ALDP touchpad and Linux Mint 10

elrasho · 23 Mar 2011 at 13:12

I have a HP Mini 311c that has an ALPS touchpad. Linux Mint detects it as a mouse and so when I try to increase the speed of the mouse, nothing actually happens.

I've done some google searches and found this: http://thedaneshproject.com/posts/improve-alps-touchpad-response-speed/

Before I go and make any changes, can somebody advise it's safe to do this?.... I'm a Linux noob

whitecrook · 23 Mar 2011 at 13:14

just back up your xorg.conf file beforehand

should be fine. it'll either work or it wont. you wont break anything

elrasho · 23 Mar 2011 at 13:17

thanks whiterocke, I don't suppose you know a way I can increase the mouse speed through command line?

masterluke · 23 Mar 2011 at 17:22

If you are going to be using linux the you are going to have to do things in a slightly different way. The link you showed seems to be pretty simple to follow and as long as you backup your xorg.conf its easy to sort out if anything goes wrong. Just get stuck in and I'm sure you'll sort it out.

whitecrook · 23 Mar 2011 at 21:03

to set mouse from command line used to use the xset command

xset --help

something like (IIRC)

xset -m 4 6

4 is threshold and 6 is accel rate. (or something) I always find mouse feel on linux to be a bit poor, the accel curve is different to windows .

elrasho · 23 Mar 2011 at 23:15

xset m 22 works for me

How can I set this up so I dont have to keep typing this in everytime I switch my netbook on?

whitecrook · 23 Mar 2011 at 23:45

many ways...

put it in a script:

#!/bin/bash
xset m 22

save that as mouse.sh , make executable and add it to your startup items in kde / gnome what ever

elrasho · 24 Mar 2011 at 00:02

Thanks for the info but Im struggling, I typed that into Terminal but nothing happens

Im a total Linux noob by the way

elrasho · 24 Mar 2011 at 00:42

I followed this youtube video (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S9tnMfQpu9c) and entered

#!bin/bash

xset m 5 2

as my script and added it to the startup applications list but it has no affect on reboot. What am I doing wrong? Please help this is really bugging me lol

elrasho · 24 Mar 2011 at 01:22

I thought it may have been a permissions issue so I made myself Admin and gave all groups read/write permissions for the srartup-script.hl script I created. It still doeant run on startup

I can double click the script file and run it that way but I want it to autorun on startup. Please can anyone help, Id be eternaly greatfull

Essexraptor · 24 Mar 2011 at 05:22

whitecrook said:
many ways...

put it in a script:

#!/bin/bash
xset m 22

save that as mouse.sh , make executable and add it to your startup items in kde / gnome what ever

I'll have to try it myself a bit later but I think the clue is "make it executable"

ie right click on the file > properties > permissions > tick the the box for execute?

may be wrong?

elrasho · 24 Mar 2011 at 07:10

I noticed that straight after I sign in the mouse speed is as I want it, but then after about 3 seconds goes back to the default speed

I've tried copying the script to the init.d folder but still no luck

elrasho · 24 Mar 2011 at 17:12

Here are all the input devices Mint sees:

xinput list
⎡ Virtual core pointer id=2 [master pointer (3)]
⎜ ↳ Virtual core XTEST pointer id=4 [slave pointer (2)]
⎜ ↳ ImPS/2 Generic Wheel Mouse id=12 [slave pointer (2)]
⎣ Virtual core keyboard id=3 [master keyboard (2)]
↳ Virtual core XTEST keyboard id=5 [slave keyboard (3)]
↳ Power Button id=6 [slave keyboard (3)]
↳ Video Bus id=7 [slave keyboard (3)]
↳ Power Button id=8 [slave keyboard (3)]
↳ Sleep Button id=9 [slave keyboard (3)]
↳ HP Webcam-50 id=10 [slave keyboard (3)]
↳ AT Translated Set 2 keyboard id=11 [slave keyboard (3)]
↳ HP WMI hotkeys id=13 [slave keyboard (3)]

Does this look ok? I have to Mice apparently, could that be the problem?

whitecrook · 24 Mar 2011 at 18:46

elrasho said:
I noticed that straight after I sign in the mouse speed is as I want it, but then after about 3 seconds goes back to the default speed

I've tried copying the script to the init.d folder but still no luck

something else will be 'readjusting' the mouse settings after you log in . You need to find out how your OS handles this and remove it or change it etc.

No use putting this script in init.d as that is for boot up / start up scripts, you want this to be ran A) after X has started, and B) after you have logged in.

masterluke · 24 Mar 2011 at 19:37

Its a bit (or a lot) of a hack but you could work out exactly when X adjusts the speed itself and put in a "sleep 30" (or whatever time in seconds) to the script so that your command runs afterwards...

Either that or do as previously shown and edit xorg.conf