Ubuntu
xserver-xorg-input-synaptics package

  1. Bug #432814
  2. Comment #25

Comment 25 for bug 432814

Revision history for this message
Yuri Khan (yurivkhan) wrote : Re: Action for middle and right click is reversed since jaunty

OK, I looked a little further, here’s my understanding.

* The touchpad is first configured with xorg.conf, hal policies and the code in xserver-xorg-input-synaptics.
* When GNOME starts, the gnome-settings-daemon kicks in. It has a mouse plugin that resets TapButton# settings every once in a while, and on each change of the tap_to_click gconf setting. It does that by changing the "Synaptics Tap Action" property, replacing the 5th, 6th and 7th values with (0,0,0) or (1,3,2) to disable or enable tap-to-click, respectively.
* The "Synaptics Tap Action" property is documented in synaptics(4): “order: RT, RB, LT, LB, F1, F2, F3.” So, 1-finger tap is set to button 1 (left), 2-finger tap to button 3 (right), and 3-finger tap to button 2 (middle).
* The xserver-xorg-input-synaptics patch 104_always_enable_tapping.patch is irrelevant because it would only affect the initial setup, which is overridden by gnome-settings-daemon mouse plugin.
* The xserver-xorg-input-synaptics patch 105_correct_multifinger_click.patch is irrelevant because it is commented out, and because it dealt with gestures like “put 2 or 3 fingers on the touchpad and click the physical left button” rather than “tap with 2 or 3 buttons”.
* The Jaunty version of gnome-settings-daemon does not include the tap-to-click code, which explains why the bug appeared in Karmic.

I have created a patch for gnome-settings-daemon that adds three gconf settings and passes their values into "Synaptics Tap Action" property, and submitted it to the GNOME Bugzilla at https://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=598820#c10 .