[HOWTO] Elantech touchpad working right on Samsung R540 JT01

[Ricardo Francés]

Let's hope someone doesn't have to spend 3 days looking for answers all over the web and that this information is helpful for others.

Ubuntu 10.10 Maverick Meerkat (and Linux Mint 10 and other Ubuntu derivates) comes with the 2.6.35-25 kernel, so it already has the Elantech patches. What they do is to make it able to load synaptics drivers and work their way from there.

Here's the thing though, sometimes even on a fresh install, it won't get recognized as such or will not function properly.

Sometimes it will get recognized as a normal PS/2 mouse, and if it gets recognized as it should, most things will not work right, so here's a collection of configurations I used to make it work ok (and you'll have to excuse my English but it's 4:17 AM, I'm posting this before I forget about it).

Using the Graphical Interface:

1. Press Alt+F2, write "gksudo gedit" and press enter
2. Copy and paste the following:

Code: Select all

options psmouse force_elantech=1

3. Save it with this name "psmouse.conf" in /etc/modprobe.d

What this does is creates a configuration file that tells the psmouse module that we have an elantech touchpad. Now...

4. Open in the same gedit window the file xorg.conf. It's located at /etc/X11
5a. Make a backup of xorg.conf... Just in case something goes wrong.
5b. We'll append the following JUST BEFORE the line that reads Section "Server Layout":

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Section "InputDevice"
	Identifier	"Elantech Touchpad"
	Driver		"synaptics"
	Option		"BottomEdge"	"590"
	Option		"RightEdge" "750"
	Option		"VertEdgeScroll" "true"
	Option		"HorizEdgeScroll" "true"
	Option		"VertTwoFingerScroll" "false"
	Option		"HorizTwoFingerScroll" "false"
	Option		"UpDownScrolling" "true"
	Option		"LeftRightScrolling" "true"
	Option		"GuestMouseOff" "true"
	Option		"CircularScrolling" "false"
	Option		"PalmDetect" "true"
	Option		"PalmMinWidth" "1"
	Option		"PalmMinZ" "2"
	Option		"TouchpadOff" "0"
	Option		"VertScrollDelta" "100"
EndSection

With this we establish some rules to make it work more or less properly, setting the right surface area, enabling vertical and horizontal edges scrolling, palm detection (so it turns itself off while we write, and on again after a bit of time -200 ms by default, afaik-), disabling vertical and horizontal two touch finger scrolling (swiping with two fingers), turning off any guest mice and circular scrolling.

DON'T SAVE!!!! We aren't done yet!

6. There should be a Seciont "ServerLayout" under what you just wrote, so inside of it, just before the line that reads EndSection, you'll have to add this line:

InputDevice "Elantech Touchpad"

7. Now save it.

What we did here call up our configuration settings so they get picked up by Ubuntu.

KEEP READING, when you finish reading you'll come back here and reboot.

Now, we could leave some options out of xorg.conf so that we can configure them... You could use the mouse configurations settings that comes with Ubuntu, or you could use gpointing-device-settings which offers more options.

So you could change STEP 5b like this

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Section "InputDevice"
	Identifier	"Elantech Touchpad"
	Driver		"synaptics"
	Option		"BottomEdge"	"590"
	Option		"RightEdge" "750"
	Option		"UpDownScrolling" "true"
	Option		"LeftRightScrolling" "true"
	Option		"PalmDetect" "true"
	Option		"PalmMinWidth" "1"
	Option		"PalmMinZ" "2"
EndSection

and then set up your options using gpointing-device-settings... but we need to install it first, like this:

a) Open up a terminal (it's easier, trust me). It's at Applications >> Accessories >> Terminal
b) Copy and paste there the following (right click or CTRL+SHIFT+V):

sudo apt-get install gpointing-device-settings

c) It will ask for your password, so type it in.
Once it's finished you can close the terminal.
You'll find it on the System >> Preferences >> Pointing Devices menu entry

That's it. You now have a fully functioning Elantech touchpad, completely configured, with properly working vertical and horizontal scrolling, palm detection and multitouch abilities.

It works for me, it could work for you... PLEASE BACK UP your xorg.conf file before modifying it.

OMG! I messed up xorg.conf: Restart linux in Safe Graphical Mode, it will allow you to look for your backup and replace your changes easily

OMG! It doesn't work... This is not intended to be a guide for anything other than Samsung R540 JT01, so proceed at your own risk.

OMG! It works!: YAAAY!

[boub]

Hi,

nice HOWTO.

But i ask myself, if after final settings following your tutorial, one can use two finger scrolling.

I have a R540 JT08 with Xubuntu 10.10 64-bit and the Touchpad is detected correctly.
Monitoring the mouse with

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synclient -m 100 

shows 3 anomalies:
1. Pressure is always at highest value (it's a known bug)
2. "w" is always 0 although it detects 2 and 3 fingers
3. when scrolling two fingered x- and y-values jump to neg. values and "out of area" ---> scroll is jumping

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   time     x    y   z f  w  l r u d m     multi  gl gm gr gdx gdy
 908.426   448  620  31 1  0  0 0 0 0 0  00000000   0  0  0   0   0
 908.446   442  616  31 1  0  0 0 0 0 0  00000000   0  0  0   0   0
 908.456   438  613  31 1  0  0 0 0 0 0  00000000   0  0  0   0   0
 908.466   434  609  31 1  0  0 0 0 0 0  00000000   0  0  0   0   0
 908.476   430  606  31 1  0  0 0 0 0 0  00000000   0  0  0   0   0
 908.496   428  603  31 1  0  0 0 0 0 0  00000000   0  0  0   0   0
 908.921   428  603   0 0  0  0 0 0 0 0  00000000   0  0  0   0   0
 909.235   694  374  31 1  0  0 0 0 0 0  00000000   0  0  0   0   0
 909.316  1020 -268  31 2  0  0 0 0 0 0  00000000   0  0  0   0   0
 909.336   400  644  31 2  0  0 0 0 0 0  00000000   0  0  0   0   0
 909.427   400  640  31 2  0  0 0 0 0 0  00000000   0  0  0   0   0
 909.447  1020 -268  31 2  0  0 0 0 0 0  00000000   0  0  0   0   0
 909.458  1020 -268   0 0  0  0 0 0 0 0  00000000   0  0  0   0   0

u get those too?

[inkogneetoe]

Hi

I have an NF110 with UNR 10.04 on it. I started your guide but I can not find the xorg.conf file in the location specified.

Can you help me get my touch pad working so i can use my ubuntu.

Thanks