How to get 2-Finger (or 1-finger) scrolling working on MOST laptop trackpads

[tysonv48]

incomplatible with eee pc 701

[0SCAR]

Great! Going to try this tonight...

[Tommyuk]

Thanks a lot for the tut, got it to work perfectly !

[Shraier]

I have problems with FFScroll on Snow Leopard 64 bit - 10.6.2. Anyone has a solution? (Does it even work on SL 64bit?)

 

And yes, I got it working on Leopard 10.5.6 .

[famouslastwords]

Please help!

I have a dell latitude running 10.5.2, and after installing this software not only is my scrolling eratic and unusuable, but in spite of turning off scrolling my mouse track pad is to slow to be usable... it takes upward of 4 strokes to move from one side of the screen to the other... I have tried your uninstall options, but after repairing my disk permissions and rebooting I have now no use of my key board... and therefore can not even log in! Please recommend a course of action? ASAP I need my computer for exam prep D:

[Proxin]

This used to work on my Snow Leopard install, but now doesn't. I can't get scrolling to work at all on 10.6.3. I installed it just as I usually would, but it doesn't work on this version - no scrolling.

 

Has anyone else had this problem, and are there any fixes?

[malbin1]

After going over 2 year old threads on the ALPS and synaptics "hack" that allowed 2-finger\1-finger "anywhere" scrolling and no one being much help on getting it to work on recent generation laptops and leopard, I decided to test it out myself. I feel that this feature has been overlooked and is one of the nice features of a macbook. After trial and error, I finally got it to "acceptable" speed and settings. This will allow you to scroll from anywhere on your trackpad ala macbook!

 

Preamble

 

- I highly recommend an external USB Mouse and Keyboard, just incase something goes wrong.

- This should work on most laptops, as they either have synaptics or an ALPS trackpad, I would do some research to find out which one you have.

- This operation was performed in Apple Mac OS X Leopard 10.5.2, I cannot guarantee it working with different OSX86 versions or different laptops. Please post your findings, your laptop model, and settings that you used.

- I take no responsibility for any damage done, it is pretty safe and easy to revert back to normal, be sure you backup your extensions. (Especially ApplePS2Controller.kext)

- The attached plist is currently "optimized" for the m1330. Other synaptics\alps trackpads will differ and you must edit the plist with trial and error. This is why I recommend AT LEAST an external mouse (USB\bluetooth), as these settings do not effect the external mouse\keyboard at all

 

How to enable 2-finger\1-finger "anywhere" scrolling on your laptop (synaptics or alps):

1) Backup "/System/Library/Extensions/ApplePS2Controller.kext" incase anything goes wrong

 

2) Download and extract the full install package:

http://rapidshare.com/files/93582903/2fingerscroll.zip.html

 

3) Run ALPS Glidepad Driver.pkg (thanks to deamobile for creating this driver package:

http://forum.insanelymac.com/index.php?sho...=47272&st=0) to install the driver and FFScroll.

 

4) After completing the install, it will ask you to reboot, do so. After rebooting you will get an error saying FFScroll is not working or somesort, Click "Fix" and reboot again.

 

5) Copy com.apple.driver.ApplePS2Trackpad.plist (found in the install package) to: /Users/[Your Username]/Library/Preferences AND /Library/Preferences. For some reason, if you do not place the plist file in both locations, FFScroll will not load.

 

6) Open terminal and type:

sudo killall -9 FFScrollDaemon

(Note: The first time I ran this, it didnt find anything of that sort running)

sudo /usr/local/bin/FFScrollDaemon

These commands will kill the FFScroll Process and restart it. You must do this everytime you edit that downloaded plist file.

 

7) Go into System Preferences, then FFScroll, you should see that 2-finger scrolling is enabled. You cant really edit the "Sample Accepts" as the highest threshold is 61 for some reason. All the other options you can edit.

 

8) Go back to System Preferences, go to keyboard & mouse, click the "Trackpad" tab. I believe you can uncheck "Use two fingers to scroll," as it still works without it. Set the tracking speed to midway.

 

9) Copy the FFScrollDaemon directory from the install package to /Library/StartupItems. Enter your password to authenticate. This will allow FFScrollDaemon to startup automatically when you start OSX. The next time you reboot, it will ask you to fix it, click Fix and then reboot your computer.

 

Tweaking the Settings

 

The attached plist is currently "optimized" for my m1330. Other synaptics\alps trackpads will differ and you must edit the plist with trial and error. This is why I recommend AT LEAST an external mouse (USB\bluetooth), as these settings do not effect the external mouse\keyboard at all. It seems that scrolling down is fine with one or two fingers, but scrolling up is a little bit more difficult with two fingers, but one finger is fine.

 

If, at first, you are not getting any scrolling, or you are scrolling all over the place even by lightly touching the touchpad, you need to edit Property: zAcceptThreshold in the plist file and restart the daemon. Don't do it within FFScroll because the highest you can enter in the GUI is 61 (which is too low for some trackpads).. right now the value is set at 80.

