How to enable touchpad scrolling and tapping in Debian Wheezy KDE?

Question

I'm trying to turn on scrolling and tapping with my laptop's touch-pad (the 2 left and right buttons are ok). I'm on Debian 7.3 (Wheezy) KDE-desktop and I have a Synaptic touch-pad. My laptop is an old HP model of 2007 therefore it doesn't support multi-touching. As root I created a /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/synaptics.conf file which I have copied below. Then in Konsole I gave synclient -l and got back the following code:

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          = 0
HorizEdgeScroll         = 0
CornerCoasting          = 0
VertTwoFingerScroll     = 1
HorizTwoFingerScroll    = 0
MinSpeed                = 1
MaxSpeed                = 1.75
AccelFactor             = 0.0398
TrackstickSpeed         = 40
EdgeMotionMinZ          = 30
EdgeMotionMaxZ          = 160
EdgeMotionMinSpeed      = 1
EdgeMotionMaxSpeed      = 401
EdgeMotionUseAlways     = 0
TouchpadOff             = 0
LockedDrags             = 1
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         = 0.100007
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

This is the content of /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/synaptics.conf

Section "InputClass"
Identifier "Touchpad"
MatchIsTouchpad "yes"
Driver "synaptics"
Option "MinSpeed" "0.4"
Option "MaxSpeed" "0.9"
Option "AccelFactor" "0"
Option "TapButton1" "1"
Option "TapButton2" "3"
Option "VertTwoFingerScroll" "0"
Option "HorizTwoFingerScroll" "0"
Option "VertEdgeScroll" "1"
Option "CoastingSpeed" "8"
Option "CornerCoasting" "1"
Option "TouchpadOff " "0"
EndSection

I've installed apt-get install server-xorg-input-synaptics and rebooted the system after the creation of the synaptics.conf file but nothing has changed.

What should I do to get it working?

Answer 1

EDIT: I just got tapping working on my Debian AlpsPS/2 touichpad with synclient:

synclient TapButton1=1

---

I am not an expert on this but found an old synaptics.conf file that I was using on a different laptop:

Section "InputClass"
    Identifier      "touchpad catchall"
    MatchIsTouchpad "on"
    MatchDevicePath "/dev/input/event*"
    Option          "HorizEdgeScroll"    "1"
    Option          "MaxTapTime"        "300"
    Driver          "synaptics"
EndSection

So, try adding catchall to the Identifier and changing MatchIsTouchpad to on from yes. Not sure if that will help but should be worth a try.

Another thing you can try is installing tpconfig:

sudo apt-get install tpconfig 

That should give you a GUI to enable taps with:

 sudo tpconfig --tapmode=1

_{Though I just tried this on my system and it does not seem to work}

Answer 2

Have you tried synaptiks? It's a simple GUI program that always solved any problems with my touchpad configuration.

To install:

sudo apt-get install kde-config-touchpad

Then you should be able to run it with

synaptiks && synaptiks

(the first synaptiks only puts the icon in the system tray and doesn't launch the GUI for some reason)

Answer 3

In KDE there is a new program that has superceded synaptiks: kcm-touchpad

This program will enable a new option in the System Settings. To access this options open System Settings (systemsettings in console), and go to Input Devices -> Touchpad