Default synaptics settings not the best for Apple trackpads

[Dražen Lučanin]

I am running Ubuntu on a Macbook Pro. The trackpad was working out-of-the box, but it didn't run quite as smooth as it could. My palm wouldn't be recognised while typing and when I would use two-finger scrolling my two fingers would get recognised as three fingers here and there (when they get to a poistion more parallel to the trackpad, with the largest finger area touching it) which would cause quite a few accidental clicks, windows misbehaves (as the 3-finger click and drag somehow switches windows by default in ginn) etc.

As a result, I had to find out about synclient and the settings it offers. This blog post helped me a lot

http://uselessuseofcat.com/?p=74

What proved to work for me is
 - palm detection on
 - MaxFinger 50

I set this by creating an /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/60-synaptics.conf with the following contents:

Section "InputClass"
  Identifier "touchpad"
  Driver "synaptics"
  MatchIsTouchpad "on"
  MatchDevicePath "/dev/input/event*"
  Option "PalmDetect" "on"
  Option "FingerHigh" "50"
EndSection

I think these (or close to these) settings should be set as the default in Ubuntu for Macbook trackpads. If not, they should at least be accessible in the mouse & touchpad menu in the control center to save others from the same pains. Also, the sensitivity option in the control center is not doing anything - only the acceleration slider has any effect.

It would be great if Apple trackpads would be tweaked to work more nicely in Ubuntu, as I think this is (with also maybe multi-monitor handling and battery life) the only remaining big reason not to switch from OS X to Ubuntu on Apple hardware. This is a problem many users are facing, which can be seen from the 20 "thank you" comments on the aforementioned blog post (I can only imagine how many other people went back to their OS X without bothering to search tech blogs to tweak their drivers). There are some nice projects out there, such as Touchegg and Ginn, but even after playing with compiling the source, Touchegg it is still very difficult to get running in Ubuntu. What I'm trying to say is, there are recipes and separate projects out there and it would be great if someone with a wider grasp of the technologies involved collected the best parts and integrated them in future Ubuntu packages. Especially now, that Ubuntu is spreading towards other touch-aware devices such as tablets :)

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 12.10
Package: xserver-xorg-input-synaptics 1.6.2-1ubuntu5
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 3.5.0-21.32-generic 3.5.7.1
Uname: Linux 3.5.0-21-generic x86_64
ApportVersion: 2.6.1-0ubuntu9
Architecture: amd64
Date: Sat Dec 29 01:11:55 2012
DistUpgraded: Fresh install
DistroCodename: quantal
DistroVariant: ubuntu
InstallationDate: Installed on 2012-10-19 (70 days ago)
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 12.10 "Quantal Quetzal" - Release amd64 (20121017.5)
MachineType: Apple Inc. MacBookPro8,1
MarkForUpload: True
ProcKernelCmdLine: BOOT_IMAGE=/boot/vmlinuz-3.5.0-21-generic root=UUID=a6e1c62c-32e8-473f-8813-2ca9ad27b059 ro quiet splash vt.handoff=7
SourcePackage: xserver-xorg-input-synaptics
UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)
dmi.bios.date: 01/24/12
dmi.bios.vendor: Apple Inc.
dmi.bios.version: MBP81.88Z.0047.B27.1201241646
dmi.board.asset.tag: Base Board Asset Tag#
dmi.board.name: Mac-94245B3640C91C81
dmi.board.vendor: Apple Inc.
dmi.board.version: MacBookPro8,1
dmi.chassis.type: 10
dmi.chassis.vendor: Apple Inc.
dmi.chassis.version: Mac-94245B3640C91C81
dmi.modalias: dmi:bvnAppleInc.:bvrMBP81.88Z.0047.B27.1201241646:bd01/24/12:svnAppleInc.:pnMacBookPro8,1:pvr1.0:rvnAppleInc.:rnMac-94245B3640C91C81:rvrMacBookPro8,1:cvnAppleInc.:ct10:cvrMac-94245B3640C91C81:
dmi.product.name: MacBookPro8,1
dmi.product.version: 1.0
dmi.sys.vendor: Apple Inc.
version.compiz: compiz 1:0.9.8.4+bzr3412-0ubuntu0.1
version.ia32-libs: ia32-libs 20090808ubuntu36
version.libdrm2: libdrm2 2.4.39-0ubuntu1
version.libgl1-mesa-dri: libgl1-mesa-dri 9.0-0ubuntu1
version.libgl1-mesa-dri-experimental: libgl1-mesa-dri-experimental N/A
version.libgl1-mesa-glx: libgl1-mesa-glx 9.0-0ubuntu1
version.xserver-xorg-core: xserver-xorg-core 2:1.13.0-0ubuntu6.1
version.xserver-xorg-input-evdev: xserver-xorg-input-evdev 1:2.7.3-0ubuntu2
version.xserver-xorg-video-ati: xserver-xorg-video-ati 1:6.99.99~git20120913.8637f772-0ubuntu1
version.xserver-xorg-video-intel: xserver-xorg-video-intel 2:2.20.9-0ubuntu2
version.xserver-xorg-video-nouveau: xserver-xorg-video-nouveau 1:1.0.2-0ubuntu3

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

Status changed to 'Confirmed' because the bug affects multiple users.

[Aleve Sicofante (sicofante)]

Actually, I'm just discouraging people to install Ubuntu on Apple hardware just for this. It's too much of a hassle to configure the touchpad properly and it's definitely not newbie-grade stuff.

I would suggest:

1. Create a single point of configuration for touchpads (there are currently simply too many).
2. Crowdsource best configurations for devices so a database can be accessed during isntallation in order to provide sane defaults for any laptop.