[sort of SOLVED] Irregular scroll with synaptics touchpad

[nestorturailla]

Hi,

I have been experiencing irregular vertical scroll with the touchpad for a couple of days or so. It has the vertical scroll at the right edge activated, but it works very bad: scrolling is very irregular, and therefore becomes useless. Sometimes it scrolls, sometimes it does not: for example, with one downwards movement on the right edge it might generate between 0 and 5 scroll down events. If I start pressing the finger on the right edge, the cursor does not move (which is OK if it has to scroll) but most of the time it doesn't scroll. Also, it doesn't seem to be a problem of sensitivity at this zone, because if I start pressing on the middle of the touchpad and then I move to the right, the cursor moves perfectly until I reach the physical right edge of the touchpad. Also, under Windows I don't have this problem.

This has been happening since one of the software updates, but I can't tell which one: I thought I'd be able to solve the problem by myself, so I went on using the computer and adding more updates since then.
I am using Linux Mint Debian Edition (LMDE) with the Debian repos (no update packs, therefore).
This seems to be a problem with Xorg and not my particular desktop: I am currently using LXDE + compiz but I have also installed Gnome 3, XFCE, and Enlightenment, and at least Gnome and XFCE show exactly the same behaviour.

Looking for a solution, I have found people for whom scroll didn't work at all, but that seem to be a configuration problem, where scroll was actually disabled. That's not my case: it is enabled, it just works very irregularly.

I will also say that some time ago (maybe two months? I can't remember precisely), the touchpad used to work quite bad: even cursor movement was irregular, but after a kernel upgrade, this issue was "miraculously" solved, and the touchpad worked flawlessly until now.

If it might help, I'll put here various configurations:

content of /usr/share/X11/xorg.conf.d/50-synaptics.conf

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nestor@tort-mint:~$ cat /usr/share/X11/xorg.conf.d/50-synaptics.conf 
# Example xorg.conf.d snippet that assigns the touchpad driver
# to all touchpads. See xorg.conf.d(5) for more information on
# InputClass.
# DO NOT EDIT THIS FILE, your distribution will likely overwrite
# it when updating. Copy (and rename) this file into
# /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d first.
# Additional options may be added in the form of
#   Option "OptionName" "value"
#
Section "InputClass"
        Identifier "touchpad catchall"
        Driver "synaptics"
        MatchIsTouchpad "on"
# This option is recommend on all Linux systems using evdev, but cannot be
# enabled by default. See the following link for details:
# http://who-t.blogspot.com/2010/11/how-to-ignore-configuration-errors.html
#       MatchDevicePath "/dev/input/event*"
EndSection

Section "InputClass"
        Identifier "touchpad ignore duplicates"
        MatchIsTouchpad "on"
        MatchOS "Linux"
        MatchDevicePath "/dev/input/mouse*"
        Option "Ignore" "on"
EndSection

Result of command synclient -l (which shows all possible configurations and values for synaptics touchpad):

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Parameter settings:
    LeftEdge                = 1752
    RightEdge               = 5192
    TopEdge                 = 1620
    BottomEdge              = 4236
    FingerLow               = 25
    FingerHigh              = 30
    FingerPress             = 256
    MaxTapTime              = 180
    MaxTapMove              = 221
    MaxDoubleTapTime        = 180
    SingleTapTimeout        = 180
    ClickTime               = 100
    FastTaps                = 0
    EmulateMidButtonTime    = 75
    EmulateTwoFingerMinZ    = 282
    EmulateTwoFingerMinW    = 7
    VertScrollDelta         = 100
    HorizScrollDelta        = 100
    VertEdgeScroll          = 1
    HorizEdgeScroll         = 0
    CornerCoasting          = 0
    VertTwoFingerScroll     = 0
    HorizTwoFingerScroll    = 0
    MinSpeed                = 1
    MaxSpeed                = 1.75
    AccelFactor             = 0.0398089
    TrackstickSpeed         = 40
    EdgeMotionMinZ          = 30
    EdgeMotionMaxZ          = 160
    EdgeMotionMinSpeed      = 1
    EdgeMotionMaxSpeed      = 401
    EdgeMotionUseAlways     = 0
    TouchpadOff             = 0
    LockedDrags             = 0
    LockedDragTimeout       = 5000
    RTCornerButton          = 0
    RBCornerButton          = 0
    LTCornerButton          = 0
    LBCornerButton          = 0
    TapButton1              = 0
    TapButton2              = 0
    TapButton3              = 0
    ClickFinger1            = 1
    ClickFinger2            = 1
    ClickFinger3            = 1
    CircularScrolling       = 0
    CircScrollDelta         = 0.1
    CircScrollTrigger       = 0
    CircularPad             = 0
    PalmDetect              = 0
    PalmMinWidth            = 10
    PalmMinZ                = 200
    CoastingSpeed           = 20
    CoastingFriction        = 50
    PressureMotionMinZ      = 30
    PressureMotionMaxZ      = 160
    PressureMotionMinFactor = 1
    PressureMotionMaxFactor = 1
    GrabEventDevice         = 1
    TapAndDragGesture       = 1
    AreaLeftEdge            = 0
    AreaRightEdge           = 0
    AreaTopEdge             = 0
    AreaBottomEdge          = 0
    HorizHysteresis         = 25
    VertHysteresis          = 25
    ClickPad                = 0

Note VertEdgeScroll = 1, so it is activated.
I have also tried disabling and reenabling vertical scroll with programs such as gpointing-device-settings, to no avail.
I am starting to be a little bit lost with this issue. Could it be a bad interaction between the driver and the hardware, or maybe IRQ problems?
I amb using kernel 3.2.0-2-amd64 and I have suspected some IRQ problems from time to time, but have never really found anything serious. Also, I suppose it shouldn't matter, but I am using the proprietary ATI video driver.

