:

I have seen this same issue on my Dell Studio 15 (1558) running Lucid. I have a script xinput lines similar to Ricco's above, and this script runs on automatically boot. But every so often things get reset and I lose my two-finger scroll and need to go and re-run the script.

I've noticed the same issue in Mint 9 and Fedora 13.

Revision history for this message

Shrikant Shelat (shrikant-shelat) wrote on 2010-09-30:

Ditto ! The two-finger scroll is disabled on my Dell Studio 15. I do not intend to use a turn around, looking for a fix..! Ubuntu PLEASE help ! :( :(

Revision history for this message

Daniele Dellafiore (ildella) wrote on 2010-10-25:

same problem here, Vostro V3300 core i5.
Two-finger options is disabled/gray in the mouse touchpad configuration.

Revision history for this message

Daniele Dellafiore (ildella) wrote on 2010-10-25:

actually I solved using
http://gutsywww.ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1517097

basically editing property with gconf-editor or running:

gconftool-2 --set /desktop/gnome/peripherals/touchpad/scroll_method --type in

type 2 remove border scrolling and enables two-finger scrolling that now just works.
The GUI bugs remains

Revision history for this message

MichalM (jafa81) wrote on 2010-10-25:

#10

Hi,
I tested fix gconftool-2 --set /desktop/gnome/peripherals/touchpad/scroll_method --type int "2" and it does not help on Dell Studio 1557 10.10/x64.

Last version of Ubuntu that worked was 9.04 than it got broken in 9.10, fixed at the end of release cycle but the patch din't make it to 10.04 and definitely not to 10.10.
Please!!!

Alex Mayorga (alex-mayorga) on 2010-10-31

tags:

added: natty

Revision history for this message

Bryce Harrington (bryce) wrote on 2010-11-01:

#11

@Alberto, sounds like dropping HAL may have undone the quirk for this hw - how are we handling synaptics quirks these days? Guessing this just needs added.

@MichaL, you mentioned a patch - mind providing a reference for it? Perhaps it just got dropped in the release shuffle.

Changed in xserver-xorg-input-synaptics (Ubuntu):
assignee:	nobody → Alberto Milone (albertomilone)
importance:	Undecided → Low
assignee:	Alberto Milone (albertomilone) → nobody
status:	New → Incomplete

Revision history for this message

carlivar (e-launchpad-carlivar-com) wrote on 2010-11-30:

#12

Perhaps the title of this bug should be changed, as the "grayed out 2 finger option" problem seems to exist on many different platforms. It's an issue for me on my HP EliteBook 2530p, for example.

Making the title as more of a generic / widely-affected problem might help it get in a release soon?

Revision history for this message

Bryce Harrington (bryce) wrote on 2010-11-30:

#13

Changing the title won't affect how soon it gets into a release. But it could cause unrelated issues to get conflated together, so I think for now let's leave the title as is.

Revision history for this message

Bryce Harrington (bryce) wrote on 2010-11-30:

#14

Alberto says: getting two fingers emulation right for each model is not easy. I don't think we enable it by default on any system. If we are sure that it doesn't break anything on that specific dmi vendor and product name we can safely add a quirk. that would require editing the udev rule (66-xorg-synaptics.rules) and adding a section in 51-synaptics-quirks.conf

Revision history for this message

carlivar (e-launchpad-carlivar-com) wrote on 2010-11-30:

#15

I think what many people are saying is that it is *not* emulation. Anything with a Synaptics touchpad supports it, no emulation needed...

Revision history for this message

Ricco (eric-escolano) wrote on 2010-12-01:

#16

I agree with Carlivar.

The problem is the lack of support for the native multitouch-enabled synaptics touchpads.

Emulation is merely a workaround and not a satisfactory solution at all.

It may have to do with the synaptics driver I guess.

Revision history for this message

Bryce Harrington (bryce) wrote on 2010-12-02:

#17

Well, according to http://wiki.debian.org/SynapticsTouchpad, it says the "TouchPad: buttons:" line in Xorg.0.log indicates whether or not the device is communicating that it supports multitouch.

In this case, the original reporter's Xorg.0.log shows:

(II) SynPS/2 Synaptics TouchPad: buttons: left right middle

However, if it is recognized as a multitouch device it would show this:

(II) SynPS/2 Synaptics TouchPad: buttons: left right middle double triple

So, this suggests to me that emulation *would* be needed.

Revision history for this message

Bryce Harrington (bryce) wrote on 2010-12-02:

#18

It seems the real question is a) Is the hardware *really* multitouch capable? and then b) If so, why is this information not being passed correctly from the kernel to X? Is the kernel actually recognizing the device as MT capable?

Revision history for this message

pablomme (pablomme) wrote on 2010-12-02:

#19

As per the bug description, the bug is capable of multitouch. I can confirm the problem on an Asus Eee PC 1201N - it theoretically supports multi-touch gestures in Windows 7 ("theoretically" because wiped Windows 7 before trying it out, but it was advertised on the box).

Revision history for this message

Bryce Harrington (bryce) wrote on 2010-12-02:

#20

I'm not certain how to prove or disprove (a). I looked through all the files attached to this bug report but didn't find anything definitive. I poked around on my own hardware looking at lshal output, various files under /sys/class/input but didn't find something I could suggest checking. Presumably you can check your hardware vendor's data sheets.

Regarding (b), try running this command:

synclient -m 100

In theory, the fifth column 'f' is the number of fingers seen by the touchpad. Try two fingers, and more, and see if the number changes.

Revision history for this message

pablomme (pablomme) wrote on 2010-12-02:

#21

Sorry, having a silly day.. "bug is capable" -> "device is capable", "because wiped" -> "because I wiped" ...

Revision history for this message

Bryce Harrington (bryce) wrote on 2010-12-02:

#22

Perhaps this bug is merely a dupe of 308191?

Try testing the ppa:utouch-team/utouch ppa, which I believe has an updated kernel driver and X bits, and see if that allows MT behavior with this. If so, we can just dupe this bug to 308191.

Revision history for this message

Ricco (eric-escolano) wrote on 2010-12-02:

#23

@Brice : indeed, bug #308191 contains an attached dkms synaptics package which enables multitouch on some synaptics devices.

I think it is a much better solution, so you could call this bug #476866 a duplicate, I guess ?

Thanks for pointing to the other bug !

Revision history for this message

Bryce Harrington (bryce) wrote on 2010-12-03:

#24

Good to hear, thanks for confirming Ricco.

We're hoping to get the bits from that ppa into natty, but it depends on us getting the new X input stack from xserver 1.10 which is not 100% certain at this point.

Revision history for this message

Bryce Harrington (bryce) wrote on 2010-12-03:

#25

(Also, 'Brice' is a different X developer than me *grin*)

Report a bug

This report contains Public information

Everyone can see this information.

Duplicate of bug #308191 Remove

You are

Subscribing...

Edit bug mail

Other bug subscribers

Bug attachments

Add attachment

Remote bug watches

Bug watches keep track of this bug in other bug trackers.

Ubuntuxserver-xorg-input-synaptics package

two-finger scrolling does not work on Dell Studio 15 (1555) via gui config

Bug Description

Other bug subscribers

Bug attachments

Remote bug watches

Ubuntu
xserver-xorg-input-synaptics package