A Multi-touch gestures in Ubuntu (least some of em…)

Well when used my friend’s Rahul Macbook pro i found the multi-touch gestures . Though might look very minor as feature but it’s overall usability is quite nice. so being a ubuntu fresher. I googled up and few links having tweaking to accept few gestures. I was able find out two of the multitouch gestures specifically two finger horizontal and vertical scrolling . more gestures are available in the code bit I am yet to find em. Happy Tweaking I am using Dell 1525

multitouch-in-linux

Create new file

gksudo gedit /etc/hal/fdi/policy/11-x11-synaptics.fdi

Paste the following code into the file and save it.

<?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.SHMConfig" type="string">On</merge>
       <merge key="input.x11_options.EmulateTwoFingerMinZ" type="string">90</merge>
       <merge key="input.x11_options.VertTwoFingerScroll" type="string">1</merge>
       <merge key="input.x11_options.HorizTwoFingerScroll" type="string">1</merge>
       <merge key="input.x11_options.TapButton1" type="string">1</merge>
       <merge key="input.x11_options.TapButton2" type="string">3</merge>

<!--two finger tap -> middle clieck(3) -->
      <merge key="input.x11_options.TapButton3" type="string">2</merge>

 <!--three finger tap -> right click(2). almost impossible to click -->
   </match>
 </device>
</deviceinfo>

Restart hal and enjoy multitouch touchpad.

sudo /etc/init.d/hal restart

Update: Diagnosing your touchpad for multi-finger-sensing-capability

Few people have problem with this not working, while it works for few others. This is posted in ubuntu forums

synclient -m 100

Fifth column in the output f is number of fingers on your touchpad. Put two or more fingers on your touchpad and watch the column. If you see it more than one, this should work for you.