SWATTEC : Home Page > Tutorials and Help for Others > Linux on Netbooks > 6 - Other > Synaptics Clickpads

Please note: These steps are only necessary if you are using a version of the ubermix prior to version 0.64. The instructions have been left online for those who are not using ubermix or are using an old version.

Some brand new netbooks, like the HP Mini 210/2102, have a new Synaptics touchpad called a "Clickpad". These are easy to identify, as there are no separate buttons and the entire pad moves when you click on it. Also, you'll notice that one or both of the buttons don't work. This is fairly easy to fix by following these steps:

1. Use the arrow keys and the space bar on your keyboard to navigate to System:Mouse, then use the tab key to select the "Enable mouse clicks with touchpad" checkbox and press the space bar to turn it on. You should now be able to click on things by tapping the touchpad with your finger.
   
2. Open Firefox and navigate to this page, the download clickpad.tar.gz application/g-zip . Choose "Save File" when Firefox asks you what to do with the file.
3. Open a terminal (press ctrl-alt-t or navigate to "Accessories:Terminal") and type the following lines, all followed by the enter key. Note that if you see <tab>, press the tab key on your keyboard to autocomplete the line
   
   tar -xzvf Downloads/clickpad.tar.gz
   sudo apt-get install linux-source patch
   tar -xjvf /usr/src/linux-source <tab>
   cd linux-source <tab>
   patch -p1 <../clickpad_patch
   cp ../Makefile drivers/input/mouse/
   cd drivers/input/mouse
   make
   sudo make install
   
   
4. Reboot your machine

The clickpad should now work quite well for you.

If you are using the ubermix version of Ubuntu from this site and you want to make sure that this change "survives" the quick reset process (see 1 - Overview for details about the reset feature) then you will want to add this change to the base system configuration. To do this, follow these steps:

1. Boot or reboot your machine, and press "esc" when you see the Grub countdown at the very beginning of bootup
2. Select "Normal Boot" and press the "e" key on your keyboard
3. Arrow down to the line that ends with the word "splash"
4. Backspace over the word "splash" and replace it with "aufs=off"
5. Press "ctrl-x" to boot your machine
6. When the machine is done booting up, press "ctrl-alt-t" on your keyboard to open a terminal, and type the following lines, all followed by the enter key. Note that if you see <tab>, press the tab key on your keyboard to autocomplete the line.
   
   cd linux-source <tab>
   cd drivers/input/mouse/
   sudo make install
   
   
7. Reboot your machine

The change will now survive reboots. Enjoy!

jklein, 05/16/10 06:39 (GMT)