Is your touchpad too slow in Ubuntu? Fix it.

While installing Ubuntu on Laptops, one common problem that we have identified is that the mouse pointer movement using the touchpad is very slow with the default settings. We were hoping that this would be fixed in Ubuntu Hardy Heron but it still is not. Ubuntu allows for the configuration of the acceleration and sensitivity using the System > Preferences > Mouse menu but that too might not give the desired results always. Here is a sure shot way of speeding up your touchpad in Ubuntu.

You need to apply this hack only if you feel that your touchpad is slow and that you could not configure it using the Mouse Preferences. Create a backup copy of /etc/X11/xorg.conf and then open your existing /etc/X11/xorg.conf for editing by running
gksu gedit /etc/X11/xorg.conf
Search and find the InputDevice section and add the lines that are not present in the following configuration to the configuration in the xorg.conf file. Save and close and restart X using Ctrl + Alt + Backspace. You should be set now. You can fine tune these values to get the speed you desire. In addition you can use the Mouse Preferences to vary the acceleration on top of this configuration.

Section "InputDevice"
    Identifier  "Synaptics Touchpad"
    Driver      "synaptics"
    Option      "SendCoreEvents"  "true"
    Option      "Device"          "/dev/psaux"
    Option      "Protocol"        "auto-dev"
    Option      "HorizEdgeScroll" "1"
    Option      "MinSpeed"        "0.60"
    Option      "MaxSpeed"        "1.10"
    Option      "AccelFactor"     "0.030"
    Option      "EdgeMotionMinSpeed" "200"
    Option      "EdgeMotionMaxSpeed" "200"
    Option      "UpDownScrolling" "1"
    Option      "SHMConfig"       "on"
EndSection