[Bug 337935] Re: [Jaunty] MacBook 5.1 touchpad not fully supported (Alpha 5 of Jaunty)

[Colin D Bennett]

I got the trackpad on my MacBook Pro 5,1 *mostly* working by doing:
(On a fresh install of Jaunty Beta)

1.  Install all the mactel PPA packages.
2.  Blacklist usbhid
3.  Put bcm5974, usbhid in modprobe's "modules" file to force bcm5974 to load first.
4.  Put the file posted above by P. Dunbar on 2009-03-31 in /etc/hal/fdi/policy

I could then tweak the .fdi file in a minor way and had the following
features:

- tap-to-click
- one/two/three-finger tap clicks for left/right/middle button
- two-finger scrolling (both vertical and horizontal)

There are still some big problems that make the trackpad completely
unusable for me unfortunately.  The main problems are:

1.  Sensitivity is *WAY* too low.
2.  Can't click and hold with thumb while dragging with another finger.

First, the sensitivity problem.  I tweaked the .fdi file's MinSpeed,
MaxSpeed, and AccelFactor to achieve much higher speed of movement that
is fairly satisfactory -- however, this only has an effect at the GDM
login screen!  When I actually log in and Gnome starts, the trackpad
movement slows down tremendously.  Even if I crank up the
sensitivity/acceleration in the Preferences|Mouse dialog, it is still
too slow.  Also, I don't want much "acceleration" I mostly want a
constant, moderate sensitivity.  This is useful because the MacBook
Pro's trackpad is so enormous (which is one of the features that made me
choose this laptop).

I cannot use the 'synclient' program, it always says that it can't
access the shared memory segment and I should enable SHM support in the
synaptics configuration, but it is already enabled in the .fdi file.
(Also, there is nothing related to this in the xorg.conf file that could
be messing it up.)  I tried the 'gpointing-device-settings' program
(http://live.gnome.org/GPointingDeviceSettings) and this provided some
easy access to extremely important xinput settings such as palm
detection.  It did not allow configuring the sensitivity or speed of the
trackpad movement.

I would be very happy if the trackpad movement speed at the GDM login
screen could simply be preserved when I logged in.  Does anyone have an
idea how I could do this?

Second, the normal way of dragging things that I use in Mac OS X does
not work.  I find that double-tap-and-drag is sometimes useful but can
be finicky if you don't wait long enough before putting your finger back
down after you are done dragging (it will think you still want to drag).
I have this problem in Mac OS X too.  So I find the most effective way
to drag is to use my forefinger to move the pointer and click-and-hold
with my thumb on the near edge of the trackpad while I drag with the
forefinger.  This does not work in Ubuntu; apparently the driver is
confused by my thumb's presence on the trackpad surface.

I think that Mac OS X must treat the near (bottom) edge of the trackpad
specially when a second finger is detected there, in order to support
the particular case where the thumb is used to click in the region on
the bottom edge while a finger is moving the pointer elsewhere on the
trackpad.  I'd be willing to implement this functionality myself if
someone could give me a nudge in the right direction;  I don't yet
understand the relationship between "bcm5974" and "synaptics".  Is the
trackpad actually a "synaptics" device, or is it a "bcm5974" device but
events are being translated and sent to the synaptics X input module as
an implementation shortcut instead of making a native bcm5974 X input
module?

Thanks for any help; I really want to get Ubuntu working well on my new
MacBook Pro and a well-functioning trackpad is a critical component to
make the system usable.

-- 
[Jaunty] MacBook 5.1 touchpad not fully supported (Alpha 5 of Jaunty)
https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/337935
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