The part in /var/log/Xorg.0.log where the synaptics driver is loaded has the following trace:

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[  9119.638] (II) config/udev: Adding input device SynPS/2 Synaptics TouchPad (/dev/input/event8)
[  9119.638] (**) SynPS/2 Synaptics TouchPad: Applying InputClass "evdev touchpad catchall"
[  9119.638] (**) SynPS/2 Synaptics TouchPad: Applying InputClass "touchpad catchall"
[  9119.638] (II) LoadModule: "synaptics"
[  9119.639] (II) Loading /usr/lib/xorg/modules/input/synaptics_drv.so
[  9119.639] (II) Module synaptics: vendor="X.Org Foundation"
[  9119.639]    compiled for 1.11.4, module version = 1.5.99
[  9119.639]    Module class: X.Org XInput Driver
[  9119.639]    ABI class: X.Org XInput driver, version 13.0
[  9119.639] (II) Using input driver 'synaptics' for 'SynPS/2 Synaptics TouchPad'
[  9119.639] (II) Loading /usr/lib/xorg/modules/input/synaptics_drv.so
[  9119.639] (**) SynPS/2 Synaptics TouchPad: always reports core events
[  9119.639] (**) Option "Device" "/dev/input/event8"
[  9119.664] (--) synaptics: SynPS/2 Synaptics TouchPad: x-axis range 1472 - 5472
[  9119.664] (--) synaptics: SynPS/2 Synaptics TouchPad: y-axis range 1408 - 4448
[  9119.664] (--) synaptics: SynPS/2 Synaptics TouchPad: pressure range 0 - 255
[  9119.664] (--) synaptics: SynPS/2 Synaptics TouchPad: finger width range 0 - 15
[  9119.664] (--) synaptics: SynPS/2 Synaptics TouchPad: buttons: left right
[  9119.664] (--) synaptics: SynPS/2 Synaptics TouchPad: Vendor 0x2 Product 0x7
[  9119.664] (--) synaptics: SynPS/2 Synaptics TouchPad: touchpad found
[  9119.664] (**) SynPS/2 Synaptics TouchPad: always reports core events
[  9119.672] (**) Option "config_info" "udev:/sys/devices/platform/i8042/serio4/input/input8/event8"
[  9119.672] (II) XINPUT: Adding extended input device "SynPS/2 Synaptics TouchPad" (type: TOUCHPAD, id 13)
[  9119.672] (**) synaptics: SynPS/2 Synaptics TouchPad: (accel) MinSpeed is now constant deceleration 2.5
[  9119.672] (**) synaptics: SynPS/2 Synaptics TouchPad: MaxSpeed is now 1.75
[  9119.672] (**) synaptics: SynPS/2 Synaptics TouchPad: AccelFactor is now 0.040
[  9119.672] (**) SynPS/2 Synaptics TouchPad: (accel) keeping acceleration scheme 1
[  9119.672] (**) SynPS/2 Synaptics TouchPad: (accel) acceleration profile 1
[  9119.672] (**) SynPS/2 Synaptics TouchPad: (accel) acceleration factor: 2.000
[  9119.672] (**) SynPS/2 Synaptics TouchPad: (accel) acceleration threshold: 4
[  9119.672] (--) synaptics: SynPS/2 Synaptics TouchPad: touchpad found
[  9119.673] (II) config/udev: Adding input device SynPS/2 Synaptics TouchPad (/dev/input/mouse0)
[  9119.673] (**) SynPS/2 Synaptics TouchPad: Ignoring device from InputClass "touchpad ignore duplicates"

My X.Org X Server is version 1.11.4

Does anyone experience a similar problem? Does anyone have any idea to help me solve this? Thanks in advance!

[dhardy]

Same problem. It seems like someone implemented acceleration or something (moving fingers slowly enough nothing happens), but it's darn annoying because I can't easily predict how much the screen will scroll by any more.

I'm running debian not Mint and have noticed it on the 3.2.0-2-amd64 kernel (not sure about previous 3.2, but 3.1 kernel was certainly fine).

[äxl]

You can set XServer's acceleration with
xset m 6/1 1 (numbers being my mouse setting - Acceleration/Sensivity Threshold)
Don't know if this will help with your problem.

[nestorturailla]

OK, I think I've found a way to more or less solve the problem.
I hadn't fiddled enough with the different settings that synclient can alter.
Although I'm not totally happy with how scroll works now, changing the value of VertScrollDelta to 20 makes it much more usable:

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synclient VertScrollDelta=20

I guess this can also be set in /usr/share/X11/xorg.conf.d/50-synaptics.conf
Thanks anyway!

