How to get the touch pad working in Chromium OS

If you are one of the few with a none working touch pad, hopefully the below will sort it!

As ever, boot your device and get to su command line  ([ Ctrl ] [ Alt ] [ F2 ]), log in as chronos and then

sudo su
mount -o remount, rw /
cp /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/50-touchpad-cmt.conf /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/50-touchpad-cmt.conf.bak
rm /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/50-touchpad-cmt.conf
cd /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/
wget http://chromium.arnoldthebat.co.uk/files/fw/etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/50-touchpad-cmt.conf

Then reboot.

The contents of the conf file have been ripped from a Dell Latitude setup so may well not sort other laptops. In this case I would suggest that the file is structured in the following manner:

Section "InputClass"
 Identifier "touchpad"
 MatchIsTouchpad "on"
 MatchDevicePath "/dev/input/event*"
 Driver "synaptics"
 Option "AccelerationProfile" "-1"
 Option "Scroll Buttons" "0"
 Option "Scroll Axes" "1"
 Option "Scroll X Out Scale" "1.25"
 Option "Scroll Y Out Scale" "1.25"
EndSection

The important section is the “Driver “synaptics”” since the devs at Chromium have left the old synaptics stack loaded into the distribution. With this in mind, expect the above to stop working as later versions come out!

Occasionally in certain screens (like login(!)), once the screen is loaded, the mouse pointer will not appear. In order to activate simply left click anywhere on the screen.

Any dev server updates will more than likely undo any of the above so please bear that in mind.

Usual caveats around none of this ever working etc.

164 thoughts on “How to get the touch pad working in Chromium OS”

  1. Hi Arnold
    you truly did a great job here.
    But, I still have a small request regarding touchpad…
    Mine is working really fine, but, as a linux user, I’m used to use middle click (two fingers with my usual configuration) to paste selected data…
    Do you know any way to do that with the cmt driver ?
    also, is there anyway to change keyboard layout on tty2 ?
    thanks 🙂

    1. Alright, my bad
      paste with two fingers works in crosh
      nevertheless I’m mainly willing to use two fingers to open link in new tab or close tab
      like what synaptics does on a regular linux box, but i find cmt far better in terms of user experience than synaptics driver
      any tips on how to configure two or three fingers tap on chromium os ?
      thanks in advance 🙂

  2. alright
    last comment, you can delete all of them
    I found a way to activate 3 fingers click
    I had to go to chrome://flags and activate it
    now everything is perfect
    thanks anyway 🙂

  3. After playing with the outdated builds from Hexxeh finally found your site! The latest build did not support the touchpad but the instructions here fixed the problem! Had to tweak the settings like turning on vertical scroll and adjust sensitivity, and it worked smoothly! Turned my ANCIENT and dust-covered Sony TZ laptop into a beautiful fast workstation! Thank you, Arnold!

  4. I have a Dell Inspiron 7547. I have tried this and other methods to get my trackpad detected with no luck. I do notice that when I boot Chromium OS for the first time I am prompted with a USB mouse and keyboard detected message, even though I do not have a mouse connected. Could this be the reason for my troubles? Is there any thing I can provide that can help with this issue?

    1. I think I know the answer to my own question. I checked the kernel versio and it was 3.14 my laptop is a new Dell Inspiron 7547 and I notice it works best with kernel version 3.16 and above. Do you know if there are any builds with kernel versions higher than 3.14?

      1. I have the same issue with a new inspiron. I was able to get the trackpad working in Ubuntu in the 3.14 kernel by disabling the i2c_hid driver (adding it to the blacklist), but I have not been able to get it to work under Chromium. Under Ubuntu, it shows up as a Synaptics PS/2 mouse in /proc/bus/input/devices file, but nothing is showing up in Chromium.

          1. Thanks for the advice! Unfortunately, I don’t think the special builds are going to help me much. I tried all the various boot options in the Feb 22 special build and they all eventually died or rebooted. The ROOT-A one was the best, giving the splash screen, before rebooting. I have been using the AMD64 regular builds on my laptop.

