Overly sensitive touch pad?

[Kingston73]

I am really enjoying MX but I have an issue, my laptop's touch pad is MUCH too sensitive. I have a dual boot system on a dell inspiron 15 and on ubuntu the keypad is just....normal. No issues. When using MX however it responds to the slightest brush, I have to type with my hands floating above the keys because otherwise the touchpad responds to my sneezing and does all sorts of crazy things. Is there a setting I can't find that can reduce this issue?

[GuiGuy]

"Mouse and Touchpad" should help you.
I always use it to disable "tap to click".
You can also use it to disable touchpad while typing.

[GuzmanEscobar]

MX Linux 19 (x64) on Macbook.

GuiGuy, with all respect, your answer does not address the actual topic, Kingston73 says it perfectly, it responds to the slightest brush.

I just installed MX Linux the other day and am checking it out. I have had Mac OS, Ubuntu, Centos as well as Windowz installed on this Mac, with NO problems. The touchpad has become way too sensitive since installing MX. In all honest, I did not realize how sensitive my touchpad is, hardware wise, until I installed MX Linux. Its really annoying (so was the default single click, which I did change to double once I found out how).

Side-note: I also am unable to click down and drag with another finger, but I have to click down and move the cursor whilst I have my finger pressed down; this is also way annoying and it hinders the my accuracy, and MANY times I loose control and have to start all over or accidentally drop the item onto something I do not want.

[Jerry3904]

We have had a number of people report this, including me. For all the solution was to launch Touchpad-Indicator from the menu and adjust it to your liking. It's a very well written app and works very well.

[junoluna]

The touchpad sensitivity seems to be a real issues with some macs in particular

i have no issues on any of my non mac hardware but i installed MX on a friend's mac air over new year and the touchpad was unusable

Only option was to disable the touchpad with touchpad indicator and use a mouse instead :(

i am sure there are other options but my friend is real lazy and as a mac user, not really willing to put in the graft ...i doubt he will ever explore them ...

[GuzmanEscobar]

We have had a number of people report this, including me. For all the solution was to launch Touchpad-Indicator from the menu and adjust it to your liking. It's a very well written app and works very well.

Good to hear its not just me, as well as with other laptops, like the author's Dell. Of which, since its obviously software and/or driver settings that specify touchpads' sensitivity AND this problem does NOT happen with other OSes (Ubuntu, Mac, Centos, Windowz, etc.), then the problem by defacto is MX Linux. I get that one may be able to change the sensitivity (I yet don't know how but will find out), but the setting is NOT user friendly. Default settings should comply to the average joe, and not by the developer whom likes it the way he likes it (not insulting but pointing out the obvious). Hence, I hope future releases addresses this (as well as the dumb single click to select, its way annoying and coupled with the touchpad sensitivity, it makes using MX Linux an annoying experience. So much that I almost gave up and went back to CentOS).

Many thanks to the quick reply back, btw.

Cheers, - Ian.

[asqwerth]

Did you ever try a Debian (not Ubuntu)-based distro? If so, what distro, and did you have the same issue?

Just trying to narrow down where the issue could have arisen from.

[carolus]

asqwerth wrote:
Did you ever try a Debian (not Ubuntu)-based distro? If so, what distro, and did you have the same issue?

Reply: No touchpad problem with Debian 9 (oldstable), but I'm having to use an external mouse with MX 19.1.

[az2020]

FWIW: the commands synclient & xinput have a variety of touchpad adjustment options. I think that's what touchpad-indicator is adjusting. (You could probably use it to find the right adjustment, then query the settings with the command, and then just set them with a script at startup without having that UI loaded.).

I wish all distros would dial down touchpad sensitivity by default. I also wish they all used a standard key-combination to toggle enable/disable it. It would be nice to be able to boot any distro and hit "windows + spacebar" (or some standard shortcut) to get rid of it. Touchpads seem annoying enough (to enough people) that a standardized shortcut would make sense (IMO).

[seaken64]

We have had a number of people report this, including me. For all the solution was to launch Touchpad-Indicator from the menu and adjust it to your liking. It's a very well written app and works very well.

Good to hear its not just me, as well as with other laptops, like the author's Dell. Of which, since its obviously software and/or driver settings that specify touchpads' sensitivity AND this problem does NOT happen with other OSes (Ubuntu, Mac, Centos, Windowz, etc.), then the problem by defacto is MX Linux. I get that one may be able to change the sensitivity (I yet don't know how but will find out), but the setting is NOT user friendly. Default settings should comply to the average joe, and not by the developer whom likes it the way he likes it (not insulting but pointing out the obvious). Hence, I hope future releases addresses this (as well as the dumb single click to select, its way annoying and coupled with the touchpad sensitivity, it makes using MX Linux an annoying experience. So much that I almost gave up and went back to CentOS).

Many thanks to the quick reply back, btw.

Cheers, - Ian.

Linux in general is NOT user friendly. And to suggest that a developer sets things up to only his/her liking is not based on reality. There are so many variables it is near impossible to avoid every possible user issue in an effort to be user friendly to every possible user. What makes a distro genuinely user friendly is the willingness of the developers to listen to their users and then make the effort to please them. Of course, sometimes that is impossible (pleasing the user, that is).

I have not seen a more user friendly OS than MX. That a few touchpads have gone awry does not change that. There are also a few video cards that don't seem to get along with MX, and a few NIC's. In Linux, this is normal. Some hardware just acts weird! But more often than not there is a solution. If MX does not work OOTB for you then it is perfectly acceptable for you to try something else. But the developers here are not inclined to suggest it's "my way or the highway". It's quite the contrary.

Sometimes it can be annoying at first when things don't work. But if you stick with it you will no longer be annoyed, but delighted!