Microsoft Precision Touchpad in Linux

[le-moino]

Hey folks, I'm beginning with Linux Mint and I like very much what it's like. The only thing that's bugging me right now, is that my laptops (XPS 15) trackpad feels less natural and less precise under Linux.

I think that Microsoft Precision Touchpads and its drivers were able to bridge the gap between Apples and Microsofts trackpads, but I can't seem to get the same experience under Linux. The best way I can describe it is on Linux it feels linear while on Windows it feels dynamic.

In Windows, there is a correlation between distance covered on the trackpad, speed of the fingers on the trackpad and the distance covered on the screen. Whereas on Linux, speed on the trackpad doesn't seem to be part of the equation, only distance on the trackpad vs. distance on the screen. Both for moving the pointer and for scrolling.

Is there something I can install or activate or tweak to make it more dynamic? Or am I missing something important?

Thanks in advance!

 

[CaffeineAddict]

welcome to the forums!

Somewhere in your DE should be setting to adjust acceleration profile from flat to adaptive and vice versa.
In KDE desktop it's called acceleration profile, on mint it might be called something else, check mouse settings in your DE.

 

[KGIII]

Shutter went a bit wonky. I do not know why but this is what you're looking for.

Open the application menu and at the top, in the search, type 'mouse' and the rest is obvious.

You can adjust the speed there as well...

 

[le-moino]

welcome to the forums!

Somewhere in your DE should be setting to adjust acceleration profile from flat to adaptive and vice versa.
In KDE desktop it's called acceleration profile, on mint it might be called something else, check mouse settings in your DE.

Thanks for the welcome I will read more about KDE and look into openSUSE.

Shutter went a bit wonky. I do not know why but this is what you're looking for.

Open the application menu and at the top, in the search, type 'mouse' and the rest is obvious.

View attachment 24598

You can adjust the speed there as well...

Thanks for the screenshot. I tries it a few minutes ago, but it didn't seem to change anything. At least not clearly. I will do more testing tomorrow and see if I can change the acceleration values.

 

[le-moino]

Okay, I tested some more and it does change the cursor acceleration. Thanks for that! I'm still looking for a smoother scrolling experience tho. The scrolling seems to remain linear and not system wide like in Windows (it works in the file explorer but not in the application menu for example). And I also need to find how to stop the kinetic scrolling once my fingers touch the touchpad again (without having to move my fingers). Thanks again for your help!