          2. Just a followup on this. I built an AMD64 base version of chromium OS from the developer instructions. When I load and run it, I get basically the same results as from your builds (I built a generic version). Not sure what more I can do here.

  5. tried this and when i ran the wget it connected to arnoldthebat.co.uk sent the http request waited for a response and errored out 404

  6. Thanks ArnoldTheBat!
    On my UK Dell Lattitude E6420, this fix worked for me. For others with the same issue, the 50-touchpad-cmt.conf file didn’t exist by default (though 40-touchpad-cmt.conf did), so I just added it (so leaving the 40- and 50- files alongside each other) and rebooted, i.e. just used the following 3 lines:
    mount -o remount, rw /
    cd /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/
    wget http://chromium.arnoldthebat.co.uk/files/fw/etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/50-touchpad-cmt.conf

    However, what I have not been able to solve is that, despite selecting UK keyboard settings, the keyboard layout is not correct e.g. Shift-3 gives me # not £ and Shift-2 gives @ not “, etc etc. Trying the ChromeWebStore UK Extended keyboard extension didn’t help. Any clues, anyone?

    Also the trackpad acceleration is very low even after setting the mouse speed to max.

  7. Yes, like Tony above i had to download the 50 file and it works, but trackpad is too slow to be useful. The acceleration settings dont appear to change anything on the trackpad.

    1. You’ll have to edit the file to match the sensitivity settings of your trackpad. The one given in this download is sort of a generic one. There are so many options to check/play around with. Here is the one I’m currently rocking:

      Section "InputClass"
      Identifier "TouchPad"
      MatchIsTouchpad "on"
      MatchDevicePath "/dev/input/event*"
      Driver "synaptics"
      Option "Protocol" "auto-dev"
      Option "LeftEdge" "130"
      Option "RightEdge" "840"
      Option "TopEdge" "130"
      Option "BottomEdge" "640"
      Option "FingerLow" "7"
      Option "FingerHigh" "8"
      Option "MaxTapTime" "180"
      Option "MaxTapMove" "110"
      Option "EmulateMidButtonTime" "75"
      Option "VertScrollDelta" "-30"
      Option "HorizScrollDelta" "10"
      Option "MinSpeed" "0.55"
      Option "MaxSpeed" "1.00"
      Option "AccelFactor" "0.02"
      Option "EdgeMotionMinSpeed" "200"
      Option "EdgeMotionMaxSpeed" "200"
      Option "UpDownScrolling" "1"
      Option "VertEdgeScroll" "on"
      Option "HorizResolution" "75"
      Option "VertResolution" "75"
      Option "TapButton1" "1"
      Option "TapButton2" "2"
      Option "TapButton3" "3"
      EndSection

  8. Really like using this coding to get touchpad working. I have Asus Eee PC and when I fix the pads, I noticed that they are off alignment. Is there a way to fix this?

  9. Using Dell Inspiron 1750 (I am loving this by the way thanks for your hard work) and the touchpad does work, scroll works as a two finger swipe by default.

    However, the tap to click does not work and I noticed in settings that it is saying no mouse or touchpad detected. Any suggestions?

    1. I need to change the synaptics drivers to CMT drivers to get the UI to recognise trackpad properly. Its on the list of things to do but could be fairly time consuming since I need to write the trackpad settings to a file for the build out, rather than synaptics auto detecting (it may be more trouble than its worth therefore for generic builds).

      1. Madhusudhanan – Could you provide the steps of how you did this please? I’m very keen to add tap-to-click but not sure how to do it. Thanks!

        1. On my setups, to get tap-to-click to work, I had to change the sensitivity of the tap pressure. Look for the Fingerlow and Fingerhigh options in the configuration setup that Madhusudhanan linked. Those control the pressure sensitivity for a tap on the trackpad (if I’m correct). The values listed in that sample are in the 40’s and such. I had to set mine to something like 8 and 10.

          It’s going to take you some time and effort by playing around with the settings and doing various searches online.

          Every time you change the touchpad config file in your /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d folder, you will have to restart the ui with restart ui and test it out.

