A quick search found this superuser suggestion to install the Synaptics touchpad driver from the Ubuntu repository. Searching in the package manager turned up libsynaptics and gsynaptics so I installed them both.

Before this would work, I needed to create a file according to the instructions found Kogan Agora Netbook blog:

sudo vim /etc/hal/fdi/policy/shmconfig.fdi

Once opened, it needed to have the following as its contents:

< ?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<deviceinfo version="0.2">
  <device>
    <match key="input.x11_driver" string="synaptics">
      <merge key="input.x11_options.SHMConfig" type="string">True</merge>
    </match>
  </device>
</deviceinfo>

I have no idea of that version number is correct, but this allowed me to move on. Additionally, in /etc/X11/xorg.conf, I added the section (via sudo vim):

Section "InputDevice"
        Identifier      "Synaptics Touchpad"
        Driver          "synaptics"
        Option          "SHMConfig"             "true"
EndSection

after rebooting (or logging out, or restarting X), you can then run gsynaptics from gmrun or the terminal. Even better, assign a new entry to the OpenBox menu to execute gsynaptics from a System menu item labeled Touchpad. Once you have that, you can decrease the sensitivity of the touchpad, add and tweak acceleration values and modify tapping behavior. It works really well and has radically reduced the number of accidental mouse actions. This tweak alone has made the Crunchbang netbook experience much much better.

Dell Mini 10 with Ubuntu – touchpad issues – Super User.

The setting to swap the Caps Lock key for an extra Control key was no longer working with my Apple Bluetooth keyboard. This is crippling for me, as I spend a lot of time in the Terminal and using Ctrl key combos are the only real way to get around and edit lines of text.

A search found this blog entry:

The problem turned out to be related to the wireless USB hub for Logitech’s MX Revolution (and others?) mouse. If you unplug it before you change the Modifier Keys the changes do take effect.

Thanks for the tip!

I’ve been an occasional user of Wacom’s Intuos 2 graphics tablets for a few years. I’ve always liked the idea of the tablet if not willing to commit to it for constant use. Last week, while I was visiting the left coast, I stopped into Fry’s and saw a Wacom Intuos 3 6×8″ tablet in an opened, slightly crumpled box for $30 off. This, I thought, was Just The Thing!

Since then I’ve been using it constantly as my Go-To mouse on my main machine. My troubles with various pointing devices have been well-documented over the years. If I were to describe myself based on how I think I must appear, I would probably call me “mercurial”. I am OK with this self-assessment. Others might not be so charitable.

But! I feel reasonably sure that my complaints were justified. The criticisms you level at a mouse are usually those annoyances you discover after using them for awhile. Take the Apple “Mighty” Mouse for example – its chief annoyances are: no real buttons, the “squeeze” button requires you to shift your whole hand. You can’t click and lift the mouse without a squeeze and some contortions. The ball doesn’t work with Windows… Logitech’s mice are decent but the drivers so flawed in OS X as to render them unusable. Also, after using the MX Revolution for a year plus, I began to find the huge lump quite uncomfortable for extended periods.

Enter the Wacom Intuos 3. The 5 button mouse is comfortable, light and the buttons are all well-placed. The scroll wheel only moves in one-axis, but the feeling is smooth and has a sort of rubbery quality. Most importantly, the positioning of the thing is very precise.

Now a word about using Wacoms as your standard mousing device: They take some getting used to. Not just because the mouse is different feeling, but because the tablet is the actual important device. That means the orientation of the tablet is important. If the angle’s wrong, you’ll find you’re mousing on a diagonal. I keep mine angled slightly so it’s perpendicular to the line of my arm when resting on it. Another point: if you slide off the sensor area as you are wont to do, your mouse stops working. You have to train yourself a little to use these things in an unretarded way. Do it wrong and you’ll look the fool! I’ve got the tracking speed boosted a bit from the default and acceleration turned up as well. This allows me to cover my screens in less space.

Those things aside, the thing works very neatly. The extra modifier buttons on the side of the tablet are more useful when using it as a pen device, though I do find myself using the touchstrips for scrolling from time-to-time. I wish they had a faster setting though. The drivers for the Wacoms have always been one of their strong points and they are no exception on this version. Virtually every function you can imagine can be mapped, remapped or configured. The pen is a device of alien origin sufficiently advanced to be considered magic. I don’t know how it works, and frankly, I don’t wanna know!

I woke up feeling a little creative this morning and didn’t feel compelled to put together shelves or unpack boxes. So I dug out my Korg EA-1, plugged it into my midi box (which finally has Leopard-compatible drivers) and whipped-up this little bit of synth noise.

Junk Drawer.mp3 (192kbps VBR MP3)

or

Junk Drawer.m4a (177kbps VBR AAC)

3’27″.

This is a new low for the Logitech Control Center. Now that it’s stopped crashing, it’s started causing other programs to crash. Honestly though, I’m not sure where the blame lies in this case, but I do like TextMate a lot more than I like that Logitech Mouse, so here we are. (Maybe I should revise the scoring in this entry’s title)

A word about writing software: it has to work. This is important. Also important, it has to do so without crashing. This is especially true of software that is written as an interface layer for hardware, or “driver software”. When this low-level, system software blows up, it can seriously ruin your day. Don’t think, “oh, it’s just a control panel, it doesn’t matter if it crashes”. It does. It’s where the user interacts with this shiny new piece of hardware and if it sucks, well, all the shiny packaging won’t cover that up. They will feel ripped off. And if you’re going to put a platform sticker on that packaging, like, “Mac OS X” or “Ubuntu!”, please make sure that the included software is not just something cobbled together with a collection of system hacks by a couple of interns. Software is hard, serious business. It is not to be undertaken lightly. End digression…

It is with the utmost humility and sheepishness that I say that the Control Center software no longer sucks as hard as it once did. In fact, it seems to do exactly what it’s supposed to do, and that is make my mouse work and not crash while doing it. Kudos to you Logitech! It works in Leopard and has support for the thumb-wheel (which I’ve mapped to Exposé and Spaces). It even has a slider for setting the mouse tracking multiplier. (hint: leave it at 1x)

I will even go as far as installing the driver software on my “new” media machine later today and trying it out with the S530 Wireless Keyboard and Mouse.

Download it here, I think:

Logitech Control Center for Macintosh OS X

PS, say what you will about their driver software, Logitech’s website is still a festering pit of anal leakage. The text in the dropdown says lcc231.zip even though the descriptive text on the page is version 2.4. Download it anyway, it’ll grab 2.4 for you…

PPS, Logitech, I still love you. Please make a nice mouse with lots of buttons (like the MX Revolution) and make it Bluetooth. Some of us really like that! Thanks.

PPPS, if you’re still looking for an OS X alternative to Logitech’s drivers, try USB Overdrive. Lots of people rave about it, though it’s not free.