ThinkWiki - User contributions [en]

How to configure the TrackPoint

2010-04-15T07:04:41Z

Jensel: /* udev */ Added section about xorg.conf.d

{| width="100%"
|style="vertical-align:top;padding-right:20px;width:10px;white-space:nowrap;" | __TOC__
|style="vertical-align:top" |Below are several ways of configuring the kernel psmouse driver for controlling extended TrackPoint features.
|}

=Configuration using xinput=
If you want to modify changes on the fly, you can do so with {{cmd|xinput|}} (part of the optional xorg-x11-apps rpm on Fedora).
Note that these changes are not saved when the xserver is restarted. However, you can add the lines e.g. in your {{cmd|.xsessionrc|}} (depends on your distribution) so they are executed every time X starts.

To query the available options
xinput list-props "TPPS/2 IBM TrackPoint"

More information can be found in the man-pages for evdev
man evdev

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

To enable horizontal scrolling in addition to vertical scrolling

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

To enable middle button emulation (using left- and right-click simultaneously)
xinput set-prop "TPPS/2 IBM TrackPoint" "Evdev Middle Button Emulation" 1
xinput set-prop "TPPS/2 IBM TrackPoint" "Evdev Middle Button Timeout" 50

==Example: openSUSE 11.2 and ThinkPad USB Keyboard with TrackPoint ==

xinput list
will show two "Lite-On Technology Corp. ThinkPad USB Keyboard with TrackPoint." with two different ids. Use the id with Axis 0 and Axis 1 items.

Suppose the id was 12. The following will enable the trackpoint scrolling:

xinput set-int-prop 12 "Evdev Wheel Emulation" 8 1
xinput set-int-prop 12 "Evdev Wheel Emulation Button" 8 2
xinput set-int-prop 12 "Evdev Wheel Emulation Timeout" 8 200

The following will enable the horizontal scrolling
xinput set-int-prop 12 "Evdev Wheel Emulation Axes" 8 6 7 4 5

To disable middle button click paste functionality, remap the middle button to something else:
xmodmap -e "pointer = 1 9 3 4 5 6 7 8 2"

To do these automatically without worrying about id number, generate a bash script file:
#!/bin/sh
xinput list | sed -ne 's/^[^ ][^V].*id=$[0-9]*$.*/\1/p' | while read id
do
case `xinput list-props $id` in
*"Middle Button Emulation"*)
xinput set-int-prop $id "Evdev Wheel Emulation" 8 1
xinput set-int-prop $id "Evdev Wheel Emulation Button" 8 2
xinput set-int-prop $id "Evdev Wheel Emulation Timeout" 8 200
xinput set-int-prop $id "Evdev Wheel Emulation Axes" 8 6 7 4 5
xinput set-int-prop $id "Evdev Middle Button Emulation" 8 0
;;
esac
done

# disable middle button
xmodmap -e "pointer = 1 9 3 4 5 6 7 8 2"

and save it with any name such as trackPointScrolling.sh, and make it executable:
chmod +x trackPointScrolling.sh

Next time you run it with $ ./trackPointScrolling.sh, it will enable the trackpoint scrolling and disable middle button paste.
{{Todo|some other examples}}

= Configuration using Gnome=
If you are using GNOME, you might want to use [http://live.gnome.org/GPointingDeviceSettings GPointing Device Settings] as a graphical frontend.

It is available for Fedora 12 and Ubuntu 9.10 in the standard package repositories

[[image:Screenshot-GPointing Device Settings-TrackPoint.png]]

= Configuration using DevKit =
Most recent distributions like Ubuntu 9.10 switch from HAL (being deprecated) to DevKit. Hence, the HAL configurations explained underneath, fail to work.

The easiest way to configure your touchpad and trackpoint with DevKit is by using the [http://live.gnome.org/GPointingDeviceSettings GPointingDeviceSettings] panel that fully supports the hardware. You can easily download the panel by installing {{cmd| gpointing-device-settings|}}. On Ubuntu open a terminal and execute the command {{cmduser| sudo apt-get install gpointing-device-settings}}

Launch the UI through the {{cmduser| gpointing-device-settings}} command, but you can also add a menu entry to your System / Preferences menu for easier access to the UI panel.