 

If you are scrolling all over the place and the trackpad doesnt move the mouse, make the value Higher (Try 90-130). However if you are not getting any scrolling at all, make it lower (Try 50-75).

 

- Open up com.apple.driver.ApplePS2Trackpad.plist in textedit and find zAcceptThreshold (or any other value) under either <key>SynapticsPreferences</key>, if you have a synaptics trackpad, or <key>ALPSPreferences</key>, if you have an ALPS trackpad.

 

- Place that file in "/Users/[Your Username]/Library/Preferences" AND "/Library/Preferences"

 

(For info on other values you should edit, go to: http://forum.insanelymac.com/index.php?s=&...st&p=500058 (thanks to duplicity for researching these values))

 

- Open up terminal and type:

sudo killall -9 FFScrollDaemon

sudo /usr/local/bin/FFScrollDaemon

 

You should right away notice the changes.

 

 

Other Notes

 

At least on the m1330, it doesn't seem to matter whether you have 1 or 2 fingers on, but just how hard you press on the trackpad to start scrolling. I didn't have a lot of time to edit thresholds and all that. So if all of you can start editing the plist file to find out values that allow "true 2-finger" scrolling, that would be great! Other than that, One finger scrolling actually works well since the m1330's trackpad is pretty small. Use your tip of your finger to move your mouse around and the flat part of your finger to scroll around.

 

Clicking\double-clicking seems to be off also, again, we need to play with the plist settings.

 

If FFscroll stops loading, replace the plist file in both directories with a kosher plist that is attached in this post.

 

This does not really enable multi-touch that the macbook trackpads have (example from macbook: holding down one finger on trackpad and clicking the mouse button would open up the right mouse button menu)

 

Uninstalling

 

To revert back to regular trackpad\keyboard:

go into terminal, and type:

sudo -s

rm -rf /System/Library/Extensions/ApplePS2Controller.kext

Now use kext Helper to install the backed up ApplePS2Controller.kext. Reboot and you should be back to normal. Note: if you dont reinstall this kext correctly, you will be without keyboard and trackpad and you will have to use an external mouse\keyboard to fix the problem. (In my case, all I had was a BT mouse, so I had to download an onscreen keyboard to enter my password in kext helper )

 

Help Out!

 

Sonotone has created a installer package that includes many kexts and configurations for Dell laptops.

Please go to:

http://forum.insanelymac.com/index.php?showtopic=97966

and post your working com.apple.driver.ApplePS2Trackpad.plist

 

-------------

 

And there you have it, one step closer to even a truer macbook. Now all we need is 100% working sound kexts, sleep, shutdown, and restart!

 

-------------

 

Here is a mirror for a zip containing everything that you need: ffscroll driver package, ffscrolldaemon startup, plist, kext (optional use) and kext helper(optional use for reinstalling kexts):

http://rapidshare.com/files/93582903/2fingerscroll.zip.html

 

--------------

 

Sounds good

[Zprood]

It works great in the 10.6.4 ,my trackpad is ALPS.Thanks so much!

[mnfesq]

Has anyone reported two-finger scroll or trackpad tapping functions on a Dell Inspiron 1720 or Vostro 1700? From the posts I have found, it seems that these functions are not supported but it is not clear why since they are just Alps trackpads.

[maxmara2]

great bookmark it !!

[pushingbuttons]

after installing ALPS glidepad i get

 

Insecure startup item disabled.

 

/l/s/ffscroll has not been started because it does not have the proper security

 

 

i tried fixing persmissions

 

sudo chown -R

 

no luck

[Felipe Molini]

installed as stated and my cursor is very slow, which I do?

and in the mouse preferences doesnt work.

[TheMacPhreak]

tutorial done! worked perfectly on my Compaq Evo n610c Lapto running jas 10.4.8, thanks so much!

[djolens81]

after installing ALPS glidepad i get

 

Insecure startup item disabled.

 

/l/s/ffscroll has not been started because it does not have the proper security

 

 

i tried fixing persmissions

 

sudo chown -R

 

no luck

 

Hi!

Did you managed this issue i have same problem with my m1530 touch and i dont know how to solve this problem with security startup problem.

Thanks in advance!

[ken coraz]

This is exactly what I've been looking for for the past 2 days. Thank you so much.

[anhhnt]

Work like a charm on my Dell studio 1537 ALPS trackpad, just install package, no copy plist, no ạdjust setting

[chansthename]

Just did this with an ASUS G1S iDeneb 10.5.8

 

zaccept changed to 100, works a charm.

[Harmandeep Singh]

its working properly visit the link mentioned in my signature

[overdrivemachines]

Does this work for OSX Lion? OSX Lion is running on VMWare in Windows?

[sume5h]

2fingerscroll.zip link is dead, where can i get it ?

[ninzahacker]

Update the links please..