[badmofo12345]

Just adding a me too type of post. I just updated my Debian Testing (Wheezy) tonight with an apt-get dist-upgrade, and I am experiencing the same exact problem. The VertScrollDelta work around described above is helpful, but definitely not a fix or solution.

I agree with the previous poster that it seems to be a sensitivity/threshold kind of issue. If you move your finger too slowly, nothing happens... It's quite annoying.

VertScrollDelta=15 seems to be a better setting for me (closer to my original behavior), but as I said before, DEFINITELY not a fix... it's still not right.

Here's my var/log/Xorg.0.log section relevant to the touchpad

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[    28.343] (II) config/udev: Adding input device AlpsPS/2 ALPS DualPoint TouchPad (/dev/input/event11)
[    28.343] (**) AlpsPS/2 ALPS DualPoint TouchPad: Applying InputClass "evdev touchpad catchall"
[    28.343] (**) AlpsPS/2 ALPS DualPoint TouchPad: Applying InputClass "touchpad catchall"
[    28.343] (II) LoadModule: "synaptics"
[    28.343] (II) Loading /usr/lib/xorg/modules/input/synaptics_drv.so
[    28.353] (II) Module synaptics: vendor="X.Org Foundation"
[    28.353] 	compiled for 1.11.4, module version = 1.5.99
[    28.353] 	Module class: X.Org XInput Driver
[    28.353] 	ABI class: X.Org XInput driver, version 13.0
[    28.353] (II) Using input driver 'synaptics' for 'AlpsPS/2 ALPS DualPoint TouchPad'
[    28.353] (II) Loading /usr/lib/xorg/modules/input/synaptics_drv.so
[    28.353] (**) AlpsPS/2 ALPS DualPoint TouchPad: always reports core events
[    28.353] (**) Option "Device" "/dev/input/event11"
[    28.404] (--) synaptics: AlpsPS/2 ALPS DualPoint TouchPad: x-axis range 0 - 1023
[    28.404] (--) synaptics: AlpsPS/2 ALPS DualPoint TouchPad: y-axis range 0 - 767
[    28.404] (--) synaptics: AlpsPS/2 ALPS DualPoint TouchPad: pressure range 0 - 127
[    28.404] (II) synaptics: AlpsPS/2 ALPS DualPoint TouchPad: device does not report finger width.
[    28.404] (--) synaptics: AlpsPS/2 ALPS DualPoint TouchPad: buttons: left right middle
[    28.404] (--) synaptics: AlpsPS/2 ALPS DualPoint TouchPad: Vendor 0x2 Product 0x8
[    28.404] (--) synaptics: AlpsPS/2 ALPS DualPoint TouchPad: invalid finger width range.  defaulting to 0 - 15
[    28.404] (--) synaptics: AlpsPS/2 ALPS DualPoint TouchPad: touchpad found
[    28.404] (**) AlpsPS/2 ALPS DualPoint TouchPad: always reports core events
[    28.432] (**) Option "config_info" "udev:/sys/devices/platform/i8042/serio1/input/input11/event11"
[    28.432] (II) XINPUT: Adding extended input device "AlpsPS/2 ALPS DualPoint TouchPad" (type: TOUCHPAD, id 11)
[    28.432] (**) synaptics: AlpsPS/2 ALPS DualPoint TouchPad: (accel) MinSpeed is now constant deceleration 2.5
[    28.432] (**) synaptics: AlpsPS/2 ALPS DualPoint TouchPad: MaxSpeed is now 1.75
[    28.432] (**) synaptics: AlpsPS/2 ALPS DualPoint TouchPad: AccelFactor is now 0.156
[    28.432] (**) AlpsPS/2 ALPS DualPoint TouchPad: (accel) keeping acceleration scheme 1
[    28.432] (**) AlpsPS/2 ALPS DualPoint TouchPad: (accel) acceleration profile 1
[    28.432] (**) AlpsPS/2 ALPS DualPoint TouchPad: (accel) acceleration factor: 2.000
[    28.432] (**) AlpsPS/2 ALPS DualPoint TouchPad: (accel) acceleration threshold: 4
[    28.432] (--) synaptics: AlpsPS/2 ALPS DualPoint TouchPad: touchpad found
[    28.432] (II) config/udev: Adding input device AlpsPS/2 ALPS DualPoint TouchPad (/dev/input/mouse1)
[    28.432] (**) AlpsPS/2 ALPS DualPoint TouchPad: Ignoring device from InputClass "touchpad ignore duplicates"

Also, I'm not an expert at Xorg, so I'm not sure if this is normal behavior or not, but it looks like it's detecting it twice:

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[    28.343] (II) config/udev: Adding input device AlpsPS/2 ALPS DualPoint TouchPad (/dev/input/event11)
[    28.343] (**) AlpsPS/2 ALPS DualPoint TouchPad: Applying InputClass "evdev touchpad catchall"
[    28.343] (**) AlpsPS/2 ALPS DualPoint TouchPad: Applying InputClass "touchpad catchall"
...
[    28.432] (II) config/udev: Adding input device AlpsPS/2 ALPS DualPoint TouchPad (/dev/input/mouse1)
[    28.432] (**) AlpsPS/2 ALPS DualPoint TouchPad: Ignoring device from InputClass "touchpad ignore duplicates"

Looking at the original poster's xorg.0.log, his looks like it's doing the same thing...

[badmofo12345]

Update:

I just found this
http://lists.debian.org/debian-x/2012/03/msg00285.html

Looks like the problem is with synaptics driver 1.5.99 (which is the version that you and I both have). That guy claims that downgrading to 1.5.0 fixes the problem, whereas booting into an old kernel has no effect. I'm going to downgrade to 1.5.0 and report back if it's better. I'll also report my Xorg.0.log to see if there are any differences there.

Edit:
Alright, I got it installed...

Anyway, I can confirm that downgrading to 1.5.0 fixes the problem 100%, even with the VertScrollDelta=25 default setting...

I did this by downloading the 1.5.0 source, installing the build-deps, making a package out of it with dh_make and dpkg-buildpackage, and installing the package with dpkg -i.:

If you already have a .deb file you want to use, go ahead and use that instead. If you need to compile from source, here's how I did it.
Step 1)
Download a source tarball
https://launchpad.net/debian/sid/+sourc ... -synaptics
There's a list of the different versions available. I used 1.5.0-1. I also didn't bother to patch it because I was lazy, and it's a simple touchpad driver... what's the worst that could happen? (famous last words.....) Really though, you should patch it, and you should probably also use 1.5.0-2 for that matter... but oh well, that's a different topic.

Step 2)
Assuming you downloaded the same tarball I did, you will have the file
xserver-xorg-input-synaptics_1.5.0.orig.tar.gz
(If you used a different file, take note of the file name.)
extract the contents like so

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tar -xvzf xserver-xorg-input-synaptics_1.5.0.orig.tar.gz

That should extract it to a directory called

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./xf86-input-synaptics-1.5.0/

If you don't plan on using dh_make and dpkg-buildpackage, then I guess you could leave that directory name alone... but if you want to make an easily installable/upgradable/removable .deb package file, you'll want to rename that directory to xserver-xorg-input-synaptics-1.5.0/

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mv ./xf86-input-synaptics-1.5.0/ ./xserver-xorg-input-synaptics-1.5.0/

Basically, you want the name of the directory to be the same name as the tarball...

The reason for this is that dh_make uses the directory name to name the software provided, and it will name it incorrectly (and thus give you an error while trying to install it) if you use the xf86 name. Also the name of the directory must match the name of the tarball.

Step 3)
(Assuming you already have installed the appropriate build essentials/compiler/etc at some point in the past... I won't go over that here)
Install build dependencies for the specific package we want to make

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sudo apt-get build-dep xserver-xorg-input-synaptics

Install dh_make (take note that the package name is dh-make and not dh_make)

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sudo apt-get install dh-make

Step 4)
Compile the software, create a .deb binary, and install said .deb binary.

Enter the working directory, run the configure script, run dh_make (and use ingle binary mode), run dpkg-buildpackage (all as a regular user), and finally, install the package (as root):

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cd xserver-xorg-input-synaptics-1.5.0
./configure
dh_make
dpkg-buildpackage

Finally, we change directory up one level (this is where the .deb binary should be), and install it

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cd ..
sudo dpkg -i xserver-xorg-input-synaptics_1.5.0-1_amd64.deb

(Assuming you made an amd64 binary... which is probably going to cover a majority of the people out there.

Successful output:

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sudo dpkg -i xserver-xorg-input-synaptics_1.5.0-1_amd64.deb 
dpkg: warning: downgrading xserver-xorg-input-synaptics from 1.5.99.901-1 to 1.5.0-1.
(Reading database ... 162455 files and directories currently installed.)
Preparing to replace xserver-xorg-input-synaptics 1.5.99.901-1 (using xserver-xorg-input-synaptics_1.5.0-1_amd64.deb) ...
Unpacking replacement xserver-xorg-input-synaptics ...
Setting up xserver-xorg-input-synaptics (1.5.0-1) ...
Processing triggers for man-db ...

That should do it! You should now be downgraded to 1.5.0-1, and after restarting X, your touchpad should be happy again . Also, because you let the package management handle everything rather than just running "make install", it will be easy to upgrade in the future (once it's upgraded to a newer version that works right!) simply by running

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sudo apt-get install xserver-xorg-input-synaptics

I mean, theoretically, that should work anyway, even if you didn't use dh_make and dpkg-buildpackage... but I like doing it that way anyway, and letting the package manager handle the whole ordeal. Plus, you now have a handy little known-working binary that you can keep filed away somewhere in case you ever have a similar problem in the future.