= Configuration using udev and HAL =
Modern distributions like Ubuntu 8.10 and Fedora 10 use udev and HAL to configure the input devices. You should no longer make changes to xorg.conf as by default Xorg (through the evdev driver) will let the kernel now handle input devices.

But before you get started on this you should make sure you have all the updates applied from your distro vendor as both Ubuntu 8.10 and Fedora 10 require some additional fixes that you will need.

=== Scrolling ===
By default the middle mouse button is that, a middle mouse button, which in Linux is used for the Paste operation.

But you can configure it to act in the same way as in Windows, such that you can use it for vertical scrolling (keep the button pressed and move the TrackPoint up and down to scroll).

==== xorg.conf.d ====

Some distributions now support the new Xorg hotplug configuration method via xorg.conf.d directories (in Ubuntu 10.04 Lucid Lynx) instead of hal. In contrast to the udev method below, it should be around for some time, so it might be the best way to “statically” configure scrolling.

Create the file {{path|/usr/lib/X11/xorg.conf.d/20-thinkpad.conf}} as root with the following content:

<pre>
Section "InputClass"
Identifier "Trackpoint Wheel Emulation"
MatchProduct "TPPS/2 IBM TrackPoint|DualPoint Stick|Synaptics Inc. Composite TouchPad / TrackPoint"
MatchDevicePath "/dev/input/event*"
Option "EmulateWheel" "true"
Option "EmulateWheelButton" "2"
Option "Emulate3Buttons" "false"
Option "XAxisMapping" "6 7"
Option "YAxisMapping" "4 5"
EndSection
</pre>

Save and restart Xorg (or it'll be enabled at next reboot).

{{NOTE|If the above directory doesn't exist by default in your distribution, it probably doesn't support this method. In this case, please refer to the udev or xinput method below.}}

==== udev ====

Now that Xorg doesn't use the configuration from hal (in Debian unstable starting january 2010), the only way to “statically” configure scrolling in trackpoint is udev. (for other people, xinput method, works fine). This method will be gone (_again_) in not too long so it might be a better idea to use xinput way. YMMV.

Create the file {{path|/etc/udev/rules.d/99_trackpoint.rules}} as root with the following content:

<pre>
ACTION!="add|change", GOTO="xorg_trackpoint_end"
KERNEL!="event*", GOTO="xorg_trackpoint_end"

ENV{ID_PATH}!="platform-i8042-serio-1", GOTO="xorg_trackpoint_end"

ENV{x11_options.EmulateWheel}="1"
ENV{x11_options.EmulateWheelButton}="2"
ENV{x11_options.XAxisMapping}="6 7"
ENV{x11_options.Emulate3Buttons}="0"

LABEL="xorg_trackpoint_end"
</pre>

Save and restart udev then Xorg (or it'll be enabled at next reboot).

{{NOTE|The ID_PATH used in the example above is a typical value. To determine the ID_PATH appropriate to the TrackPoint on a specific model see [[#Determining TrackPoint Path ID|Determining TrackPoint Path ID]]}}

==== Hal (soon to be deprecated) ====

To accomplish this create the file {{path|/etc/hal/fdi/policy/mouse-wheel.fdi}} as root with the following content:

<pre>
<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.YAxisMapping" type="string">4 5</merge>
<merge key="input.x11_options.Emulate3Buttons" type="string">true</merge>
<merge key="input.x11_options.EmulateWheelTimeout" type="string">200</merge>
</match>
</pre>

If you also want to have horizontal scrolling, simply add the following XAxisMapping option to the above
<pre>
<merge key="input.x11_options.XAxisMapping" type="string">6 7</merge>
</pre>
After this reboot, or restart the hal service and Xorg. You can validate the settings with {{cmd|lshal|}}.

In some models (eg: X301 and X200 since Jan 10 2010 on debian sid) you may have to use "PS/2 Generic Mouse" instead of "TPPS/2 IBM TrackPoint". Have a look to your input devices typing <code>lshal|grep input.product</code>.

