"ClickPad" devices are those with the buttons integrated into the touch surface. Examples include most newer Synaptics touchpads and all Apple multitouch touchpads. These devices currently have poor support for click and drag. When the user presses with one finger and then tries to drag the cursor with a second finger, the cursor either sits there or scroll events begin to be sent depending on the trackpad preferences. Also, the current behavior makes no distinction between left and right click button areas.
The proposed feature enables click and drag with two fingers. Optionally, a right button area may be enabled which allows for presses in the area to be sent as right button events instead of left button events.
The current patches may be found at: http://cgit.freedesktop.org/~cndougla/xf86-input-synaptics/log/?h=clickpad-v2. The changes include everything newer than the "master" tag.
The support impacts the normal flow of events for clickpad devices. To be sure of minimal breakage, a call-for-testing has been sent. A test package is available in ppa:chasedouglas/clickpad. The following link shows the status of all bugs filed against this package (i.e. xserver-xorg-input-synaptics bugs with a tag of "clickpad"):
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/xserver-xorg-input-synaptics/+bugs?field.searchtext=&orderby=-importance&field.status%3Alist=NEW&field.status%3Alist=OPINION&field.status%3Alist=INVALID&field.status%3Alist=WONTFIX&field.status%3Alist=EXPIRED&field.status%3Alist=CONFIRMED&field.status%3Alist=TRIAGED&field.status%3Alist=INPROGRESS&field.status%3Alist=FIXCOMMITTED&field.status%3Alist=FIXRELEASED&field.status%3Alist=INCOMPLETE_WITH_RESPONSE&field.status%3Alist=INCOMPLETE_WITHOUT_RESPONSE&assignee_option=any&field.assignee=&field.bug_reporter=&field.bug_commenter=&field.subscriber=&field.tag=clickpad&field.tags_combinator=ANY&field.status_upstream-empty-marker=1&field.upstream_target=&field.has_cve.used=&field.omit_dupes.used=&field.omit_dupes=on&field.affects_me.used=&field.has_patch.used=&field.has_branches.used=&field.has_branches=on&field.has_no_branches.used=&field.has_no_branches=on&field.has_blueprints.used=&field.has_blueprints=on&field.has_no_blueprints.used=&field.has_no_blueprints=on&search=Search
Feedback from numerous testers has been very positive. I have been told "I have been wanting this functionality for a long time," many times.
Status changed to 'Confirmed' because the bug affects multiple users.