Trackpad on Thinkpad W540 not working properly

Question

I just bought a Lenovo Thinkpad W540 and installed Ubuntu on it, migrating from Mac OS. I notice that the trackpad on this computer is basically one big key that can be pressed anywhere on its surface, not just at the usual space allocated for buttons at the bottom of the trackpad. Under Ubuntu, the track pad seems poorly configured, and when I click the cursor tends to jump out of place. Is there a way to solve this issue?

Please let me know if I need to provide any further information regarding my system.

Thank you.

Solution 1

Someone on github posted a clickpad configuration that works pretty well for the w540 model of Thinkpad. I am using the configuration that was suggested here and am pretty happy with it.

I found the touchpad is too sensitive while typing. So I also configured Ubuntu version 14.04 in the following way. Go to: System Settings -> Mouse & Touchpad with the following settings. Touchpad Disable while typing is unchecked.

I created a Startup Application to disable the trackpad with different settings and it runs each time I start Ubuntu.

syndaemon -d -i 2 -K -R

The flags are: start as daemon, with idle time 2 seconds, ignore modifier keys, use XRecord.

Hope that helps. If you find other settings for the configuration file or daemon please post them here.

Solution 2

You can Install Pointing Devices which is a tool to configure the trackpad.

Ubuntu Apps directory : https://apps.ubuntu.com/cat/applications/gpointing-device-settings/

You can also install it by running:

sudo apt-get install gpointing-device-settings

Application home page: https://wiki.gnome.org/GPointingDeviceSettings

Comments

[Anon]

Complain to Lenovo while you are at it. Their touchpads have been spotty, to the point where I just disabled mine, opting for the red nub. To that point; there is this application where you can increase the sensivity manifold: sourceforge.net/projects/tpctl. A sensitive nub works wonderful.