Here's my output of Xorg.0.log after downgrading:

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[    27.077] (II) config/udev: Adding input device AlpsPS/2 ALPS DualPoint TouchPad (/dev/input/event8)
[    27.077] (**) AlpsPS/2 ALPS DualPoint TouchPad: Applying InputClass "evdev touchpad catchall"
[    27.077] (**) AlpsPS/2 ALPS DualPoint TouchPad: Applying InputClass "touchpad catchall"
[    27.077] (II) LoadModule: "synaptics"
[    27.077] (II) Loading /usr/lib/xorg/modules/input/synaptics_drv.so
[    27.088] (II) Module synaptics: vendor="X.Org Foundation"
[    27.088] 	compiled for 1.11.4, module version = 1.5.0
[    27.088] 	Module class: X.Org XInput Driver
[    27.088] 	ABI class: X.Org XInput driver, version 13.0
[    27.088] (II) Using input driver 'synaptics' for 'AlpsPS/2 ALPS DualPoint TouchPad'
[    27.088] (II) Loading /usr/lib/xorg/modules/input/synaptics_drv.so
[    27.088] (**) AlpsPS/2 ALPS DualPoint TouchPad: always reports core events
[    27.088] (**) Option "Device" "/dev/input/event8"
[    27.104] (--) synaptics: AlpsPS/2 ALPS DualPoint TouchPad: x-axis range 0 - 1023
[    27.104] (--) synaptics: AlpsPS/2 ALPS DualPoint TouchPad: y-axis range 0 - 767
[    27.104] (--) synaptics: AlpsPS/2 ALPS DualPoint TouchPad: pressure range 0 - 127
[    27.104] (II) synaptics: AlpsPS/2 ALPS DualPoint TouchPad: device does not report finger width.
[    27.104] (--) synaptics: AlpsPS/2 ALPS DualPoint TouchPad: buttons: left right middle
[    27.104] (--) synaptics: AlpsPS/2 ALPS DualPoint TouchPad: Vendor 0x2 Product 0x8
[    27.104] (--) synaptics: AlpsPS/2 ALPS DualPoint TouchPad: invalid finger width range.  defaulting to 0 - 15
[    27.108] (--) synaptics: AlpsPS/2 ALPS DualPoint TouchPad: touchpad found
[    27.108] (**) AlpsPS/2 ALPS DualPoint TouchPad: always reports core events
[    27.116] (**) Option "config_info" "udev:/sys/devices/platform/i8042/serio1/input/input8/event8"
[    27.116] (II) XINPUT: Adding extended input device "AlpsPS/2 ALPS DualPoint TouchPad" (type: TOUCHPAD, id 11)
[    27.116] (**) synaptics: AlpsPS/2 ALPS DualPoint TouchPad: (accel) MinSpeed is now constant deceleration 2.5
[    27.116] (**) synaptics: AlpsPS/2 ALPS DualPoint TouchPad: MaxSpeed is now 1.75
[    27.116] (**) synaptics: AlpsPS/2 ALPS DualPoint TouchPad: AccelFactor is now 0.156
[    27.116] (**) AlpsPS/2 ALPS DualPoint TouchPad: (accel) keeping acceleration scheme 1
[    27.116] (**) AlpsPS/2 ALPS DualPoint TouchPad: (accel) acceleration profile 1
[    27.116] (**) AlpsPS/2 ALPS DualPoint TouchPad: (accel) acceleration factor: 2.000
[    27.116] (**) AlpsPS/2 ALPS DualPoint TouchPad: (accel) acceleration threshold: 4
[    27.116] (--) synaptics: AlpsPS/2 ALPS DualPoint TouchPad: touchpad found
[    27.116] (II) config/udev: Adding input device AlpsPS/2 ALPS DualPoint TouchPad (/dev/input/mouse1)
[    27.116] (**) AlpsPS/2 ALPS DualPoint TouchPad: Ignoring device from InputClass "touchpad ignore duplicates"

Still seems like it's detected twice:

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[    27.077] (II) config/udev: Adding input device AlpsPS/2 ALPS DualPoint TouchPad (/dev/input/event8)
[    27.077] (**) AlpsPS/2 ALPS DualPoint TouchPad: Applying InputClass "evdev touchpad catchall"
[    27.077] (**) AlpsPS/2 ALPS DualPoint TouchPad: Applying InputClass "touchpad catchall"
..
[    27.116] (--) synaptics: AlpsPS/2 ALPS DualPoint TouchPad: touchpad found
[    27.116] (II) config/udev: Adding input device AlpsPS/2 ALPS DualPoint TouchPad (/dev/input/mouse1)
[    27.116] (**) AlpsPS/2 ALPS DualPoint TouchPad: Ignoring device from InputClass "touchpad ignore duplicates"

So, I guess that's not the problem.

The developers have been notified of the problem, so it should be fixed in a future release, but in the meantime, I can confirm that 1.5.0 fixes it completely.

[äxl]

Just out of interest: Where do you have 1.5.99 from?
This is the package xserver-xorg-input-synaptics, right? Because even in testing I only have version 1.5.0-2

[nestorturailla]

My /etc/apt/sources.list points to the following repos:

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deb http://packages.linuxmint.com/ debian main upstream import
deb-src http://packages.linuxmint.com/ debian main upstream import #Added by software-properties
deb http://ftp.fr.debian.org/debian testing main contrib non-free
deb http://security.debian.org/ testing/updates main contrib non-free
deb http://www.debian-multimedia.org testing main non-free

My xserver-xorg-input-syanptics is indeed version 1.5.99.901-1
Since I have been living on LMDE for quite a time now, and have switched to update packs and back, I'm not sure now that these are the repos that a LMDE user is supposed to have. I think I took them from one quite official post either on this forum or the Linux Mint Blog.