Alternatively it is also possible to use the "old" Xorg configuration by adding the following lines to the {{path|/etc/X11/xorg.conf}}:

<pre>
Section "ServerFlags"
Option "AutoAddDevices" "false"
EndSection
</pre>

Using this entry HAL will not be used for the input devices.

====Reactivate Scrolling after suspend/resume====
Scrolling may be disabled after a resume from suspend.

You can manually reactivate the trackpoint by reloading the {{path|psmouse}} module as root:
:{{cmdroot|rmmod psmouse && modprobe psmouse}}

You can automatically force the pm-utils to reload this module.
Create a file {{path|/etc/pm/config.d/01reload_mouse}} as root with the following content:
<pre>
# reload psmouse to reactivate trackpoint scrolling
SUSPEND_MODULES="${SUSPEND_MODULES:+$SUSPEND_MODULES }psmouse"
</pre>

===Configuring other options (e.g. Press to select, Sensitivity and Speed)===

Create a file {{path|/etc/udev/rules.d/10-trackpoint.rules}} and add a line to suit your needs

<pre>
SUBSYSTEM=="serio", DRIVERS=="psmouse", ATTR{press_to_select}="1", ATTR{sensitivity}="122"
</pre>

Testing udev with {{cmdroot|udevadm test /sys/devices/platform/i8042/serio1}} should apply the new changes. All of the settings listed [[How to configure the TrackPoint#Sysfs_Options_Reference|below]] can be specified here as part of a comma separated list.

=Configuration using sysfs=
Another way to modify changes on the fly, is echoing values directly into special files in sysfs.

{{NOTE|
The examples shown below are valid for ThinkPads with both TrackPoint and Touchpad, in which case the sysfs path is {{path|/sys/devices/platform/i8042/serio1/serio2}}.

If however you have a ThinkPad without Touchpad, or with the Touchpad disabled in the BIOS, the sysfs path needs to be changed to {{path|/sys/devices/platform/i8042/serio1}} instead (notice the missing serio2 at the end).}}

If you want to set the sysfs parameters at boot, you can use the [http://linux-diag.sourceforge.net/Sysfsutils.html sysfsutils] and put the preferred value in /etc/sysfs.conf.

===Press to Select===
Press to Select allows you to tap the control stick which will simulate a left click. You can enable this feature by typing the following in to a terminal (you may need to be root):

:{{cmdroot|echo -n 1 > /sys/devices/platform/i8042/serio1/serio2/press_to_select}}

Press to Select should now be enabled. You can disable it in a similar manner:

:{{cmdroot|echo -n 0 > /sys/devices/platform/i8042/serio1/serio2/press_to_select}}

You can use this script to automate the operation

#!/bin/bash
if [ "$1" = "1" ]; then
echo "Turning on tap on TrackPoint"
echo -n 1 > /sys/devices/platform/i8042/serio1/serio2/press_to_select
exit 0
fi
if [ "$1" = "0" ]; then
echo "Turning off tap on TrackPoint"
echo -n 0 > /sys/devices/platform/i8042/serio1/serio2/press_to_select
exit 0
fi
echo -n "Tap status: "
cat /sys/devices/platform/i8042/serio1/serio2/press_to_select

In Ubuntu 8.10 to make Press to Select a permanent change:

echo -n 1 | tee /sys/devices/platform/i8042/serio1/serio2/press_to_select

As root, append the above command above "exit 0" in /etc/gdm/Init/Default

===Sensitivity & Speed===
Adjusting the speed and sensitivity of the TrackPoint requires echoing a value between 0 and 255 into the appropriate file. For example, for a speed of 120 and a sensitivity of 250, type the following into a terminal:

:{{cmdroot|echo -n 120 > /sys/devices/platform/i8042/serio1/serio2/speed}}
:{{cmdroot|echo -n 250 > /sys/devices/platform/i8042/serio1/serio2/sensitivity}}

Feel free to experiment with your settings until you find a combination that is comfortable.

When you satisfy your setting, add the two lines into /etc/rc.d/rc.local in order to avoid restoring the default setting every time the system reboots. In Ubuntu 9.10, add the lines to /etc/rc.local to avoid this.

===Vertical Scrolling===
No sysfs entry exists for vertical scrolling in kernels after 2.6.11.

