InstallingDebianOn/Thinkpad/Trackpoint

On most ThinkPads, Debian doesn't enable scrolling with the TrackPoint by default.

TrackPoint scrolling on Squeeze and later

GNOME

After installing the gpointing-device-settings package, a new "Pointing devices" option appears in the GNOME settings menu. Select "TrackPoint" and check "Use wheel emulation", select "button: 2", and check "Enable vertical scroll" and "Enable horizontal scroll".

xinput

Install the xinput package and put the following in ~/.xsessionrc to make the changes permanent.

To enable vertical scrolling :

xinput set-prop "TPPS/2 IBM TrackPoint" "Evdev Wheel Emulation" 1
xinput set-prop "TPPS/2 IBM TrackPoint" "Evdev Wheel Emulation Button" 2
xinput set-prop "TPPS/2 IBM TrackPoint" "Evdev Wheel Emulation Timeout" 200 4 5

To enable horizontal scrolling in addition to vertical scrolling :

xinput set-prop "TPPS/2 IBM TrackPoint" "Evdev Wheel Emulation Axes" 6 7 4 5

hal and Xorg integration

(Note that HAL is deprecated and not installed by default on Squeeze.)

Create the file /etc/hal/fdi/policy/ibm_trackpoint.fdi containing:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?> <!-- -*- SGML -*- -->
<deviceinfo version="0.2">

<match key="info.product" string="TPPS/2 IBM TrackPoint">
 <merge key="input.x11_options.EmulateWheel" type="string">true</merge>
 <merge key="input.x11_options.EmulateWheelButton" type="string">2</merge>
 <merge key="input.x11_options.Emulate3Buttons" type="string">true</merge>
 <merge key="input.x11_options.EmulateWheelTimeout" type="string">200</merge>
</match>
</deviceinfo>

TrackPoint scrolling on Lenny

In /etc/X11/xorg.conf, find the section named "Configured Mouse", then follow the instruction :

Section "InputDevice"
        Identifier      "Configured Mouse"
        Driver          "mouse"

        #add those three lines
        Option          "EmulateWheel"          "true"
        Option          "EmulateWheelTimeOut"   "200"
        Option          "EmulateWheelButton"    "2"
EndSection

Device identification

Device is a "TPPS/2 IBM TrackPoint":

dmidecode -t 21 reports

Built-in Pointing Device
        Type: Track Point
        Interface: PS/2
        Buttons: 3

/proc/bus/input/devices contains:

I: Bus=0011 Vendor=0002 Product=000a Version=0000
N: Name="TPPS/2 IBM TrackPoint"
P: Phys=synaptics-pt/serio0/input0
S: Sysfs=/class/input/input12
U: Uniq=
H: Handlers=mouse2 event12 
B: EV=7
B: KEY=70000 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
B: REL=3

Trackpoint Scrolling on Wheezy or Jessie

To enable scrolling with the ?TrackPoint while holding down the middle mouse button, create a new file /usr/share/X11/xorg.conf.d/20-thinkpad.conf with the content as below. After adding/editing this file you have to restart your x-server. This also fixes issues if you can scrole with your trackpoint but a middle-click event is triggered. Unfortunately this doesn't make the new (since T440s) Trackpoints/Buttons work propperly.

/usr/share/X11/xorg.conf.d/20-thinkpad.conf filecontent:

 Section "InputClass"
     Identifier "Trackpoint Wheel Emulation"
     MatchProduct       "TPPS/2 IBM TrackPoint|DualPoint Stick|Synaptics Inc. Composite TouchPad / TrackPoint|ThinkPad USB Keyboard with TrackPoint|ThinkPad Compact USB Keyboard with TrackPoint|USB Trackpoint pointing device"
     MatchDevicePath    "/dev/input/event*"
     Option             "EmulateWheel"          "true"
     Option             "EmulateWheelButton"    "2"
     Option             "Emulate3Buttons"       "false"
     Option             "XAxisMapping"          "6 7"
     Option             "YAxisMapping"          "4 5"
 EndSection

External Resources

How to configure the TrackPoint
http://thinkwiki.org/wiki/How_to_configure_the_TrackPoint

InstallingDebianOnThinkpadTrackpoint