Can you add the Alps driver please

[Dan Alderman]

Would it be possible to add support for the Alps touchpad by applying the patch
in /usr/share/doc/xfree86-driver/synapitcs/alps.patch.gz to Whoary?

I have tried it on my Tosh Sat Pro A10 with success, although it may have broken
framebuffer (strangely). I shall try again and see if I get the same problem to
eliminate silly typo type errors. If it's any help here are the settings I came
up with to make it work nicely.

Section "InputDevice"
        Identifier "Synaptics Touchpad"
        Driver "synaptics"
        Option "SendCoreEvents" "true"
        Option "Device" "/dev/input/event1"
        Option "Protocol" "event"
        Option "LeftEdge" "60"
        Option "RightEdge" "830"
        Option "TopEdge" "70"
        Option "BottomEdge" "650"
        Option "FingerLow" "6"
        Option "FingerHigh" "12"
        Option "MaxTapTime" "120"
        Option "MaxDoubleTapTime" "30"
        Option "MaxTapMove" "150"
        Option "ClickTime" "20"
        Option "EmulateMidButtonTime" "75"
        Option "VertScrollDelta" "80"
        Option "HorizScrollDelta" "80"
        Option "MinSpeed" "0.4"
        Option "MaxSpeed" "0.5"
        Option "AccelFactor" "0.01"
        Option "EdgeMotionUseAlways" "False"
        Option "EdgeMotionMinSpeed" "40"
        Option "EdgeMotionMaxSpeed" "50"
        Option "UpDownScrolling" "1"
        Option "TouchpadOff" "0"
# Option "CircularScrolling" "1"
# Option "CircScrollDelta" "0.1"
# Option "CircScrollTrigger" "2"
EndSection

Thanks.

[Matt Zimmerman (mdz)]

Just a note for the record, as discussed on IRC, this is something to look at
during the Hoary development cycle

[Daniel Stone (daniels)]

*** Bug 10186 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

[Daniel Stone (daniels)]

*** Bug 10312 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

[Daniel Stone (daniels)]

Actually, no.

It turns out it woefully misdetects USB mice (!), and other trackpads as ALPS,
because there is no way to reliably detect ALPS devices. Sorry.

[Daniel Stone (daniels)]

Per comment above.

[Julien Olivier (julo)]

Excuse me, I'm not sure I understand. What am I supposed to do to make my
touchpad work right after I boot ? Is there no solution at all ?

[Daniel Stone (daniels)]

There is nothing we can do with this to make it work for everyone -- if we
include Alps support, then we break general Synaptics support. So, we have to
pick one or the other, and there are far more generic Synaptics touchpads than
Alps. It sucks that we can't have it both ways, but that's life. :(

[Jens W. Klein (jens-klein)]

(In reply to comment #8)
> There is nothing we can do with this to make it work for everyone -- if we
> include Alps support, then we break general Synaptics support. So, we have to
> pick one or the other, and there are far more generic Synaptics touchpads than
> Alps. It sucks that we can't have it both ways, but that's life. :(

IOW: I need to patch and compile my own kernel? or just an own kernelmodule?

Is it possible to provide a package that patches automagically or provide a
alternative module (if it is a module) to reduce the barrier for non-skilled people?

It's evidence of incapacity for the Alps :(

[none (ubuntu-bugs-nullinfinity-deactivatedaccount)]

(In reply to comment #8)
> There is nothing we can do with this to make it work for everyone -- if we
> include Alps support, then we break general Synaptics support.

Standard 2.6.11 kernels from kernel.org now contain ALPS support, so it
certainly seems to be possible to have that without breaking Synaptics
touchpads. I guess it may be too late to add this feature to Hoary, but
future Ubuntu kernels should have it, as long as they are based on
2.6.11 or newer.