Add hardware functionality to Synaptics

Issues related to hardware problems
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tjw344c
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Add hardware functionality to Synaptics

Post by tjw344c » 2011/07/11 19:12:13

I am trying to use a synaptics touchpad that has multitouch support. The version of synaptics being used by centos 6 is currently xorg-x11-drv-synaptics-1.2.1-5.el6.x86_64 . The touchpad option in gnome for 2 finger scrolling is greyed out. when set to 2 in gconf-settings it does not work either. I wanted to upgrade synaptics to a more current version /xorg-x11-drv-synaptics-1.4.0.901-1.fc15.x86_64 . This requires a higher version of xorg. I want to add this functionality to centos 6 without using a script workaround. I do not want to alter the function of the current version. I wish to upgrade to a higher version in hopes that it will fix the issue. I have looked around in different forums for many different distros to find a solution, and it seems that this is the best one. I read it might be a kernel issue as well.

I don't know why the touchpad shows up in lsusb and not in lspci?

touchpad:
Bus 003 Device 004: ID 413c:8158 Dell Computer Corp. Integrated Touchpad / Trackstick

kernel:
kernel-2.6.32-71.29.1.el6.centos.plus.x86_64
kernel-devel-2.6.32-71.29.1.el6.centos.plus.x86_64
kernel-firmware-2.6.32-71.29.1.el6.centos.plus.noarch
kernel-headers-2.6.32-71.29.1.el6.centos.plus.x86_64

will upgrading synaptics and xorg give me problems with contos 6?
Any Ideas?

tjw344c
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Re: Add hardware functionality to Synaptics

Post by tjw344c » 2011/07/13 00:07:58

I read in forum guidelines to bump the post if I did not receive any help. I guess this is what it means.
I have continued to mess with the touchpad controls. I have removed synaptics and the xorg driver packages, then reinstalled them, hoping that it would recognize my hardware this time around. No Luck.
I looked into compiling gsynaptics for myself, but determined that this would interfere with the preinstalled synaptics and would also not be updated by yum. So I decided against it.
The previous post still seems like the best option.
Any Ideas?

tjw344c
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Re: Add hardware functionality to Synaptics

Post by tjw344c » 2011/07/14 03:05:13

Well....I's still working on solving this problem. It seems that newer versions of Xorg rely on udev to detect the input devices instead of HAL which is what the current version for centos 6 uses. This would explain why two finger scrolling works out of the box on the many other distros that I have used (arch, fedora, ubuntu, mint, gentoo, slackware, debian testing, etc.). It also explains why it didn't work in RHEL 6.01. I contacted their crew about it, and they decided that my case wasn't good because I didn't have a subscription, only a trial version (why I ended with CentOS). Even though I have set up and learned several distros, even FreeBSD, I have not run one that uses old packages such as centos. I seem to always end up with systems that run the most update software available. I am scared to mix in a newer version of xorg, fearing that all the other packages I have would need to be upgraded to be compliant (not sure?). This might leave my system in a mixed state as the repos for cent os (basically all the ones on the centos repo wiki) have versions specifiaclly for centos 6. I would have new xorg and old "other files" and be stuck with no updates. If I updated everything, I might as well be running another distro.
Please help.
I would like to know any opinions on what effects upgrading xorg would do to my system.

Also, when I accidentally touch the touchpad with another finger, the mouse skips all over the screen. This is annoying.

tjw344c
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Re: Add hardware functionality to Synaptics

Post by tjw344c » 2011/07/17 22:26:56

Does anybody have any input on this. I cannot be the only one who has issues with not being able to use two fingers to scroll. It is a definite productivity increaser for me as I can use the whole touchpad without worrying if the page will scroll. Also, to scroll it is not necessary to find the sweet spot on your touchpad, just put two fingers on it and go. I might go ahead and try upgrading xorg. I would really like some input before I do though. I don't know enough about how it will interact with other programs in CentOS. I would run yum "check-update" or "yum provides", but they won't tell me the programs that depend on it. Besides, I think basically every gui package depends on xorg.
Please Help


Well this is what I'm gonna do. Im gonna try to set up a repository from an xorg mirror. Then set the priority of that repo to be equal to CentOS priorities. Hopefully it will update xorg and all xorg related drivers inputs etc. Hopefully it will work.
Somebody tell me whether I am making a big mistake or not?

scottro
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Add hardware functionality to Synaptics

Post by scottro » 2011/07/18 00:46:07

Usually, one should wait 24 hours before bumping the post.

I don't use the default Gnome interface, so don't know if it has something in there to help you. Using openbox, with various distributions, I was able to get it working with a little script that called synclient.


Take a look at man synclient. I'm on a desktop without it installed right now, so don't recollect the exact syntax.

Meh, never mind, if the man page is the one I find online, it's not helpful.

You can try running

synclient TapButton1=1

If that works, do the same command again with 2 and 3 and see if that helps. Pretty sure that's how I got it working.

If that doesn't work, and no one else gives an answer, then I'd google something like synaptic touchpad command line and see if that gives you some answers

There might be a confiiguration option in Gnome as well.

majun
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Re: Add hardware functionality to Synaptics

Post by majun » 2011/07/23 08:08:10

synclient is your friend. I've managed to get two-finger scrolling enabled in Fedora 13 with synclient even though the option in KDE's control center was greyed out.

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