[badmofo12345]

Just out of interest: Where do you have 1.5.99 from?
This is the package xserver-xorg-input-synaptics, right? Because even in testing I only have version 1.5.0-2

I got it in my most recent software update from the official Debian repos. I can't speak for LMDE, as I said before, I am using regular Debian "Wheezy" Testing. If you are using LMDE, and you aren't pointing your sources.list to the official Debian repos, maybe that's why you don't have it. Not sure if it is in the LMDE repos or only the regular Debian repos, as I know that the LMDE developers hold some packages back from the LMDE repos.

Here are the versions for the different Debian distros:

Debian Stable "Squeeze"
http://packages.debian.org/squeeze/xser ... -synaptics
1.2.2-2 <- most likely unaffected

Debian Testing "Wheezy"
http://packages.debian.org/wheezy/xserv ... -synaptics
1.5.99.901-1 <- affected

Debian Unstable "Sid"
http://packages.debian.org/sid/xserver- ... -synaptics
1.5.99.902-1 <- affected

If you are truly using (regular) Debian Testing, then I would be wary the next time you do a software update... avoid updating to 1.5.99* for the time being, because it's definitely out there.

My /etc/apt/sources.list points to the following repos:

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deb http://packages.linuxmint.com/ debian main upstream import
deb-src http://packages.linuxmint.com/ debian main upstream import #Added by software-properties
deb http://ftp.fr.debian.org/debian testing main contrib non-free
deb http://security.debian.org/ testing/updates main contrib non-free
deb http://www.debian-multimedia.org testing main non-free

My xserver-xorg-input-syanptics is indeed version 1.5.99.901-1
Since I have been living on LMDE for quite a time now, and have switched to update packs and back, I'm not sure now that these are the repos that a LMDE user is supposed to have. I think I took them from one quite official post either on this forum or the Linux Mint Blog.

You probably got the update from one of the official Debian repos listed in your sources.list (the 3rd line in your sources.list most likely).

I successfully got mine downgraded to 1.5.0 the other night, so if you need help with it, let me know and I can walk you through it. It isn't that difficult, and it solves the problem 100%. I already glossed over the steps in my last post, but if you need more help than that, just let me know.

Update:
I edited my above post ( http://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.p ... 12#p564387 ) to include step by step directions that should be easy to follow. Let me know if it works for you.

[äxl]

Instead of building I would just take the official repositories for LMDE:
http://blog.linuxmint.com/?p=1836

[badmofo12345]

Instead of building I would just take the official repositories for LMDE:
http://blog.linuxmint.com/?p=1836

Again, my instructions are not specific to LMDE... they are specific to regular Debian. Debian has already purged the 1.5.0 binary from their repos. I'm not sure if LMDE still has it available in their repos or not, but I know that Debian does not...

I realize that this is an LMDE specific board, but my method listed above should work just fine with both Debian and LMDE if the binary isn't available.

If the binary IS available, then of course, I recommend that method. I think I mentioned this before my instructions in the post above, actually.

[äxl]

I think I mentioned this before my instructions in the post above, actually.

I just didn't read it. Mea culpa. I just have not touchpad and am a fiend of building.

So this was just for my fellow LMDEs. I would still recommend the availabe version.
And what about the backports version?
http://packages.debian.org/squeeze-back ... -synaptics
1.4.1-1 <- ?

Unstable and experimental also have 1.4.0-1 - though I wouldn't recommend that.

[badmofo12345]

I think I mentioned this before my instructions in the post above, actually.

I just didn't read it. Mea culpa. I just have not touchpad and am a fiend of building.

So this was just for my fellow LMDEs. I would still recommend the availabe version.
And what about the backports version?
http://packages.debian.org/squeeze-back ... -synaptics
1.4.1-1 <- ?

Unstable and experimental also have 1.4.0-1 - though I wouldn't recommend that.

I agree with you 100%. If you have a binary that will work for you, then use that by all means.

I tried to install 1.2.2 and also 1.4.1-1 from binary, and both failed because of dependency issues (other xserver packages had been updated when I ran the dist-upgrade, and these older versions of the xserver-xorg-input-synaptics driver required older versions of other xserver packages). I didn't want to downgrade a bunch of other xserver packages, so I bit the bullet and built 1.5.0 from source.

By all means, give the binaries a whirl first. Much easier and pain-free .

If you get stuck like I did, and need to build the software, then my directions above should work. They did for me, at least .

Hope all this helps someone.

Also, I apologize for cluttering up an LMDE forum with a Debian specific issue, but when I was searching for this issue the other night, this was one of the few places (other than mailing lists) that I actually found a relevant thread about it. I probably should have put this in a Debian specific forum, but hopefully anybody googling for this issue will find this fix.

[äxl]

Hope all this helps someone.
...hopefully anybody googling for this issue will find this fix.

