# synaptics touch sensors

## paradigm-X

On a laptop whose primary OS I am converting to Gentoo, I have a minimal Xorg GUI system installed and for the most part working well. However, there is one significant issue appearing related to the Synaptics touchpad, for which I have compiled the driver into the kernel. I also included "synaptics" as one of the options in 'make.conf' for INPUT_DEVICES.

Specifically, the device does not seem to respond to any tapping, such as I might do, for example, when I have moved the cursor over an icon or menu item and I then tap on the pad to select it. This tapping functionality is missing although I can use the device's left-click or right-click button to make selection. The pad does register the movement of my finger across it and move the cursor accordingly, but it does not sense the tapping directly on it. If someone has any information about this, I would welcome hearing about it.

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## haarp

Does synclient TapButton1=1 help?

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## 666threesixes666

ill confirm default settings dont allow tapping to do anything.  installed like 3 days ago.

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## paradigm-X

Thank you very much for the pointer, haarp!  That was the perfect clue I needed to find the relevant configuration settings. It now works.  It never ceases to amaze me how the little things can make such a big difference. A little tap leads to a big savings in time, not to mention frustration. Muchas gracias.

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## 666threesixes666

and yes synclient TapButton1=1 totally fixes it.  i think im going to write a generic config that sets synaptics the way it should be.  single tap kinda gives me the impression it conflicts with the odd 2 finger scrolling.

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## paradigm-X

Now that I know what to look for thanks to haarp's post, I found a plethora of guides to help tweak the touchpad. You may want to see this before you get too involved in rediscovery process:

https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Touchpad_Synaptics

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## 666threesixes666

we also have our own synaptics wiki.

https://wiki.gentoo.org/wiki/Synaptics

i posted my config with enabled tap button 1 to the wiki so you can get your touch pad clicker through reboots.

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## freifunk_connewitz

 *666threesixes666 wrote:*   

> we also have our own synaptics wiki.
> 
> https://wiki.gentoo.org/wiki/Synaptics
> 
> i posted my config with enabled tap button 1 to the wiki so you can get your touch pad clicker through reboots.

 

cool. but regarding the link at the end: synaptiks is probably dead upstream (see here: https://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic-t-986098.html). it seems that currently there is no actively maintained GUI to configure the touchpad.

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