ThinkPad T440p X.org touchpad configuration
While the ThinkPad T440p is a pretty nice device (and finally also available with a quad-core CPU), its touchpad is definitely a step back compared to previous ThinkPad generations, especially for trackpoint users like me. With the default X.org touchpad configuration shipped with (K)ubuntu 14.04 it is nearly unusable (clicks cause subtle mouse movements, palm detection is horribly broken and using the trackpoint is no fun at all due to touchpad interference).
Fortunately, this can be improved a lot using plain configuration.
The target layout achieved using this approach looks like this:
+----------+----------+----------+
|LLLLLLLLLL|MMMMMMMMMM|RRRRRRRRRR|
+----------+----------+----------+
| | | |
| | | |
| | | |
| | | |
| | | |
+----------+----------+----------+
The touchpad acts as a clickpad (i.e., you need to physically press it down to trigger an action) and does not cause any cursor movements (which you need to perform using the trackpoint). Only the upper area acts as mouse buttons (to avoid interference with your palm that may rest on the lower portion of the touchpad).
Last, but not least, this is the configuration to achieve this:
` Section “InputClass” Identifier “T440p touchpad w/o cursor movement” MatchDriver “synaptics” Option “SoftButtonAreas” “3800 0 0 2500 2600 3800 0 2500” Option “TouchPadOff” “1” Option “AreaBottomEdge” “1”
Option “LeftEdge” “1024” Option “RightEdge” “5110” Option “TopEdge” “2048” Option “BottomEdge” “5000” EndSection `
Place it in /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/60-synaptics.conf. Manually configuring the dimensions is currently necessary as the kernel seems to report incorrect values (as of Linux 3.7-rc2). Make sure that the default system configuration does not interfere.
What I’m still not 100% satisfied with is a way to get two-finger-scrolling working while otherwise retaining clickpad semantics. Suggestions are welcome…