Laptop mousepads don't work right in USB Puppy

[PalapaGuy]

Recently I installed the latest Puppy version on a USB flash drive. It works great when booted from flash on the desktop computers I've tried. But ... booting to otherwise working laptops (from three different manufacturers) has been a different story.

All three of the laptops I've tried have had mousepad issues with Puppy. One wouldn't scroll from the mousepad with Puppy. The other two wouldn't recognize <enter> when tapping the mousepad.

Am I doing something wrong?

[ally]

you will need to provide more info for others to help

exactly which puppy version

laptop specs and touchpad details also

[greengeek]

All three of the laptops I've tried have had mousepad issues with Puppy. One wouldn't scroll from the mousepad with Puppy. The other two wouldn't recognize <enter> when tapping the mousepad.
Am I doing something wrong?

Hi Palapa - the kernel has to detect touchpads during boot and allocate the correct driver. This doesn't always work correctly depending on which hardware and which kernel.

I have made a .pet which collects data about your touchpad and how it is detected. You could download the pet and run it on each of the troublesome machines and post the outputs here if you like. The information it provides might give us a clue about how to improve things.

The thread is here:
http://murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic. ... 387#925387

[shadow of viper`]

Hello PalapaGuy,

Please provide more information as requested by ally and greengeek

Have you tried configuring your touchpad from the setup menu?

Menu-> Setup-> Keyboard/Mouse setup -> synaptics touchpad settings

(This is the generic navigation path. Posting from memory, not on my puppy machine at the moment)

Single tap for left-click is disabled by default on most puppies
You will have to enable it explicitly

If your touchpad is one of the common ones, it should be fully supported.
You can configure singletap, double tap, horizontal and vertical scrolling

Let us know how it goes

Cheers!

[PalapaGuy]

The laptop I'd most like to get fully working with Puppy Slacko 6.3 is my Inspiron 3520 which won't scroll from the touchpad.

Yes, I did try to configure the touchpad scrolling from Setup with no effect. I ran the (very nice!) .pet tool and have attached here the .txt file it generated.

I'm hoping to apply what I learn here to fixing the other two laptops.

Thank you for your support.

[bigpup]

I see no attachment.
Try again or simply post what is in the .txt file.

[PalapaGuy]

I see no attachment.
Try again or simply post what is in the .txt file.

Sorry - don't know why the file didn't post. Here's a link to it.

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/208 ... -20-35.txt

[greengeek]

Hi PalapaGuy - can you explain your method for scrolling on the touchpad please? I have always turned this function off so I am not familiar with the best method.

ie: do you use one finger or two? Do you use a specific part of the touchpad? etc

(also - do you have any laptops where the scrolling does work and if so could you post the contentsof the /root/.flsynclient file from one of those laptops please?)

cheers!

[PalapaGuy]

Well, on my Inspiron I can't scroll regardless of number of fingers or location on the touchpad. But arrow-key scrolling works.

My two other laptops have different problems related to the touchpads, and neither is with me at this moment so I can't test them. One of them (a Compaq IIRC) can scroll from the touchpad but doesn't allow allow clicking on it as an <enter> command.

In all other respects I really like Puppy and would love to resolve these touchpad issues.

[greengeek]

Well, on my Inspiron I can't scroll regardless of number of fingers or location on the touchpad. But arrow-key scrolling works.

From looking at the touchpad analyzer txt file you posted it appears that your touchpad is set up to enable two finger circular scrolling. This is not something I am familiar with but would you be able to try using two fingers on the touchpad and moving them around in a circle please? (sort of like moving around a clock dial I guess).

Does that have any effect?

If not, please try the following experiment:
1) In the /root directory click on the "eye" icon to reveal hidden files.
2) Make a copy of the .flsynclient file somewhere as a backup.
3) Use a text editor to open the original .flsynclient file.
4) Find the parameter "VertEdgeScroll" and change it to 1
5) Find the parameter "TouchpadOff" and change it to 2
6) Find the parameter "VertTwoFingerScroll" and change it to 0
7) Find the parameter "CircularScrolling" and change it to 0
Open a terminal and enter the following command:
flsynclient -s

In theory that should enable single finger scrolling if you slide your finger up and down the far right hand edge of the touchpad while you have placed the cursor over the scroll bar.