Comment 51 for bug 308191

I have just tried that workaround (the synclient ...MinZ=10 one) but
it doesn't work for me. The command executes fine, it just has no
effect, even if I fiddle with gnome-mouse-properties. I should add, my
settings are almost entirely the defaults if not entirely the
defaults. Perhaps this bug affects different touchpads in different
ways (my touchpad is an ALPS Glidepoint one), what is yours? Post a
copy of this command if possible:

xinput list | grep -i pointer

Regarding making a permanent change to the touchpad configuration: I'm
not sure in all honesty. I think you can specify it in xorg.conf
(although, by default X doesn't use a configuration file any more, but
it will read one if it exists). HAL is being depreciated, but to my
understanding, it is still in progress (with input devices still being
handled with HAL rather than udev) but by no means finished. This wiki
page provides some details:

https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Halsectomy

Out of interest, has anyone tried this with a different distribution?
(non-Debian derived or otherwise)

This bug doesn't seem to be getting that much developer attention, we
should consider raising this upstream (if it's not Debian/Ubuntu
specific).