I don’t own a ThinkPad, but I know that a lot of you do.
A reader who doesn’t wish to be credited pinged us a link to a set of scripts that claim to “fix” touchpad and trackpad issues on ThinkPad laptops running Ubuntu.
Without a ThinkPad of my own I cannot attest how well these scripts do or do not work.
The touchpad scripts included in the pack lets you to ’emulate’ the three trackpad buttons that newer Lenovo laptops ship with, but which many pre-2014 series ThinkPads don’t.
The touchpad scripts also lets you disable movements for part of the touchpad or the complete touchpad to prevent accidental pointer movements (i.e. if you plan on using the TrackPoint as the sole input).
There’s also a script for accelerating the TrackPoint speed.
Download
Scripts for both Ubuntu 14.04 LTS and Ubuntu 16.04 LTS are available, and are well worth checking out if you’re annoyed by Ubuntu’s default touchpad handling.
Please pay attention to the GitHub instructions before running any of the scripts included. The scripts will add repositories, download source packages, configure drivers and install new software.
Do not use idly.