And I hope it's much appreciated! That's the spirit.

[nestorturailla]

Update:

I just found this
http://lists.debian.org/debian-x/2012/03/msg00285.html

Looks like the problem is with synaptics driver 1.5.99 (which is the version that you and I both have). That guy claims that downgrading to 1.5.0 fixes the problem, whereas booting into an old kernel has no effect. I'm going to downgrade to 1.5.0 and report back if it's better. I'll also report my Xorg.0.log to see if there are any differences there.

Edit:
Alright, I got it installed...

Anyway, I can confirm that downgrading to 1.5.0 fixes the problem 100%, even with the VertScrollDelta=25 default setting...

I did this by downloading the 1.5.0 source, installing the build-deps, making a package out of it with dh_make and dpkg-buildpackage, and installing the package with dpkg -i.:

If you already have a .deb file you want to use, go ahead and use that instead. If you need to compile from source, here's how I did it.
Step 1)
Download a source tarball
https://launchpad.net/debian/sid/+sourc ... -synaptics
There's a list of the different versions available. I used 1.5.0-1. I also didn't bother to patch it because I was lazy, and it's a simple touchpad driver... what's the worst that could happen? (famous last words.....) Really though, you should patch it, and you should probably also use 1.5.0-2 for that matter... but oh well, that's a different topic.

Step 2)
Assuming you downloaded the same tarball I did, you will have the file
xserver-xorg-input-synaptics_1.5.0.orig.tar.gz
(If you used a different file, take note of the file name.)
extract the contents like so

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tar -xvzf xserver-xorg-input-synaptics_1.5.0.orig.tar.gz

That should extract it to a directory called

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./xf86-input-synaptics-1.5.0/

If you don't plan on using dh_make and dpkg-buildpackage, then I guess you could leave that directory name alone... but if you want to make an easily installable/upgradable/removable .deb package file, you'll want to rename that directory to xserver-xorg-input-synaptics-1.5.0/

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mv ./xf86-input-synaptics-1.5.0/ ./xserver-xorg-input-synaptics-1.5.0/

Basically, you want the name of the directory to be the same name as the tarball...

The reason for this is that dh_make uses the directory name to name the software provided, and it will name it incorrectly (and thus give you an error while trying to install it) if you use the xf86 name. Also the name of the directory must match the name of the tarball.

Step 3)
(Assuming you already have installed the appropriate build essentials/compiler/etc at some point in the past... I won't go over that here)
Install build dependencies for the specific package we want to make

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sudo apt-get build-dep xserver-xorg-input-synaptics

Install dh_make (take note that the package name is dh-make and not dh_make)

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sudo apt-get install dh-make

Step 4)
Compile the software, create a .deb binary, and install said .deb binary.

Enter the working directory, run the configure script, run dh_make (and use ingle binary mode), run dpkg-buildpackage (all as a regular user), and finally, install the package (as root):

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cd xserver-xorg-input-synaptics-1.5.0
./configure
dh_make
dpkg-buildpackage

Finally, we change directory up one level (this is where the .deb binary should be), and install it

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cd ..
sudo dpkg -i xserver-xorg-input-synaptics_1.5.0-1_amd64.deb

(Assuming you made an amd64 binary... which is probably going to cover a majority of the people out there.

Successful output:

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sudo dpkg -i xserver-xorg-input-synaptics_1.5.0-1_amd64.deb 
dpkg: warning: downgrading xserver-xorg-input-synaptics from 1.5.99.901-1 to 1.5.0-1.
(Reading database ... 162455 files and directories currently installed.)
Preparing to replace xserver-xorg-input-synaptics 1.5.99.901-1 (using xserver-xorg-input-synaptics_1.5.0-1_amd64.deb) ...
Unpacking replacement xserver-xorg-input-synaptics ...
Setting up xserver-xorg-input-synaptics (1.5.0-1) ...
Processing triggers for man-db ...

That should do it! You should now be downgraded to 1.5.0-1, and after restarting X, your touchpad should be happy again . Also, because you let the package management handle everything rather than just running "make install", it will be easy to upgrade in the future (once it's upgraded to a newer version that works right!) simply by running

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sudo apt-get install xserver-xorg-input-synaptics

I mean, theoretically, that should work anyway, even if you didn't use dh_make and dpkg-buildpackage... but I like doing it that way anyway, and letting the package manager handle the whole ordeal. Plus, you now have a handy little known-working binary that you can keep filed away somewhere in case you ever have a similar problem in the future.

