Bsrgvty

I finally convinced my wife to put Ubuntu on her Macbook. Unfortunately, she strongly prefers the Mac approach to right clicking: Ctrl+Button1. I have the trackpad set up to do a two finger touch = right-click, but she isn't having it.

Can anyone please, please, PLEASE help me figure this out. I've seen this question posted before, with no answers.

I also saw the mouseemu approach mentioned here, but it doesn't seem to work.

I also thought about using the built in System Preferences>Keyboard>Shortcuts>Custom Shortcut, but it doesn't allow a "left click."

I also thought about using CCSM and xdotool, but couldn't figure out how to get two xdotool (xdotool xdotool key super+l; xdootool click 1)options to turn into one (xdotool click 3). (Note: I switched the Ctrl key and the super/mac command key to make it more mac-like, hence the super+l).

If you have a workable solution -- please respond. A Mac to Ubuntu conversion is at stake!

[Ubuntu 15.10; MacbookPro 9,2]

sudo nano /usr/share/X11/xorg.conf.d/50-synaptics.conf 

Under the section "Input Class" edit the options for TapButton so you have

Section "InputClass"

 Option "TapButton1" "1"
 Option "TapButton2" "3"
 Option "TapButton3" "2"

This will enable right click and tap to click.

Both given answers didn't work for me. What worked for me was:

synclient RightButtonAreaLeft=1

Put it in some file that is run at startup (e.g. .bash, .zsh)

Source: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+bug/861694

On Mint, I had this section at the bottom of my my 50-synaptics.conf

# This option disables software buttons on Apple touchpads.
# This option is only interpreted by clickpads.
Section "InputClass"
 Identifier "Disable clickpad buttons on Apple touchpads"
 MatchProduct "Apple|bcm5974"
 MatchDriver "synaptics"
 Option "SoftButtonAreas" "0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0"
EndSection

Commenting out the option worked for me.

#Option "SoftButtonAreas" "0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0"

Seems a strange default!

The mouseemu approach does work for me on Lubuntu 18.10, as follows:

1. 
   

   Install mouseemu and a dependency it does not list (which is a bug):

   
   
   

   sudo apt install mouseemu makedev
   

   
   


2. 
   

   Configure mouseemu:

   
   
   

   sudo mouseemu -right 29 272
   

   
   


3. 
   

   Start mouseemu:

   
   
   

   sudo mouseemu
   

   
   
   

   It may take up to 5 seconds until the change takes effect. After that, Ctrl + left-click should create a right-click.

   
   

Unfortunately, sometimes this stops working randomly after a few minutes. In such a case, this will repair it:

sudo killall -9 mouseemu
sudo mouseemu -right 29 272