Two-finger scrolling in Mint 12

[helgatheviking]

I found this thread for enabling two-finger scrolling in mint 11...
viewtopic.php?f=47&t=84265&p=488196&hilit=two+finger+scrolling#p488196

and the terminal commands :

Code: Select all

synclient VertTwoFingerScroll=1
synclient HorizTwoFingerScroll=1
synclient EmulateTwoFingerMinW=5
synclient EmulateTwoFingerMinZ=48


work great for enabling scrolling. but like the poster in the thread, i'm wondering how to make this change permanent. i don't want to have to look up the commands and run them in terminal every time i boot into mint.

[Inkit]

I'm not on my netbook now, but I have a recollection that under the touchpad option of mouse you get this option. You can either enable it or not from there.

[helgatheviking]

sorry, i guess i didn't have notifications enabled. yes i have that under Settings>Mouse>Touchpad. there is a checkbox for enable two finger vertical scrolling. except that when i enable it, it doesn't do anything. more accurately it disables all scrolling since edge scrolling no longer works either.

i've also tried installing gpointing, enabled two-finger vertical scrolling with that and still nothing. so far these synclient commands are the only thing that make vertical scrolling work at all, even though only temporarily

[Inkit]

I'm sorry, but I don't have anything else to suggest. I've not tinkered around with the touchpad too much because I use a usb mouse and apart from the obvious answers don't know much.

[Pilosopong Tasyo]

Put those commands inside a script and add the script to your startup. Use a text editor to copy and paste the following code:

Code: Select all

#!/bin/sh
sleep 30
synclient VertTwoFingerScroll=1
synclient HorizTwoFingerScroll=1
synclient EmulateTwoFingerMinW=5
synclient EmulateTwoFingerMinZ=48


Save the file to a location of your choice, make the script executable, then add it to the list of startup programs. The fix will run the next time you reboot/login and will run once every time thereafter. Thirty seconds (sleep 30 line) should be more than enough ample time to let the desktop "settle down" once you log in. YMMV of course. Change the number to a more appropriate value.

HTH.

[helgatheviking]

thanks for that. didn't seem to work for me though. did a clean install... and now the synclient commands do nothing either. sigh. but my sound icon miraculously came back? you win some, you lose some it seems.

[AlbertP]

You can also use GPointing (gpointing-device-settings) to enable horizontal or vertical two-finger scrolling.

At me, it's also not working always, I sometimes need to disable it and enable it again, probably because I've configured it in a way which is impossible in Gnome's mouse settings and gets reset by gnome.

[helgatheviking]

i've tried gpointing several times, to no avail.

i didn't understand your 2nd sentence though. what are you disabling and re-enabling?

[AlbertP]

Disabling and re-enabling two finger scroll in gpointing. That sometimes helps to get it working.

[helgatheviking]

digging this thread back up since windows is becoming downright unusable on my laptop.

have been reading this http://wiki.debian.org/SynapticsTouchpad about synaptic
and so i ran the command

grep "TouchPad: buttons:" /var/log/Xorg.0.log

and it returned

SynPS/2 Synaptics TouchPad: buttons: left right

where the docu says that the it should include "double" in that list of buttons, and it isn't. this probably explains why i can't toggle over to two-finger scrolling, or enable it via gpointing. i'm confused by it though b.c i know i have two finger scrolling when i boot into windows so the hardware itself supports it.

so i am wondering if it is the synaptic driver? or if there is some other way to enable "double" as a button?

[AlbertP]

Please install the update to xserver-xorg-input-synaptics from Synaptic Package Manager in the menu (Status > Installed (upgradeable) at the left, right-click the package to mark for upgrading and then click Apply at the top).

[helgatheviking]

there don't seem to be any updates available, but i did run the update manager yesterday. as a side note, i got the information about the available buttons from: http://wiki.debian.org/SynapticsTouchpad and it suggested that you can emulate two finger scrolling with

Option "EmulateTwoFingerMinZ" "35"
Option "EmulateTwoFingerMinW" "8"

and that sort of works. i should reboot and check that it is still working.