          You can also get a right-click by adding/changing Option “TapButton2” “3”

          Notice it says “3” . That’s a right-click when two fingers are detected. At least… it is on all my hardware.

          1. Thanks, Mr. Plow. I managed to download the 50-touchpad-cmt.conf file in terminal and that added tap-to-click (as well as two finger tap for right click), but the touchpad speed is too low and I would like to change it. How exactly do you edit the .conf file? Is there a text editor I can use in terminal?

          2. Yup, you can use the vi tool. It takes some getting used to and is a but strange. Google how to use vi and you’ll get the hang of it.

            vi 50-touchpadconfigfile...

          3. Success! vi worked great. I tweaked the min and max speed settings and now it’s working fine. Many thanks.

  10. my dell xps m1330 touchpad working in 60%

    right and left click is working, scrolling is working,

    but I can’t move the cursor 🙁 , so I have to have external USB mouse connected, just to move the cursor around?

    How can I fix that?

    I tried Your first method, but when I type 3 line and click enter, it says there is a problem with file or something

    how can I try second method?
    how to get to Section “Inputclass”? I don’t really know that

    thanks

  11. I have a problem. When i try a
    “mount -o remount, rw /”
    i get:
    “mount: cannot remount rw read-write, is write protected”

    What can i do to make my touchpad alive?

  12. Greetings! First off, I love your site — it’s been a great help to me as I’ve begun to get more comfortable with ChromeOS.

    My Q: I just upgraded from Version 47 to 50 today, and the X11 tree is missing under /etc. Accordingly, my usual approach of re-enabling the trackpad on my Dell D820 is dead. Any suggestions for a newbie? Thanks in advance,

      1. Hi there.

        I think I speak for everyone here when I express my heart-felt congratulations on your on-going project.
        Your images have enabled me to breathe new life into some otherwise landfill destined equipment.
        Obviously there are going to be cases where gfx, etc drivers don’t work, so it’s lead me into the complex world of Gentoo Linux (I’m a Debian guy normally).
        I’m slowly getting to grips with this very powerful system and can see that ChromiumOS could be boosted further by a relaxation on the Portage package manager. Would it be possible to unleash the full fury of Emerge? I’d love to be able to compile my own kernel and add much needed apps like nano and cups, to name a few.
        Many, many thanks!

        1. Hi

          It shouldnt be too hard to add in whatever you like to the build if you are compiling your own. If you cros_workon target-chromium-os or override the revision number, you can build in any number of default packages from the gentoo tree.

          As for emerge in the build natively, the OS is read only so whilst that can be sorted, any subsequent dev server updates would overwrite the changes. Its probably better to bake in what you need as a specific build therefore.

  13. Good day. Hope all is well. I love your site. I have a HP 6460b that I want to install Chromium on it. I followed the instruction to install it from a USB drive to the local hard drive. It says all is installed but when I reboot, it does not find the partition. Any suggestions?

  14. I´m trying to use the latest build of chromium os from a usb on a macbook pro, but on the welcome screen the following are not detected:
    1. Touchpad
    2. wifi

    Any help or pointers with the config would be very much appreciated.

    many thanks,
    K

  15. Hi all —

    Trying to install on an HP Stream. Regular build didn’t recognize WiFi, so I grabbed the special build. WiFi works fine, but not the trackpad.

    Tried the above steps, but still no dice. (I should add that there was no 50-touchpad… file in the /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d directory — the only file that was there after installing to my harddrive was 20-touchscreen.conf.

    DESPERATE to get this working — any ideas? Cheers

  16. Hi
    I just loaded the Build Cx86OS-20160619010101 on my 2007 HP Pavilion DV6000.
    The touchpad is not working. I tried the steps above but still no success. Can you please advise?