The feature was removed as it was not a hardware feature, but rather emulating a scroll action in software and as such did not belong in the kernel.
Instead the scroll feature of the Xserver should be used, which can be activated with HAL or xinput as described above.

=Configuration using the X server (xorg.conf)=
==Using the "evdev" driver (preferred, especially for recent Xorg versions)==
Extract from /etc/X11/xorg.conf on an X31:

Section "InputDevice"
Identifier "TPPS/2 IBM TrackPoint"
Driver "evdev"
Option "Device" "/dev/input/by-path/platform-i8042-serio-1-event-mouse"
Option "GrabDevice" "False"
Option "EmulateWheel" "true" #Enable wheel emulation for the Trackpoint
Option "EmulateWheelButton" "2" #Use the middle button for the emulation
Option "XAxisMapping" "6 7" #Map trackpoint X axis to X axis of emulated wheel
Option "YAxisMapping" "4 5" #Map trackpoint Y axis to Y axis of emulated wheel
EndSection

{{NOTE|The device path used in the example above is a typical value. To determine the device path appropriate to the TrackPoint on a specific model see [[#Determining TrackPoint Path ID|Determining TrackPoint Path ID]]}}

==Using the "mouse" driver (deprecated, only for old Xorg versions)==
{{NOTE|This only applies to old distributions with Xorg versions that did not yet use evdev. For modern distributions use one of the other methods}}
The scroll setting has been removed from the trackpoint driver in kernel versions 2.6.11 and above. Scroll emulation should now be handled in the X server.

A nice side effect of that is, that middle button scrolling applies to any mouse and not just the TrackPoint interface, which can be a quite handy feature for desktop computers or people who prefer to use an external mouse, especially when scrolling through long lists or needing to use horizontal scrolling with a mouse which has only a vertical scroll wheel.

The necessary functionality, known as "EmulateWheelTimeout" allowing to use button 2 for a middle click, wasn't implemented in Xorg prior to 6.9/7.0. However, there was a patch included in most distributions packages of Xorg, which was announced [http://www.mail-archive.com/devel@xfree86.org/msg03333.html here]. You can find an updated version of the package in the experimental branch of {{Debian}} or try to build the mouse driver yourself with the information in the announcement. This has successfully been tried with FC3's 6.8.2 packages.

Once this functionality is in the X.org, add these lines to your TrackPoint configuration section in {{path|/etc/X11/xorg.conf}}:

Option "EmulateWheel" "on"
Option "EmulateWheelButton" "2"

It may also be necessary to add these lines:

Option "YAxisMapping" "4 5"
Option "XAxisMapping" "6 7"

which specify which buttons are mapped to motion in the vertical (Y) and horizontal (X) directions, respectively, in wheel emulation mode (see http://www.xfree86.org/current/mouse.4.html).

{{HINT| Use the program "xev" to see, what mouse button identifiers are sent by your mouse/touchpad/trackpoint.<br />You might want to try: "xev | grep button"}}
{{HINT| If it does not work see if evdev is installed and remove it. On gentoo do the following:<br />
eix xf86-input-evdev<br />
emerge -C xf86-input-evdev<br />
and then remove the evdev flag in make.conf INPUT_DEVICES}}

So, a complete mouse section, that implements this nicely and works very well on my R51, even with a simultaneously connected USB mouse, looks like that (tried out today, 20th of September, 2006 on Dapper):

Section "InputDevice"
Identifier "Configured Mouse"
Driver "mouse"
Option "CorePointer"
Option "Device" "/dev/input/mice"
Option "Protocol" "ExplorerPS/2"
Option "Emulate3Buttons" "on"
Option "Emulate3TimeOut" "50"
Option "EmulateWheel" "on"
Option "EmulateWheelTimeOut" "200"
Option "EmulateWheelButton" "2"
Option "YAxisMapping" "4 5"
Option "XAxisMapping" "6 7"
Option "ZAxisMapping" "4 5"
EndSection

The mappings for Y and Z are the same, since the "Z-Axis" refers to actual hardware scrolling wheels which usually scroll the screen along the Y-Axis. If there is no hardware scrolling wheel present, horizontal and vertical scrolling using the TrackPoint work fine without the Z-Axis line.

