Default X input module for Apple Magic Trackpad?

[Chase Douglas]

Hi all,

By default the Magic Trackpad is grabbed by the Synaptics X input
module. This provides many nice features for trackpads like:

1. Tap to click (including 1, 2, and 3 finger mappings to mouse buttons)
2. Scrolling (two-finger, edge, circular)
3. Stabilization of cursor (I don't think this is needed for the Magic
Trackpad though)

The first two features should be supported at a higher level, such as in
the toolkits, by listening for gestures. However, Maverick will not have
any toolkit support for gestures. This leaves us in the position of
having to decide between supporting the above features by default (by
using synaptics), or supporting gestures by default (by using evdev).

I have been of the mindset that users would rather have the above
features instead of gesture support. Perhaps with Ikbel's Ginn (a legacy
gesture->buttons translator) we will have a good solution for people to
have both, but Ginn won't be installed by default in Maverick.

I had a conversation with a user on IRC last week as I helped him get
his Magic Trackpad working. He doesn't like the fact that a people will
need to add an incantation to xorg.conf to enable gesture support for
the trackpad. He would like to default to evdev instead, especially
since, in his mind, Maverick is a developer oriented release. What
thoughts do you all have?

Note that since the Magic Trackpad is new, there is no real regression
scenario for it. Whether we go with evdev or synaptics, we'll be
providing the same functionality as before while providing extra
features. We can also select either driver for the trackpad without
affecting any other devices such as trackpads built into Apple laptops.

Duncan (CC'd) proposed that we provide a script through
ppa:utouch-team/utouch that can switch between evdev and synaptics for
the trackpad, while leaving the default to synaptics in Ubuntu proper.

Thanks,

-- Chase