Bsrgvty

I am running Ubuntu 14.10 with Unity. I would really like to make some multitouch gestures work, so I can use my touchpad to e.g. spread all windows, change workspace, and the like.
My computer has a SynPS/2 Synaptics TouchPad.
When I run geisview, and look under:

"Device [ID] Added: SynPS/2 Synaptics TouchPad"

it says "Device Touches: 2", which should mean that my touchpad is only capable of recognizing 2 finges..
I checked in another forum (Arch Linux - https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Touchpad_Synaptics#Using_xinput_to_determine_touchpad_capabilities). And here it says i can use xinput to determine its capabilities. So I run:

xinput list-props "SynPS/2 Synaptics TouchPad" | grep Capabilities

and I get this output:

Synaptics Capabilities (295): 1, 0, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1

which evidently means that it should be capable of recognizing at least 3 finges..

When I download touchegg and run it in a terminal it gives absolutely no output.. Not even with 1- or 2-finger-gestures.

Can anyone please help! Would love to make this work!
Thanks in advance! :)

You have to force Xorg to use the evdev (generic) driver in stead of the regular synaptics driver. For me it (Touchegg) does work, the only problem is that mouse input is not being recognized anymore, just the gestures. See also my question, but perhaps it does work on your system, so it's worth a try I think!

To do load the evdev driver;

1. Run xinput and get the deviceId of the touchpad


2. Run xinput --watch-props DEVICEID and note the Device Node (234), e.g. /dev/input/eventXXXX


3. Tell Xorg to load the evdev driver (/etc/x11/xorg.conf) (substitute eventXXXX)

 Section "InputClass"
 Identifier "touchpad catchall"
 Driver "evdev"
 MatchDevicePath "/dev/input/eventXXXX"
 Option "Ignore" "false"
 Option "Floating" "off"
EndSection

4. Now you just have to restart the X server with "sudo service lightdm restart", for the changes to take effect.

Also I've found this page on the official Ubuntu Wiki, it states that three finger touch should work by following the instructions, tried it but no luck. So I still don't understand if its a feature of Ubuntu or if we really do need these external applications.

Another external application worth to try may be xSwipe, I've never tried it but it seems to include the same features. Some worries about battery life though, but it can be fixed by lowering the accuracy.

You can find here a valid alternative to touchegg: https://github.com/intersimone999/xSwipe

It can handle up to 5 fingers (if your touchpad supports it), all kinds of swipes (up, down, left, right), also from the edges.

Follow the instructions in the README.md file, the installation is a little tricky, as you have to replace the xserver-xorg-input-synaptic driver.

You can customize your gestures as want, simulating any key combination.

Here my personal version (I have all the desktops in one column, so I can handle the swipe more easily):

1. Two fingers:
   
   • Edge right: lower volume (Special volume key)
   
   
   • Edge left: raise volume (Special volume key)
   
   


2. Three fingers:
   
   • Up: Change desktop (lower) (CTRL+ALT+DOWN)
   
   
   • Down: Change desktop (upper) (CTRL+ALT+UP)
   
   
   • Left: History forward on browsers (ALT+RIGHT)
   
   
   • Right: History back on browsers (ALT+LEFT)
   
   
   • Edge up: nothing (doesn't work very well)
   
   
   • Edge down: nothing (doesn't work very well)
   
   


3. Four fingers:
   
   • Up: show all windows (CTRL+ALT+SHIFT+W: I changed the default SUPER+SHIFT+W combination in compiz config because I wasn't able to simulate SUPER as a modifier)
   
   
   • Down: show all windows (current desktop) (CTRL+ALT+W)
   
   
   • Left: nothing
   
   
   • Right: nothing
   
   
   • Edge up: nothing (doesn't work very well)
   
   
   • Edge down: nothing (doesn't work very well)
   
   


4. Five fingers:
   
   • Up: move the window in the lower desktop (CTRL+ALT+SHIFT+DOWN)
   
   
   • Down: move the window in the upper desktop (CTRL+ALT+SHIFT+UP)
   
   
   • Left: nothing
   
   
   • right: nothing
   
   
   • Edge up: nothing
   
   
   • Edge down: nothing