How to set track pad settings on arch systems with libinput

edwinclement08

4 years ago

My laptop when running Linux never enables click on tap by default. Given the heavy press required for clicking, this was a real hindrance to using the track pad. I also wanted to enable Natural Scrolling as I had gotten used to it.

In Shell, type xinput list to get a list of devices and their ids.

$ xinput list
 ⎡ Virtual core pointer                id=2    [master pointer  (3)]
 ⎜   ↳ Virtual core XTEST pointer      id=4    [slave  pointer  (2)]
 ⎜   ↳ SynPS/2 Synaptics TouchPad      id=13   [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)]
     ↳ HP WMI hotkeys                  id=14   [slave  keyboard (3)]
     ↳ HP Wireless hotkeys             id=15   [slave  keyboard (3)]

Input the ID of the touchpad into the following command

xinput list-props <id>

In this case, it would give the output

xinput list-props 13
 Device 'SynPS/2 Synaptics TouchPad':
     Device Enabled (205):   1
     Coordinate Transformation Matrix (207): 1.000000, 0.000000, 0.000000, 0.000000, 1.000000, 0.000000, 0.000000, 0.000000, 1.000000
     libinput Tapping Enabled (359): 0
     libinput Tapping Enabled Default (360): 0
     libinput Tapping Drag Enabled (361):    1
     libinput Tapping Drag Enabled Default (362):    1
     libinput Tapping Drag Lock Enabled (363):   0
     libinput Tapping Drag Lock Enabled Default (364):   0
     libinput Tapping Button Mapping Enabled (365):  1, 0
     libinput Tapping Button Mapping Default (366):  1, 0
     libinput Natural Scrolling Enabled (339):   0
     libinput Natural Scrolling Enabled Default (340):   0
     libinput Disable While Typing Enabled (367):    1
     libinput Disable While Typing Enabled Default (368):    1
     libinput Scroll Methods Available (341):    1, 1, 0
     libinput Scroll Method Enabled (342):   1, 0, 0
     libinput Scroll Method Enabled Default (343):   1, 0, 0
     libinput Click Methods Available (369): 1, 1
     libinput Click Method Enabled (370):    1, 0
     libinput Click Method Enabled Default (371):    1, 0
     libinput Middle Emulation Enabled (348):    0
     libinput Middle Emulation Enabled Default (349):    0
     libinput Accel Speed (350): 0.000000
     libinput Accel Speed Default (351): 0.000000
     libinput Accel Profiles Available (352):    1, 1
     libinput Accel Profile Enabled (353):   1, 0
     libinput Accel Profile Enabled Default (354):   1, 0
     libinput Left Handed Enabled (355): 0
     libinput Left Handed Enabled Default (356): 0
     libinput Send Events Modes Available (324): 1, 1
     libinput Send Events Mode Enabled (325):    0, 0
     libinput Send Events Mode Enabled Default (326):    0, 0
     Device Node (327):  "/dev/input/event18"
     Device Product ID (328):    2, 7
     libinput Drag Lock Buttons (357):   
     libinput Horizontal Scroll Enabled (358):   1

The List that appears is all the settings and their current values.

If you want to change a setting, look at the number in parentheses after the settings title, and then use it in the following syntax

For example, you want to enable natural scrolling:

xinput set-prop 13 339 1

You can also use the Setting name, for example, enabling <Tapping> on my Synaptics track pad:

xinput set-prop 13 "libinput Tapping Enabled" 1

Update:

The options above aren't persisted after rebooting. To do that, you can add the settings to .xsessionrc

Update:

Share this: