Re: touchpad too sensitive

[Stefan Monnier <monnier@iro.umontreal.ca>]

> I'm running Woody 2.6.12.2 on an HP Pavilion notebook (dv4040us).  One
> problem I'm trying to fix is the touchpad's sensitivity.  This
> touchpad is crazy sensitive -- just breathe on it and the pointer
> moves!  In some contexts, this doesn't bother me that much.  But, when
> I'm using apps or tools that require a lot of typing (emacs, gmail in
> a browser window,...), it's really a problem.  While I am typing, if
> any portion of the base of my hand/palm comes in to contact with the
> touchpad, no matter how lightly, the pointer puts the cursor in a new
> location, and one of two things happens:  1) a new window is selected
> and made active (mildly annoying), or 2) whatever letters I was in the
> process of typing are inserted in an incorrect location (extremely
> annoying!).

Check your Xorg config.  You should make you're using the synaptics driver
which will give you many configuration parameters, including sensitivity,
two-finger-scolling, tapping, ...

In my case tpconfig doesn't seem to have any impact (although it does give
the impression of working correctly), whereas things like synclient or
[gq]synaptics definitely do work.

I haven't yet found a good way to completely disable the touchpad (not just
the tapping) while typing.  If someone knows of such a thing, I'd love to
hear about it.


        Stefan