Now restart X and hold down button 2 and move the mouse to scroll, or just press and release button 2 for a middle click.

To make this work with the synaptics driver for the touchpad, you can add
Option "GuestMouseOff" "1"
to the synaptics device section. This will make the synaptics driver ignore the Trackpoint, so it will be handled by the mouse driver. This allowed me to disable the touchpad while making the TrackPoint work like it should.

{{NOTE| With the above mouse section in my xorg.conf all this works like a charm:
*I can press the wheel on my external USB mouse and move the mouse up and down for scrolling
*or I can just use the wheel on the external mouse for scrolling
*or pressing the MMB button of the trackpoint and use the trackpoint for scrolling.
*Even horizontal scrolling works automagically in Konqueror, for Firefox/Opera see below.

Simultaneously I can use
*a press on the external mouse's wheel
*or the MMB of the trackpoint

for pasting the buffer. Lovely! :) }}

{{HINT| If you don't use the middle-mouse-button for pasting and sometimes pasting things by mistake while scrolling (witch is really odd) simply set the "EmulateWheelTimeOut" to "1" as a (bloody) workaround. Middle click will only possible with pressing left and right button simultaneously!}}

=Application specific tweaks=
===Configure Opera for using trackpoint horizontal scrolling===
To fix horizontal scrolling in Opera, you need to edit the configfile <tt>standard_mouse.ini</tt> in e.g. /usr/share/opera/ui/ (Debian) or /opt/opera/share/opera/ini/ (Gentoo) and comment out the following lines
<pre>
Button6 = Back
Button7 = Forward
</pre>
so they look like that
<pre>
;Button6 = Back
;Button7 = Forward
</pre>
Remember, Button6 and Button7 do not so coincidental correspond with our X configuration we know from above:
<pre>
Option "YAxisMapping" "6 7"
</pre>
After this change you will be able to scroll vertically and horizontally with your middle button.

===Firefox 3 tweaks===
These settings make Firefox on Linux behave more like the Windows version. They were tested on an out of the box Fedora 10 system on a Thinkpad T61. Go into about:config, and set the following:

middlemouse.paste = false
middlemouse.contentLoadURL = false
general.autoScroll = true

=Sysfs Options Reference=
{{NOTE|These options are current as of kernel version 2.6.29, 3 May 2009}}
{|
|-
! Name
! Type
! Default
! Notes
|-
| sensitivity
| Integer
| 128
| Sensitivity
|-
| speed
| Integer
| 97
| Cursor speed
|-
| inertia
| Integer
| 6
| Described as "negative inertia." It acts more like friction. High values cause the cursor to snap backward when the Trackpoint is released
|-
| reach
| Integer
| 10
| Backup for Z-axis press
|-
| draghys
| Integer
| 255
| Drag hysteresis (how hard it is to drag with Z-axis pressed)
|-
| mindrag
| Integer
| 20
| Minimum amount of force needed to trigger dragging
|-
| thresh
| Integer
| 8
| Minimum value for a Z-axis press
|-
| upthresh
| Integer
| 255
| Used to generate a 'click' on Z-axis
|-
| ztime
| Integer
| 38
| How sharp of a press
|-
| jenks
| Integer
| 135
| Minimum curvature for double click
|-
| press_to_select
| Boolean
| 0
| Press to select
|-
| skipback
| Boolean
| 0
| Supress movement after drag release
|-
| ext_dev
| Boolean
| 0
| Disable external device
|}
Table info taken from [http://git.kernel.org/?p=linux/kernel/git/torvalds/linux-2.6.git;a=blob;f=drivers/input/mouse/trackpoint.h;hb=HEAD here]. The given link will always point to the current version of the driver. If the notes seem sparse, that's because the code is sparse. On the other hand, the [http://wwwcssrv.almaden.ibm.com/trackpoint/files/ykt3eext.pdf Trackpoint Engineering Specification Version 4.0]  contains more documentation information than anyone ever desired.

=Determining TrackPoint Path ID=
Both the [[#udev|udev]] and [[#Configuration using the X server (xorg.conf)|xorg.conf]] configuration methods require knowledge of the Path ID of the TrackPoint. In the [[#udev|udev]] configuration method, the Path ID is used to match the ID_PATH environmental variable, in the [[#Configuration using the X server (xorg.conf)|xorg.conf]] configuration method it is the prefix for the device file name inside the {{path|/dev/input/by-id}} directory. The path ID can vary between ThinkPad models, distributions (with varying kernel patches), and between kernel versions. One way to find the path ID for the TrackPoint is to use udev's path_id utility on the sysfs device path for the TrackPoint. This device path can be found using the {{path|name}} file which describes the TrackPoint. The process can be automated using the following shell command:
/lib/udev/path_id $(find /sys/devices/platform/i8042 -name name | xargs grep -Fl TrackPoint | sed 's/\/sys$.*$\/name/\1/')

Talk:How to configure the TrackPoint

2010-04-14T13:01:11Z

Jensel: /* Upcoming hotplug method: xorg.conf.d */ new section

==== Enable/disable touchpad ====
As for now, the 3 buttons are disabled when you disable the touchpad. The patch provided at [[UltraNav]] correct this.

Another problem is the back-forward buttons that are also associated to the touchpad as button1 and button2. Another hack to alps.c can resolve this problem, but its too much of a bad hack to be approved in kernel as it might break other devices.
The following patch assign the 3 mouse buttons to the trackpoint (as with the above one) and the back-forward buttons as well. They will be reported as Button8 and Button9 by xorg, imitating the behavior of my Intellimouse explorer, and making them available when the track point is disabled. http://pastebin.com/fa8ed909

Now to enable/disable the trackpoint easily, make sure the fn-f8 key is recognized by xorg (using xev). For sl (300 at least) models, it involves building the lenovo-sl-laptop module (http://github.com/tetromino/lenovo-sl-laptop/tree/master, archlinux package availible in AUR).

This script (http://pastebin.com/f157355d6) allow easy switching between active/inactive state. It uses the synaptic X11 driver. A notification is sent using kdialog, you can change that of course.
Now execute this script on key event. For kde, go to input actions.

[[User:cghislai]]

==== /sys-configuration files ====
where can i find documentation of the other files (thresh, upthresh, skipback, reach, inertia...)? [[User:Blerp|Blerp]] 01:01, 9 March 2007 (CET)
:I second that question. --[[User:Telofy|Telofy]] 18:11, 31 December 2008 (CET)

==== shifting /sys-paths ====
2007-03-13
On my Thinkpad R60 with kernel 2.6.20, the path is {{path|/sys/devices/platform/i8042/serio1/serio2}}.

On {{Fedora}} 5, with kernels 2.6.15 and forward, the path does not include
{{path|serio2}}; it stops at {{path|serio0}}.

Same thing on a {{Ubuntu}} Dapper install on an {{X31}}, again with kernel 2.6.15 (maybe that's the reason? [[User:Piccobello|Piccobello]] 17:02, 26 November 2006 (CET)).

2006-07-18
On {{Fedora}} 5, with kernels 2.6.16 and forward, the path is {{path|/sys/devices/platform/i8042/serio0/serio2}}

2005-11-07
OpenSuSE 10.0 has a kernel based on 2.6.13 (probably heavily patched), but the directory /sys/devices/platform/i8042/serio0/serio2 does not exist.
instead, it looks like this:
hoppetosse:/sys/devices/platform/i8042/serio0 # ls -l
total 0
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 4096 Nov 7 18:38 bind_mode
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 0 Nov 7 18:38 bus -> ../../../../bus/serio
-r--r--r-- 1 root root 4096 Nov 7 18:38 description
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 0 Nov 7 18:38 driver -> ../../../../bus/serio/drivers/psmouse
--w------- 1 root root 4096 Nov 7 18:38 drvctl
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 0 Nov 7 18:38 id
-r--r--r-- 1 root root 4096 Nov 7 18:38 modalias
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 0 Nov 7 18:38 power
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 4096 Nov 7 18:38 protocol
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 4096 Nov 7 18:38 rate
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 4096 Nov 7 18:38 resetafter
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 4096 Nov 7 18:38 resolution
"description" says it's an "i8042 Aux Port". The page [[Patch to enable advanced trackpoint configuration]] seems to imply that a kernel patch is needed in order to get those features... this needs clarification.
hmm. where can i find out whether "drvctrl" is what i'm looking for and what options it takes? guess it's back to RTFS...