Here's my output of Xorg.0.log after downgrading:

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[    27.077] (II) config/udev: Adding input device AlpsPS/2 ALPS DualPoint TouchPad (/dev/input/event8)
[    27.077] (**) AlpsPS/2 ALPS DualPoint TouchPad: Applying InputClass "evdev touchpad catchall"
[    27.077] (**) AlpsPS/2 ALPS DualPoint TouchPad: Applying InputClass "touchpad catchall"
[    27.077] (II) LoadModule: "synaptics"
[    27.077] (II) Loading /usr/lib/xorg/modules/input/synaptics_drv.so
[    27.088] (II) Module synaptics: vendor="X.Org Foundation"
[    27.088] 	compiled for 1.11.4, module version = 1.5.0
[    27.088] 	Module class: X.Org XInput Driver
[    27.088] 	ABI class: X.Org XInput driver, version 13.0
[    27.088] (II) Using input driver 'synaptics' for 'AlpsPS/2 ALPS DualPoint TouchPad'
[    27.088] (II) Loading /usr/lib/xorg/modules/input/synaptics_drv.so
[    27.088] (**) AlpsPS/2 ALPS DualPoint TouchPad: always reports core events
[    27.088] (**) Option "Device" "/dev/input/event8"
[    27.104] (--) synaptics: AlpsPS/2 ALPS DualPoint TouchPad: x-axis range 0 - 1023
[    27.104] (--) synaptics: AlpsPS/2 ALPS DualPoint TouchPad: y-axis range 0 - 767
[    27.104] (--) synaptics: AlpsPS/2 ALPS DualPoint TouchPad: pressure range 0 - 127
[    27.104] (II) synaptics: AlpsPS/2 ALPS DualPoint TouchPad: device does not report finger width.
[    27.104] (--) synaptics: AlpsPS/2 ALPS DualPoint TouchPad: buttons: left right middle
[    27.104] (--) synaptics: AlpsPS/2 ALPS DualPoint TouchPad: Vendor 0x2 Product 0x8
[    27.104] (--) synaptics: AlpsPS/2 ALPS DualPoint TouchPad: invalid finger width range.  defaulting to 0 - 15
[    27.108] (--) synaptics: AlpsPS/2 ALPS DualPoint TouchPad: touchpad found
[    27.108] (**) AlpsPS/2 ALPS DualPoint TouchPad: always reports core events
[    27.116] (**) Option "config_info" "udev:/sys/devices/platform/i8042/serio1/input/input8/event8"
[    27.116] (II) XINPUT: Adding extended input device "AlpsPS/2 ALPS DualPoint TouchPad" (type: TOUCHPAD, id 11)
[    27.116] (**) synaptics: AlpsPS/2 ALPS DualPoint TouchPad: (accel) MinSpeed is now constant deceleration 2.5
[    27.116] (**) synaptics: AlpsPS/2 ALPS DualPoint TouchPad: MaxSpeed is now 1.75
[    27.116] (**) synaptics: AlpsPS/2 ALPS DualPoint TouchPad: AccelFactor is now 0.156
[    27.116] (**) AlpsPS/2 ALPS DualPoint TouchPad: (accel) keeping acceleration scheme 1
[    27.116] (**) AlpsPS/2 ALPS DualPoint TouchPad: (accel) acceleration profile 1
[    27.116] (**) AlpsPS/2 ALPS DualPoint TouchPad: (accel) acceleration factor: 2.000
[    27.116] (**) AlpsPS/2 ALPS DualPoint TouchPad: (accel) acceleration threshold: 4
[    27.116] (--) synaptics: AlpsPS/2 ALPS DualPoint TouchPad: touchpad found
[    27.116] (II) config/udev: Adding input device AlpsPS/2 ALPS DualPoint TouchPad (/dev/input/mouse1)
[    27.116] (**) AlpsPS/2 ALPS DualPoint TouchPad: Ignoring device from InputClass "touchpad ignore duplicates"

Still seems like it's detected twice:

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[    27.077] (II) config/udev: Adding input device AlpsPS/2 ALPS DualPoint TouchPad (/dev/input/event8)
[    27.077] (**) AlpsPS/2 ALPS DualPoint TouchPad: Applying InputClass "evdev touchpad catchall"
[    27.077] (**) AlpsPS/2 ALPS DualPoint TouchPad: Applying InputClass "touchpad catchall"
..
[    27.116] (--) synaptics: AlpsPS/2 ALPS DualPoint TouchPad: touchpad found
[    27.116] (II) config/udev: Adding input device AlpsPS/2 ALPS DualPoint TouchPad (/dev/input/mouse1)
[    27.116] (**) AlpsPS/2 ALPS DualPoint TouchPad: Ignoring device from InputClass "touchpad ignore duplicates"

So, I guess that's not the problem.

The developers have been notified of the problem, so it should be fixed in a future release, but in the meantime, I can confirm that 1.5.0 fixes it completely.

badmofo, I have followed your instructions and, yes, now scroll works fine again . I had to do some small changes to your excellently detailed steps:
- This command

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sudo apt-get build-dep xserver-xorg-input-synaptics

threw the following error:

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E: No es pot trobar un paquet de fonts per a xserver-xorg-input-synaptics

(would be translated as "couldn't find source package for xserver-xorg-input-synaptics" more or less)

However, manually installing xserver-xorg-dev (and its dependencies) allowed to successfully execute ./configure in step 4.

So thanks, it worked perfectly!

(for other users who might want to try this workaround: trying to execute ./configure without xserver-xorg-dev threw the following error after some successful steps:

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checking if RANDR is defined... no
checking for XORG... no
configure: error: Package requirements (xorg-server >= 1.6 xproto inputproto ) were not met:

No package 'xorg-server' found

)

[badmofo12345]

Awesome! I'm glad I could help!