Re: touchpads in Linux

From: David Efflandt (efflandt_at_xnet.com)
Date: 09/20/03 

Date: Sat, 20 Sep 2003 08:14:26 +0000 (UTC)

On Sat, 20 Sep 2003 03:11:18 GMT, Faheem Mitha <faheem@email.unc.edu> wrote:
> Dear people,
>
> I'm trying to find a good touchpad (as a standalone device) to use
> with Linux in the place of a regular mouse. After spending quite a lot
> of time surfing the web, I am more confused than ever.
>
> The best general reference I found
> http://www.tifaq.org/mice/touchpads.html
>
> The main touchpads available all seem to have the name Glidepoint. The
> major manufacturer of these appears to be Cirque, which has the
> Easycat, Smartcat etc. However, Cirque has also licensed the
> technology to Alps, which makes their own Glidepoint.
>
> If you are using one of these products under Linux, I'd be greatly
> obliged if you could tell me how well it works, and whether you would
> recommend it for use under Linux. Thanks.
>
> Please feel free to cc any reply to my email address if you wish.
>
> Faheem.

I have an old 3-button Alps Desktop Glidepoint (not sure if Alps is still
selling them). You only need to tell to tell gpm (for console) or X that
it is a Glidepoint if you want to use special features (double-tap to
select). Otherwise it works fine without doing anything special if you do
not what or need the double-tap. Although, I guess my SuSE 8.2 recognized
it during install and put this in its XF86Config:

Section "InputDevice"
  Driver "mouse"
  Identifier "Mouse[1]"
  Option "Device" "/dev/psaux"
  Option "InputFashion" "Mouse"
  Option "Name" "PS/2-Mouse;GlidePointPS/2"
  Option "Protocol" "GlidePointPS/2"
  Option "ZAxisMapping" "4 5"
EndSection

I also have a 2-button Fellows Glidepoint - Standard Touchpad 99840 which
seems to have internal circuitry for the double tap to select. I do not
recall if this is from Cirque. In SuSE 7.3 it works fine as a totally
standard ps/2 mouse (Emulate3Buttons is needed because it only has 2):

Section "InputDevice"
  Driver "mouse"
  Identifier "Mouse[1]"
  Option "Device" "/dev/psaux"
  Option "Emulate3Buttons" "on"
  Option "Emulate3Timeout" "50"
  Option "InputFashion" "Mouse"
  Option "Name" "AutoDetected"
  Option "Protocol" "ps/2"
  Option "Vendor" "AutoDetected"
EndSection

The built-in touchpad on my laptop works just like the Fellows as standard
ps/2 mouse (SuSE 8.0):

Section "InputDevice"
  Driver "mouse"
  Identifier "Mouse[1]"
  Option "ButtonNumber" "2"
  Option "Device" "/dev/mouse"
  Option "Emulate3Buttons" "on"
  Option "Name" "AutoDetected"
  Option "Protocol" "ps/2"
  Option "Vendor" "AutoDetected"
EndSection 

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