2005-10-06
It seems that new version of the patch ( 2.6.12 at least ), the press to select entry in /sys is named "press_to_select" and not "ptson". I changed the page accordingly so that it complies with the [[Patch to enable advanced trackpoint configuration]] page.
If you use an older version try :

====Press to Select====
Press to Select allows you to tap the control stick which will simulate a left click. You can enable this feature by typing the following in to a terminal (you may need to be root):

:{{cmdroot|echo 1 > /sys/devices/platform/i8042/serio0/ptson}}

Press to Select should now be enabled. You can disable it in a similar manner:

:{{cmdroot|echo 0 > /sys/devices/platform/i8042/serio0/ptson}}

Where do I have to put this script (which should automate this), so that it is executed on startup (I have kubuntu (feisty) runing)? Samba

Now I have Intrepid with the new X.org running. I could not find any source how to configure press to select with this X.org version. Can anybody help? Samba

I found out it still work the old way, even with new X.org, for kubuntu jaunty the correct way of doing this is:
"echo -n 1| sudo tee /sys/devices/platform/i8042/serio1/press_to_select"

==== No mouse in {{Fedora}} Core 6 ====
FC6 makes an X11/xorg.conf file with no mouse section, so it's not clear how to make the TrackPoint work for scrolling. Any ideas? --[[User:Whizkid|Whizkid]] 17:36, 4 December 2006 (CET)

==== TrackPoint scrolling inverted in Firefox ====
Running Ubuntu Feisty, Firefox 2.0.0.3, I edited /etc/X11/xorg.conf like described in the article and set mousewheel.horizscroll.withnokey.action = 0; in Firefox.
Scrolling works perfectly in other applications. Up-Down scrolling in Firefox, too, but right-left is inverted (only in Firefox). Does anybody have an idea why this could be? [[User:Tec|Tec]] 11:15, 30 March 2007 (CEST)

Yes: you have to configure mousewheel.horizscroll.withnokey.numlines as well. I have the value set to 1, but you may need to set it to -1.
There is also a mousewheel.horizscroll.withnokey.sysnumlines setting, which you must set to false. --[[User:RichardNeill|RichardNeill]] 03:22, 4 April 2007 (CEST)

Thanks a lot. mousewheel.horizscroll.withnokey.sysnumlines was set to false correctly, but mousewheel.horizscroll.withnokey.numlines was set to -1 as a standard setting. Switched to 1 and it works perfectly :-) BTW, is there a good explanation available in the net, what all those parameters of about:config mean? I searched for it and didn't find anything :-( [[User:Tec|Tec]]

==== Sensitivity and Speed settings under Gutsy Gibbon ====

Sensitivity and speed value editing seem broken in gutsy.
Its no writeable even as root. Tools like configure-trackpoint do not start arguing a lack of root tights.

:Hm, I just installed the deb 0.6-1 available at sourceforge and sudo configure-trackback works for me. Maybe you'd better ask in some forum or file a bug to find out why it's not working on your machine? [[User:Tec|Tec]]

::I confirm that even root can not edit the config files with an editor (vim or nano). But the echo > file works fine.
::{{cmdroot|echo -n 120 > /sys/devices/platform/i8042/serio1/serio2/speed}}
:: I have put these echo in a script executed by root at bootime with a @reboot entry in the root's crontab. Should also work with a call to that script in /etc/bootmisc.sh
::[[User:Ripat|Ripat]] 10:20, 6 January 2008 (CET)

:::Same on my machine. Config files are not writable with an editor, but echo > file works. {{cmduser|sudo configure-trackpoint}} works, too (sorry, I misspelled this before) [[User:Tec|Tec]] 16:00, 12 January 2008 (CET)