  17. Hi Arnold, not sure if your aware or not but on the latest night regular build there doesnt appear to be a /etc/X11 directory, I tried to follow the above steps but got an error saying file didnt exist, then worked my way to /etc/ typed ls and and only see xl2tpd for a directory that starts with x, is there a new method or did something on my install play a magic trick on me, just installed too

  18. Hi, I was curious if anyone can point me towards a current solution?

    The touchpad isn’t working on my Dell Inspiron 1525. Looks like the hardware is an AlpsPS/2 ALPS GlidePoint.

    I tried the latest version of CloudReady and it works, so it seems a fix is possible.

    Thanks!

  19. I’m running the R67 Special build and the touchpad isn’t working on my Dell Inspiron 1525.

    Looks like the touchpad is an AlpsPS/2 ALPS GlidePoint.

    I tried the solution here but as Arnold said the switch from X to Freon (?) makes it not work.

    It’s working on CloudReady, so it seems like there’s definitely a solution somewhere.

    Thanks!

  20. /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/: No such file or directory

    i personally dont mind but not having two finger scrolling would drive my kids BONKERS and its them i had in mind : D

    ill revisit this project another time.

    best of luck with frecon or whatever that is.

    mat

      1. Hi, my old Macbook 2,1 detect the touchpad at the end but doesn’t work.

        No problem using an external mouse…

        I tried using latest (64 bit /32) bit versions of special builds

        Any idea ?

  21. Arnold love your work for a while, both your build and neverware seem to have issues with synaptic drivers on install with my Inspiron 14, it’s built in 2017 but my client was ripped off. It’s a dog of a machine that runs better with chrome OS as opposed to windows.

    Any tips to get the trackpad back now ? Evtest doesn’t even list the trackpad in most circumstance.

  22. Dell Inpiron 1525 with
    /dev/input/event6: AlpsPS/2 ALPS GlidePoint
    input: AlpsPS/2 ALPS GlidePoint as /devices/platform/i8042/serio2/input/input10

    Any ideas how to config this?
    By the way, /etc/X11 folder not present after Chromius installation. Remount /, then create “/etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/” with 40-touchpad-cmt.conf from alps.xorg.conf and 50-touchpad-cmt.conf from this article – nothing changes.

  23. Hey Arnold,

    I’m using your Vanilla Build as trackpad works (not on special build, strange..)
    My pad isn’t accurated at all, and i don’t have double tap scroll and everything.. as it worked when i tried cloudready, how can i please change the config ? i tried to enter the code lines but it still doesn’t work…

    1. Reporting the same issue, not working trackpad, for me this was on the latest published Special build (MacbookPro Late 2013 model) – I was able to get the build booting installed to the Hard Drive from USB disk image, but WiFi was not available and I do not have another way of connecting, so I could not log in to try the system. The touchpad click works, but the touchpad motion was not working.

      It’s very strange, the touchpad is obviously connected, I was not able to use the system at all because of wireless drivers issue though. I think my MBP uses bcm43xx chipset, any way to install the firmware and/or drivers required to work with these parts?

      1. I use latest special builds with MacBook pro 2014 mid.

        My wifi works after add the follows to ` /lib/modprobe.d/blacklist.conf `

        blacklist b43
        install b43 /bin/true
        blacklist b43legacy
        install b43legacy /bin/true
        blacklist ssb
        install ssb /bin/true
        blacklist bcm43xx
        install bcm43xx /bin/true
        blacklist brcm80211
        install brcm80211
        blacklist brcmfmac
        install brcmfmac /bin/true
        blacklist brcmsmac
        install brcmsmac /bin/true
        blacklist brcmutil
        install brcmutil /bin/true
        blacklist bcma
        install /bcma /bin/true

  24. Whenever I enter the cp, rm or cd commands, I get the error: No such file or directory. I tried solving this by entering mkdir /etc/X11/ followed by mkdir etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/, but then after entering the wget command I get the error bash: wget: command not found. 😥

    What am I doing wrong? Am on the latest Special amd64 build.

  25. hi,
    i have lenovo 3000 n100 laptop. i have installed chromium os x86 special build. but touchpad is not working. then i searched in google and find out this page. but how will i do this. in command line or any other section. i don’t understand what should i do. can anyone help me or make a video. please help me. thanks

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