Comment 499 for bug 550625

To users who say "touchpad is too sensitive", do not bother Seth about the driver. Instead, learn how to properly configure your device.

synclient is a command line program you use to interact with the ALPS touchpad. Do not bother with the Gnome Menu system->mouse-> touchpad settings. Those are just a small sliver of settings you can adjust.

Run "synclient -l" to review your current settings. If your touchpad is too sensitive (mine was) or you don't have vertical scrolling (I did not) or you want two finger taps, then test the settings with synclient and then make them permanent by putting a configuration file into your system.

If "too sensitive" is your situation, look at the setting for FingerLow and FingerHigh. That fixed it for me. I also had no "right side vertical scroll" because the measurement of my touchpad was far from the default settings. My RightEdge is 1750, and touches to the right of that point will work for vertical scroll.

For the record, on my Dell Precision M4600, these are the settings I use now, and they are mostly correct, except for the "accidental grab" problem I described, but cannot re-produce reliably.

$ synclient -l
Parameter settings:
    LeftEdge = 300
    RightEdge = 1750
    TopEdge = 210
    BottomEdge = 1190
    FingerLow = 93
    FingerHigh = 98
    FingerPress = 250
    MaxTapTime = 180
    MaxTapMove = 107
    MaxDoubleTapTime = 180
    SingleTapTimeout = 180
    ClickTime = 100
    FastTaps = 0
    EmulateMidButtonTime = 75
    EmulateTwoFingerMinZ = 139
    EmulateTwoFingerMinW = 7
    VertScrollDelta = 48
    HorizScrollDelta = 48
    VertEdgeScroll = 1
    HorizEdgeScroll = 0
    CornerCoasting = 0
    VertTwoFingerScroll = 1
    HorizTwoFingerScroll = 0
    MinSpeed = 1
    MaxSpeed = 1.75
    AccelFactor = 0.0819336
    TrackstickSpeed = 40
    EdgeMotionMinZ = 14
    EdgeMotionMaxZ = 79
    EdgeMotionMinSpeed = 1
    EdgeMotionMaxSpeed = 195
    EdgeMotionUseAlways = 0
    TouchpadOff = 0
    LockedDrags = 0
    LockedDragTimeout = 5000
    RTCornerButton = 0
    RBCornerButton = 0
    LTCornerButton = 0
    LBCornerButton = 0
    TapButton1 = 1
    TapButton2 = 3
    TapButton3 = 3
    ClickFinger1 = 1
    ClickFinger2 = 1
    ClickFinger3 = 1
    CircularScrolling = 0
    CircScrollDelta = 0.1
    CircScrollTrigger = 0
    CircularPad = 0
    PalmDetect = 1
    PalmMinWidth = 20
    PalmMinZ = 99
    CoastingSpeed = 100
    CoastingFriction = 50
    PressureMotionMinZ = 14
    PressureMotionMaxZ = 79
    PressureMotionMinFactor = 1
    PressureMotionMaxFactor = 1
    GrabEventDevice = 1
    TapAndDragGesture = 1
    AreaLeftEdge = 0
    AreaRightEdge = 0
    AreaTopEdge = 0
    AreaBottomEdge = 0

Test changes like t his

$ synclient GrabEventDevice=0

or such.

Once you find the changes you like, they can be put into a config file. On Debian Linux, the file you can most obviously edit is
 /usr/share/X11/xorg.conf.d/50-synaptics.conf, but as that file says at the top, it will get erased if you update X11. So I have put the permanent changes into this file:

$ cat /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/synaptics.conf
# Example xorg.conf.d snippet that assigns the touchpad driver
# to all touchpads. See xorg.conf.d(5) for more information on
# InputClass.
# DO NOT EDIT THIS FILE, your distribution will likely overwrite
# it when updating. Copy (and rename) this file into
# /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d first.
# Additional options may be added in the form of
# Option "OptionName" "value"
#
Section "InputClass"
        Identifier "touchpad catchall"
        Driver "synaptics"
        MatchIsTouchpad "on"
# This option is recommend on all Linux systems using evdev, but cannot be
# enabled by default. See the following link for details:
# http://who-t.blogspot.com/2010/11/how-to-ignore-configuration-errors.html
# MatchDevicePath "/dev/input/event*"

  Option "VertTwoFingerScroll" "1"
        Option "TouchpadOff" "0"
        Option "PalmDetect" "1"
        Option "PalmMinWidth" "20"
        Option "PalmMinZ" "99"
        Option "CoastingSpeed" "100"
        Option "RightEdge" "1750"
        Option "JumpyCursorThreshold" "100"
        Option "FingerPress" "250"
        Option "TapButton1" "1"
        Option "VertEdgeScroll" "1"
        Option "FingerHigh" "98"
        Option "FingerLow" "93"
        Option "TapButton2" "3"
        Option "TapButton3" "3"
        Option "YAxisMapping" "5 4"
EndSection

Now, if you restart your system and the settings are forgotten, you have run into a long-standing problem that the gnome-settings-daemon tries to "help" you by erasing all of your config changes. Google "touchpad gnome-settings-daemon" you'll find fixes. This one worked for me: https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Touchpad_Synaptics