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Logitech Wireless Touchpad with Ubuntu

Logitech Wireless TouchpadI picked up a Logitech Wireless Touchpadat Fry’s last weekend. I’ve been research alternatives to a regular mouse and the Touchpad seemed like an interesting option. The other item I was considering was the updated M570 Trackball, since I’ve used one of those before and liked it quite a bit.

My biggest concern about the Touchpad was whether or not it would work under Ubuntu and if I could pair it with my existing Unifying Receiver. And it does! A number of the gestures work as well, which was a nice surprise. I was able to use the Touchpad right out of the box with Ubuntu 11.10 using the receiver that came with it.

Unfortunately, Logitech doesn’t provide the unifying software for Linux, so in order to pair the Touchpad with my existing receiver (the one that came with my wireless keyboard), I had to use my old Macbook Pro. If you have a Windows machine lying around, that will work too. I have no idea of you can configure the paring with either of those operating systems running under a virtual machine under Linux.

I’ve been using the Touchpad full time now for a bit less than I week and like it quite a bit. I recommend it to anyone who wants a trackpad-like device and can’t or won’t get Apple’s version.

 

 

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5 comments

  1. Yu-ming Chao says:

    Thank you for this article which helped me decided to get the touchpad. It works well. I’m able to get it to work under Ubuntu 11.10 amd64 and Virtualbox Win7 seamlessly.

    The only thing I’d really like to find out is if there’s anyway I can swap virtual desktops through this touchpad? I tried the 4-finger gesture (tap > up > right) but the reaction wasn’t what I wanted.

    I’m happy to use it anyway though.

    • Kjell Breiland says:

      You will have to remap the udev keymap. Take a look at http://askubuntu.com/questions/69804/how-do-i-change-the-keymap-of-a-single-device-logitech-presenter. Basically the multi touch events come through as keyboard presses. This is what I’m using now,

      0x7004E hiragana #Three Down, screendown
      0x7004B kpjpcomma # Three Up, screenup
      0x90005 leftmeta #Three Right, Activities
      0x90004 back #three Left, Back
      0x700E2 leftalt #Four up 1
      0x7002B f11 #Four up 2, toggle maximized state
      0x700E3 leftalt #Four down 1
      0x70007 f7 #Four Down 2, Move window
      #0x700E3 First part of four right
      #0x7004F second part of four right
      #0x700E3 First part of four right
      #0x70050 second part of four right

      the first two hiragana and kpjpcomma are mapped through xbindkeys to move workspaces, I used them because my keyboard has macro keys that are mapped to those keys and already had the xbindkeys working. Overall it seems to work pretty well, four finger touches are not registered very well. I just got this device a few hours ago and am trying to figure out if it sends actual multi touch events or all the magic happens on the device and all that will ever come through are keyboard presses.