Public bug reported: On a modern laptop with a large touchpad/clickpad, your palms tend to brush the touch surface as you type. The problem is that on Ubuntu, this creates an annoying amount of cursor wiggle. Competing platforms don't have this problem, so this needs to be improved on Ubuntu.
Part of the problem is that `xserver-xorg-input-synaptics` driver doesn't do effective palm detection (it seems), and part of the problem is that `gnome-settings-daemon` launches `syndaemon` such that it *never* disables cursor movement. Currently syndaemon is launched like this: syndaemon -i 1.0 -t -K -R The "-t" option tells syndaemon to never block cursor movement. It will only block accidental vertical scrolling (which is darn near impossible to do on a modern system with two finger scrolling), and block accidental tap-to-click (which seems unlikely something you can do by mistake with your palms). So from a user perspective, "Disable while typing" currently does nothing. I'm proposing that syndaemon instead be launched like this: syndaemon -i 0.5 -K -R Without the "-t" option, syndaemon will block cursor movement, vertical scrolling, and tap-to-click. And the "-i 0.5" means it will block it for 500ms (half a second). System76 has been shipping a patched `gnome-settings-daemon` (Raring) on all our products for the last two months, and we've received no support issues about it (if this caused noticeable usability issues, I'm confident we'd have heard about it). We've also done a lot of testing and tuning on the timeout threshold, and 500ms seems like about the sweet spot. It's long enough to be decently effective for most typists, but not so long that the user will catch the trackpad still disabled when they move from typing back to "cursoring" :P Note that this isn't a prefect solution, and you really can't do this especially well with a static timeout anyway (would be better to be dynamic based on typing speed). For slow typists, 500ms often isn't long enough. But for now, I feel it's better to find that sweet spot where it at least gives some improvement for most users, without causing any negative impact for any users. I have a Saucy package available for testing here: https://launchpad.net/~system76-dev/+archive/daily?field.series_filter=saucy And the proposed branch here: https://code.launchpad.net/~jderose/ubuntu/saucy/gnome-settings-daemon/tune-syndaemon2 ProblemType: Bug DistroRelease: Ubuntu 13.10 Package: gnome-settings-daemon 3.6.4-0ubuntu16 ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 3.11.0-3.7-generic 3.11.0-rc6 Uname: Linux 3.11.0-3-generic x86_64 NonfreeKernelModules: nvidia ApportVersion: 2.12.1-0ubuntu2 Architecture: amd64 Date: Thu Aug 22 07:35:33 2013 MarkForUpload: True SourcePackage: gnome-settings-daemon UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install) ** Affects: system76 Importance: High Assignee: Jason Gerard DeRose (jderose) Status: Fix Committed ** Affects: gnome-settings-daemon (Ubuntu) Importance: Undecided Status: New ** Tags: amd64 apport-bug saucy system76 third-party-packages ** Attachment added: "screenshot.png" https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1215463/+attachment/3782625/+files/screenshot.png ** Branch linked: lp:~jderose/ubuntu/saucy/gnome-settings-daemon/tune- syndaemon2 ** Also affects: system76 Importance: Undecided Status: New ** Tags added: system76 ** Changed in: system76 Status: New => Fix Committed ** Changed in: system76 Importance: Undecided => High ** Changed in: system76 Assignee: (unassigned) => Jason Gerard DeRose (jderose) -- You received this bug notification because you are a member of Desktop Packages, which is subscribed to gnome-settings-daemon in Ubuntu. https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1215463 Title: "Disable while typing" should disable cursor movement Status in System76: Fix Committed Status in “gnome-settings-daemon” package in Ubuntu: New Bug description: On a modern laptop with a large touchpad/clickpad, your palms tend to brush the touch surface as you type. The problem is that on Ubuntu, this creates an annoying amount of cursor wiggle. Competing platforms don't have this problem, so this needs to be improved on Ubuntu. Part of the problem is that `xserver-xorg-input-synaptics` driver doesn't do effective palm detection (it seems), and part of the problem is that `gnome-settings-daemon` launches `syndaemon` such that it *never* disables cursor movement. Currently syndaemon is launched like this: syndaemon -i 1.0 -t -K -R The "-t" option tells syndaemon to never block cursor movement. It will only block accidental vertical scrolling (which is darn near impossible to do on a modern system with two finger scrolling), and block accidental tap-to-click (which seems unlikely something you can do by mistake with your palms). So from a user perspective, "Disable while typing" currently does nothing. I'm proposing that syndaemon instead be launched like this: syndaemon -i 0.5 -K -R Without the "-t" option, syndaemon will block cursor movement, vertical scrolling, and tap-to-click. And the "-i 0.5" means it will block it for 500ms (half a second). System76 has been shipping a patched `gnome-settings-daemon` (Raring) on all our products for the last two months, and we've received no support issues about it (if this caused noticeable usability issues, I'm confident we'd have heard about it). We've also done a lot of testing and tuning on the timeout threshold, and 500ms seems like about the sweet spot. It's long enough to be decently effective for most typists, but not so long that the user will catch the trackpad still disabled when they move from typing back to "cursoring" :P Note that this isn't a prefect solution, and you really can't do this especially well with a static timeout anyway (would be better to be dynamic based on typing speed). For slow typists, 500ms often isn't long enough. But for now, I feel it's better to find that sweet spot where it at least gives some improvement for most users, without causing any negative impact for any users. I have a Saucy package available for testing here: https://launchpad.net/~system76-dev/+archive/daily?field.series_filter=saucy And the proposed branch here: https://code.launchpad.net/~jderose/ubuntu/saucy/gnome-settings-daemon/tune-syndaemon2 ProblemType: Bug DistroRelease: Ubuntu 13.10 Package: gnome-settings-daemon 3.6.4-0ubuntu16 ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 3.11.0-3.7-generic 3.11.0-rc6 Uname: Linux 3.11.0-3-generic x86_64 NonfreeKernelModules: nvidia ApportVersion: 2.12.1-0ubuntu2 Architecture: amd64 Date: Thu Aug 22 07:35:33 2013 MarkForUpload: True SourcePackage: gnome-settings-daemon UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install) To manage notifications about this bug go to: https://bugs.launchpad.net/system76/+bug/1215463/+subscriptions -- Mailing list: https://launchpad.net/~desktop-packages Post to : [email protected] Unsubscribe : https://launchpad.net/~desktop-packages More help : https://help.launchpad.net/ListHelp
