Re: Touch Pad Drivers

[Jason Kraftcheck <kraftche@cae.wisc.edu>]

Carl Baldwin wrote:
> Are there any XFree86 drivers that handle touchpads specifically.  I
> poked around the XFree86 site for a while and couldn't find anything.
> Specifically, I would like to be able to scroll with the touch pad.
>
> Also, I remember being able to do this with an older laptop, I would
> like to be able to use all three buttons by tapping on the touch pad:
> tap with one finger for left button, two fingers for the middle button
> and three for the right button.  I thought it was really cool and have
> no idea where to find such drivers.
>
> Does anyone know of drivers that I could use to get at least some
> extra functionality out of my touch pad?
>
> Here's some extra info:
>
> I have a Dell Inspiron 8200 (with the touch pad-eraser head combo)
> Here is how XFree86 handles my touch pad.  It works fine for the
> basic functionality it offers.

You can get an XFree86 driver here:

http://www.mobilix.org/touchpad_driver.html

When I tried that driver, it seemed to work reasonably well on my Inspiron 
4100.  All the capablities you mention above are available.

I stopped using it because there was some lag/latency that I found 
annoying.  A couple other minor problems:  The eraser-head pointer doesn't 
work with the driver loaded.  The driver doesn't restore the trackpad to 
hardware mode when it exits.  (I had to reboot after removing the driver 
to get the touchpad to work without the driver.)