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Linux: Enable Laptop Touchpad Vertical Scrolling and Tapping from Command Line

Updated by JR on Oct 15, 2010 in Desktop Guides, Linux | 10 comments

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I noticed that the Fedora Linux with KDE desktop, has reasonably poor support for laptop touchpad adjustment. For example, the KDE > System Settings > Keyboard & Mouse > Mouse options will not be able to enable vertical scrolling and touchpad tapping. So I decided to write this short guide, howto enable Touchpad vertical scrolling and tapping from command line without any GUI.

Enable Laptop Touchpad Vertical Scrolling

Simply write following on command line:

synclient VertEdgeScroll=1

Enable Laptop Touchpad Tapping

Simply write following on command line:

synclient TapButton1=1

Make Previous Options Permanent

Change to root User

su -
## OR ##
sudo -i

Create a configuration file
Copy /usr/share/hal/fdi/policies/20thirdparty/10-synaptics.fdi example file to /etc/hal/fdi/policy

cp /usr/share/hal/fdi/policy/20thirdparty/10-synaptics.fdi /etc/hal/fdi/policy

Add following lines to configuration file

<merge key="input.x11_options.VertEdgeScroll" type="string">1</merge>
<merge key="input.x11_options.TapButton1" type="string">1</merge>

Full configuration file looks like this

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="ISO-8859-1"?>
<deviceinfo version="0.2">
  <device>
    <match key="info.capabilities" contains="input.touchpad">
        <merge key="input.x11_driver" type="string">synaptics</merge>
        <merge key="input.x11_options.VertEdgeScroll" type="string">1</merge>
        <merge key="input.x11_options.TapButton1" type="string">1</merge>
    </match>
  </device>
</deviceinfo>

report

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10 Comments

dallas computer service / March 19, 2010

Thank you so much for this awesome post. This is exactly the thing I needed to see!

Reply
Marouf / August 30, 2010

Thanks so much, this has helped me to activate scrolling in KDE

Reply
yassine / November 24, 2010

thx a lot .i had a problem with my touch pad but not anymore.im really greatful

Reply
prabin / August 15, 2011

thank you very much.it really works on my laptop.

Reply
DarkDuck / November 16, 2011

I don’t have directory 20thirdparty.
How can I make the change permanent?

Reply
- JR / November 16, 2011
  
  This permanent part is little bit old, because some systems has dropped hal totally, but what system you are running?
  
  Reply
  - DarkDuck / December 2, 2011
    
    I tried in Fedora 16 KDE. May look here: http://linuxblog.darkduck.com/2011/11/fedora-16-kde-improving-perfection.html
    
    Reply
    - DarkDuck / December 2, 2011
      
      Sorry, wrong link in that comment. It was about Live version, and one-time solution worked there.
      Although, installed system requires permanent solution, and it was not the one you described. Whole solution is in KDE configuration!
      http://linuxblog.darkduck.com/2011/11/getting-blooming-flavor-of-fedora-16.html
      
      Reply
Guan / November 30, 2011

thx. works well on my laptop

Reply
andrux / April 12, 2012

Thank you man, this was the ONLY thing that was keeping me from switching permanently to KDE!

Reply