Will the Logitech T650 rechargable wireless touchpad work with Ubuntu?

As of Feb 19, 2014 there is a new firmware update on the Logitech site that enhances out of the box gestures support for this touchpad. The firmware update process requires a windows box, but once it is done you can use the touchpad on Linux with the enhanced features without any extra software.

Here is the link: http://www.logitech.com/en-us/support/touchpad-t650?section=downloads&crid=398&bit=32&osid=14&softwareid=11370

So I just bought the t650 today and with the help of xev I was able to figure out how to get all of the button presses. I have not tried to map any buttons to specific functions but as far as I can tell here are the default mappings. As of yet I have not found a solution to tapping registering as a click. :-(

Button 1 (Left-click): This occurs whenever the touchpad is pressed down with 1 or 2 fingers so that either the front right and/or front left foot is pressed. Sole exception is when a single finger is pressed above the right foot.

Button 2 (Right-click): This occurs whenever the touchpad has a finger placed above the right foot and either front foot is depressed.

Button 3 (Middle-click): This occurs like a left-click event but 3 fingers are used to press the touchpad.

Button 4 & 5 (scroll-wheel): Button 4 occurs when two fingers are slid upward on the touchpad and button 5 when two fingers are slid downward.

Button 6 & 7 : Button 6 occurs when two fingers are slid to the left on the touchpad and button 7 when two fingers are slid to the right.

Button 8 & 9 : Button 8 occurs when three fingers are slid to the left and button 9 occurs when three fingers are slid to the right.

Of course moving one finger over the touchpad moves the mouse on-screen. I also found that moving three fingers up on the touchpad is the same as pressing the super (windows) key.

So that's what I found and I hope it is helpful to anyone who uses the t650.

Edit: This was taken almost verbatim from a review on Amazon.

I'm using T650 on Ubuntu 13.04 (title) and found next gestures:

This basic functions works by default.

1.Mouse-left: Click touchpad.

2.Mouse-right: Click touchpad from right bottom corner.

3.Mouse-mid: Tap with three fingers.

4.Scroll-vertical: Slide two fingers up or down.

5.Scroll-horizontal: Slide two fingers left or right.

6.Open unity search (same as Super-button): Swipe three fingers up.

Next gestures are not defined by default. You can define them example as 'Keyboard shortcuts'. A custom keyboard shortcut can be almost anything. If you do it this way select the shortcut you want define it will ask for 'new accelerator' and then do the motion.

Gesture - System recognized keyboard button.

7.Three fingers swipe down: Super + D

8.One finger swipe from left edge: Ctrl + Super + Backspace

9.One finger swipe from top edge: Ctrl + Super + TouchpadOff

10.One finger swipe from right edge: Alt + Super + TouchpadOff

Next gestures don't work (as on Windows 8):

Left click as Tap. Spread or pinch with two fingers (zoom). Three fingers swipe left or right. Four fingers swipe up or down. Four fingers swipe left or right.

I think this is still quite useful touchpad even you can't use all gestures as on Windows 8 where it was designed for. Either configuring those extra gestures I listed isn't too easy.

Good news and bad. Yes, it does work on Linux but, because the Logitech T650 is made specifically for Windows, (unless I've been missing something) it is actually a very limited device (doesn't recognize "tap", etc.). As already stated, it does have some basic gestures like 2-finger scrolling and fwd/back for the browser.

If you are going to spend the money, (IMO) it's better spent on an Apple Magic Trackpad. You lose the built-in rechargable battery but you gain a large number of functions.

You can find some useful information at this url http://cmattoon.com/articles/logitech-t650-ubuntu

There you can sea what works and what doesn't work at the moment at Linux. Some gestures work and the mechanical click also works, but clicking by tabbing for example doesn't work.

For everything to work, a firmware upgrade might be needed. It involves a Windows computer and is unfortunately not as straightforward as downloading the firmware from the Logitech website and installing it, although that's what Logitech wants you to believe.

I spend a couple of hours trying to figure everything out, but finally found an answer in a thread in Logitech support forum (it's the answer by AndyCalling at 03-29-2014 07:52 PM).

By the way, I'd recommend using the brilliant Solaar to manage Unifying Receiver and connected devices.

I believe many of these answers may be outdated, in terms of requiring an additional firmware download. I've used the Logitech T650, which I purchased in 2017, with the following Ubuntu distros, and it has worked fine:

• Kubuntu 19.04
• Lubuntu 18.04
• Budgie 18.04
• MATE 19.04
• KDE Neon 18.04

One caveat: In the KDE desktops (Neon/Kubuntu/Lubuntu), tapping-as-click and "natural scrolling" are not enabled by default; you must do so in the touchpad settings. Unfortunately, the setting doesn't seem to be persistent, so you often have to do it after you start up.

Alternatively, if you'd like to do this via the command line (or if, as is sometimes the case, the settings don't preserve, as on KDE), you must run xinput and the appropriate commands. Here's an example sequence:

xinput

Check your devices; look for the Logitech touchpad's device number. Let's pretend it's number 12.

xinput list-props 12

Look for the libinput tapping enabled and libinput natural scrolling enabled to find their numbers. Let's pretend tapping is 290. 0 is off, 1 is on.

xinput set-prop 12 290 1

You can write a bash script to speed it up, but the number assigned to the device will sometimes change, meaning you may need to include a variety of numbers to ensure you'll get the slot it's using at the moment.