Home / ubuntu / Questions / 1179275
Accepted
KingBugAndTheCodeWizard
Asked: 2019-10-08 03:26:46 +0800 CST

Enable tap to click Kubuntu

  • 772

I just installed Kubuntu on my Dell XPS 15 9570. Everything is working fine, except for tap to click on the touchpad.

I can activate the option in the settings but this has no effect.

kubuntu touchpad tap-to-click

4 Answers

  1. Best Answer

    After some additional searching I found the solution to my problem here

    I had to add Option "Tapping" "True" to the entry MatchIsTouchpad in the file /usr/share/X11/xorg.conf.d/40-libinput.conf. The exact name of the file might be different for other people.

    In the end, the relevant section will look like something like this:

    Section "InputClass"
        Identifier "libinput touchpad catchall"
        MatchIsTouchpad "on"
        Option "Tapping" "True"
        MatchDevicePath "/dev/input/event*"
        Driver "libinput"
EndSection

    You need to be root to edit the file and reboot your system after the changes!

    • 21

  2. You can hit ALT+F2 and search for "Touchpad" under "System settings".

    When you get to it, you'll need to set "Tap-to-click" option.

    Additionally, you may want to set "Invert scroll direction (Natural scrolling)", which changes how your two finger scrolling works.

    For both these options, you can hit "Apply" and see immediately if it suits you. Enjoy!

    • 3

  3. IMHO Symlinking the 40-libinput.conf is a better approach. See the Arch Linux libinput wiki.

    It works great for me on my Dell Inspiron 7390 with Arch Linux Gnome and Kubuntu 21.04 dual boot. I can also confirm that tap to click works on both Arch Linux gdm and Kubuntu sddm.

    sudo ln -sv /usr/share/X11/xorg.conf.d/40-libinput.conf /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/40-libinput.conf

    My modified /usr/share/X11/xorg.conf.d/40-libinput.conf touchpad section looks as follows

        Section "InputClass"
        Identifier "libinput touchpad catchall"
        MatchIsTouchpad "on"
        MatchDevicePath "/dev/input/event*"
        Driver "libinput"
        Option "Tapping" "on" #added
        Option "NaturalScrolling" "on" #added
    EndSection
    • 1

  4. This is a minor update, but as it touches on more than one point it's worth a post instead of a comment on a post.

    As noted, editing the /usr/share/X11/xorg.conf.d/40-libinput.conf file works well. However, one does not need to reboot after. One only needs to log out and log in as this causes an X11 restart, saving time. Also, if you have other logged in users, this prevents interruption to their work.

    My process worked like this:
    Open and edit the file from a terminal using:
    sudo vim /usr/share/X11/xorg.conf.d/40-libinput.conf
    such that my file looks like this.*:

    Section "InputClass"
        Identifier "libinput touchpad catchall"
        MatchIsTouchpad "on"
        # added Tapping entry on Oct 22 2021 per
        #   https://askubuntu.com/questions/1179275/enable-tap-to-click-kubuntu
        Option "Tapping"
        MatchDevicePath "/dev/input/event*"
        Driver "libinput"
EndSection
    • Note, I've learned the hard way to always document where I've made a change and WHY I made the change, ideally with a reference to the documentation that led me to the change. In that way, I can follow up later to see if that advice has changed.
    • 0