== No scroll in Ubuntu 7.10 without UltraNav installed in Windows Vista ==

I could not get trackpoint scroll working in Ubuntu 7.10 (Gutsy Gibbon) on my Z61t using the xorg.conf modifications listed here until I installed the UltraNav Utility on Windows Vista (dual-boot configuration). Scrolling worked fine without the UltraNav utility and with just the UltraNav driver on Windows. It's weird to me that installing the UltraNav utility in Vista would have an effect on Ubuntu. (I know it's not a coincidence because I ran into it once before.) Any explanation for this strangeness?
--[[User:Threexk|Threexk]] 04:05, 18 February 2008 (CET)

== press to select: new mouse button ==

is it possible to put the z axis button (aka pressing the stick) on another x mouse button (and, further on, set EmulateWheelButton to that button)? i use all three buttons both for clicking and dragging and lack a scroll wheel; having the mouse send scroll events when z axis button is pressed instead of moving the mouse would provide that without damaging the other buttons' functionalities. --[[User:Webograph|Webograph]] 12:58, 4 March 2009 (UTC)

== outdated and broken ==

This document is severely outdated and broken. The path to the trackpoint configuration has changed many times, in fact the latest points to /sys/devices/platform/i8042/serio0/serio2 but on my T41 with Ubuntu 8.10 i8042/serio0 is the keyboard (makes sense), the trackpoint is instead located under i8042/serio1/serio2

Problem is that it is difficult to gauge which sections are still relevant

== Soft Transparent Mode ==

I removed the below section from the main article page, as there is no 'transparent' sysfs file on my ThinkPad T41 or ThinkPad T60. Which can mean that either the feature was removed from modern kernels, or it is unique to specific ThinkPads in which case this needs to be clarified.

If you wish to connect a special device to the external PS/2 port, you should consider using "Soft Transparent Mode" so that the TrackPoint controller does not interpret any commands sent to the external PS/2 port. You can enable soft transparent mode by typing the following in to a terminal:

:{{cmdroot|echo -n 1 > /sys/devices/platform/i8042/serio1/serio2/transparent}}

Disabling soft transparent mode is similar:

:{{cmdroot|echo -n 0 > /sys/devices/platform/i8042/serio1/serio2/transparent}}

== settings example ==

These are the best settings that i've found for the trackpoint
(very usable for press-to-select and drag&drop):
<pre>
TRACK_DIR="/sys/devices/platform/i8042/serio1"

echo -n 1 > $TRACK_DIR/press_to_select
echo -n 220 > $TRACK_DIR/sensitivity
echo -n 20 > $TRACK_DIR/ztime
echo -n 4 > $TRACK_DIR/thresh
echo -n 8 > $TRACK_DIR/upthresh
echo -n 100 > $TRACK_DIR/resolution
echo -n 105 > $TRACK_DIR/speed
echo -n 10 > $TRACK_DIR/mindrag
</pre>

== Horizontal Scrolling in HAL ==

The current [[How to configure the TrackPoint#Configuration using udev and HAL|section]] talks about vertical scrolling and gives an example of an appropriate HAL policy file to enable it. According to [http://psung.blogspot.com/2008/09/scrolling-with-thinkpads-trackpoint-in.html this website], a small modification to the example .fdi file offers horizontal scrolling as well (and indeed it works for me too). Should I add this to the page?--[[User:RAult|RAult]] 09:30, 30 July 2009 (UTC)

Thanks, I have added it to the main page. --[[User:Tonko|Tonko]] 11:41, 31 July 2009 (UTC)

== Upcoming hotplug method: xorg.conf.d ==

Instead using the udev-method, the Ubuntu devs backported xorg.conf.d support for Ubuntu 10.04 Lucid Lynx. Just create a file '''/usr/lib/X11/xorg.conf.d/20-thinkpad.conf''' with following contents:
<pre>
Section "InputClass"
Identifier "Trackpoint Wheel Emulation"
MatchProduct "TPPS/2 IBM TrackPoint|DualPoint Stick|Synaptics Inc. Composite TouchPad / TrackPoint"
MatchDevicePath "/dev/input/event*"
Option "EmulateWheel" "true"
Option "EmulateWheelButton" "2"
Option "Emulate3Buttons" "false"
Option "XAxisMapping" "6 7"
Option "YAxisMapping" "4 5"
EndSection
</pre>--[[User:Jensel|jensel]] 13:01, 14 April 2010 (UTC)