Elantech Touchpad

Support in lenny

Using the synaptics driver

This is the recommended approach, as practically everything supported works, except for things like finger pressure which the hardware doesn't support.

To use this driver, install a kernel backport from Squeeze (currently at 2.6.32). See our ../Upgrade page for details.

Using the mouse driver or the evdev driver

<!> This is the only option available to you if you're using an unpatched Linux kernel such as one of the Linux 2.6.26 kernel packages in Lenny.

The touchpad is recognised as an Intellimouse PS/2 device. Consequently, it is not recognised by the X.org synaptics driver.

(II) Synaptics touchpad driver version 0.14.6 (1406)
Synaptics0 no synaptics event device found
(**) Option "Device" "/dev/psaux"
(**) Option "HorizEdgeScroll" "1"
Query no Synaptics: 6003C8

What works

Two-finger vertical scrolling works, as do two- and three-finger taps (for the middle and right buttons) and, strangely, drags can be started by holding one finger on the pad and tapping with another finger.

What doesn't work

It is not possible to make any specific device configuration, such as horizontal scrolling.

Support in Squeeze

(!) Enabled in kernel 2.6.32-4 and later.

The touchpad is recognised by the kernel as an Elantech device (ETPS/2) device and uses the synaptics Xorg driver. See SynapticsTouchpad for details. The remainder of this page should be merged into that page.

Synaptics driver configuration

xserver-xorg-input-synaptics (in Squeeze) has tapping disabled by default; see /usr/share/doc/xserver-xorg-input-synaptics/NEWS.Debian.gz. The following configuration examples show how to re-enable tapping and how to configure other options.

For a list of available options, see synclient -l. Not all options are appropriate; for example, Elantech touchpads don't report pressure.

xorg.conf

Recommended where the touchpad is declared as an input device in the ServerLayout section.

Section "InputDevice"
        Identifier      "Touchpad"
        Driver          "synaptics"
        Option          "Device"                "/dev/input/mouse0"
        Option          "Protocol"              "auto-dev"
        Option          "VertTwoFingerScroll"   "1"
        Option          "HorizTwoFingerScroll"  "1"
        Option          "TapButton1"            "1"
        Option          "TapButton2"            "2"
        Option          "TapButton3"            "3"
EndSection

Section "ServerLayout"
    Identifier          "Default Layout"
    Screen              "Default Screen"
    InputDevice         "Generic Keyboard"
    InputDevice         "Touchpad"
EndSection

squeeze

This applies to xserver-xorg-core 1.7.6 or later.

In /etc/X11/xorg.conf, add a section like the following:

Section "InputClass"
     Identifier "elantech touchpad"
     MatchIsTouchpad "on"
     MatchVendor "Elantech"
     Option "VertTwoFingerScroll" "1"
     Option "HorizTwoFingerScroll" "1"
     Option "TapButton1" "1"
     Option "TapButton2" "2"
     Option "TapButton3" "3"
EndSection

SHMConfig considered harmful

If you find that the touchpad configuration cannot be altered by using synclient, then (and only then) add a line to enable SHMConfig: either an Option or a <merge />, depending on how you choose to set the default configuration.

(Ref. this blog posting by Matthew Garrett.)

GUI assistance

The Mouse and Pointing device settings applets in the GNOME control centre (the latter in gpointing-device-settings) can be used to enable tapping and scrolling graphically. Beware that they can override the global X settings in xorg.conf or hal.

PS/2 in >2.6.32

You might want the older behavior for some reasons:

So you have to disable the Elantech drivers from your kernel by recompiling.

In menuconfig you find the entry in

Device Drivers --> Input device support --> Mice --> Elantech PS/2 protocol extension