Touchpad too slow -- how do I adjust it?

Question

Apparently this is a recurring problem. I tried System->Preferences->Mouse but it didn't help.

There's a lot of info on the web on this, but it is outdated (Ubuntu 7.04 and 8.04).
Any tips on how to fix this?

Solution 1

I had the same problem with my Dell. In the mouse options, try increasing the speed but decreasing the sensitivity.

Solution 2

Might be worth installing the new gpointing-device-settings package to see if that makes a difference. It has a fairly extensive number of options to control speed, acceleration and so on.

sudo apt-get install gpointing-device-settings

Solution 3

What laptop do you have? Some Lenovo Thinkpads have options in the following files:

$ cat /sys/devices/platform/i8042/serio1/speed
97
$ cat /sys/devices/platform/i8042/serio1/sensitivity
128

Comments

[Josh Ripley]

Judging by the tags, he has a Dell.

[user2413]

counter intuitive....but works like a charm. Thanks again..

[dgw]

If you think about it, it makes sense. Making the touchpad more "sensitive" makes it allow for finer control over the pointer. If you're getting finer control, it takes more touchpad area to move the pointer a given distance because the scanning resolution is fixed. (Did that make any sense?)

[user2413]

aha, that was like 8 laptops ago:)