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Making the Best of MacBook Air Touchpad on Ubuntu

75 points by eterps 8y ago

thedanbob 8y ago
Thank you for posting this! I recently installed linux on my MacBook Air and the biggest thing I missed from macOS was how nice the trackpad was, especially scroll inertia and 3-finger drag. Now I'm completely happy with my decision to switch.
thristian 8y ago
I'm happy enough with the libinput driver that I don't want to go building a whole custom driver from source, but I really liked the "pixel-perfect scrolling in Firefox" tip at the end.
- ChristianBundy 8y ago
  Same. I moved from Chrome OS to Arch Linux and this was one of the few things I missed.
rhodysurf 8y ago
This is cool, but this doesn't really work when you are running a wayland session. Also the default libinput driver on wayland already catches multitouch events with macbook without issues. The window manager just has to handle them. I have done some exploring to get better touchpad gestures with gnome on wayland: https://github.com/mpiannucci/gnome-shell-extended-gestures https://github.com/mpiannucci/gnome-shell-extended-gestures . Its an incomplete project that I work on slowly when I get the time between my job and freelancing, but slowly coming along and meets my personal needs fine.
- floatboth 8y ago
  > Pinch gestures are not handled or configured Why would the shell ever touch (hah) these? Pinch gestures are handled by apps like Evince and EoG for smooth zooming already!
  - rhodysurf 8y ago
    Maybe pinch gestures are not the right way to put it. Maybe spread is better? Like with 3 or four fingers spreading from or converging to center. MacOS can handle it fine.
    - floatboth 8y ago
      Oh. That. The one that revealed your desktop, right.
MattyRad 8y ago
Really happy to see I'm not the only one using Ubuntu on a MacBook air! If anyone is looking for the most customizable Ubuntu desktop (and my favorite window manager since 2010), I highly recommend compiz! > sudo apt-get install gnome-session-flashback compiz compiz-core compiz-plugins compiz-plugins-default compiz-plugins-extra compiz-plugins-main compiz-plugins-main-default compiz-plugins-main-dev compizconfig-settings-manager You'll log out of GNOME, click the settings cog, and select Flashback-Compiz. Then you'll see a wonderfully clean desktop, and then you can go into Applications -> Administration -> Compiz Config Settings, and you'll have complete and total control over your desktop! This video is kind of gaudy but it might help explain what's possible: https://m.youtube.com/watch?feature=youtu.be&v=Jb7kFWTj28g https://m.youtube.com/watch?feature=youtu.be&v=Jb7kFWTj28g MINUS the horrible sidebar, that will be replaced with an upper toolbar similar to Mac. I actually have a proper write-up for how to get the Ubuntu Desktop you deserve using compiz, but it's very much a WIP unfortunately.

75 points by eterps 8y ago

Thank you for posting this! I recently installed linux on my MacBook Air and the biggest thing I missed from macOS was how nice the trackpad was, especially scroll inertia and 3-finger drag. Now I'm completely happy with my decision to switch.

thristian 8y ago

I'm happy enough with the libinput driver that I don't want to go building a whole custom driver from source, but I really liked the "pixel-perfect scrolling in Firefox" tip at the end.

ChristianBundy 8y ago
Same. I moved from Chrome OS to Arch Linux and this was one of the few things I missed.

rhodysurf 8y ago

This is cool, but this doesn't really work when you are running a wayland session. Also the default libinput driver on wayland already catches multitouch events with macbook without issues. The window manager just has to handle them. I have done some exploring to get better touchpad gestures with gnome on wayland: https://github.com/mpiannucci/gnome-shell-extended-gestures https://github.com/mpiannucci/gnome-shell-extended-gestures . Its an incomplete project that I work on slowly when I get the time between my job and freelancing, but slowly coming along and meets my personal needs fine.

floatboth 8y ago
> Pinch gestures are not handled or configured Why would the shell ever touch (hah) these? Pinch gestures are handled by apps like Evince and EoG for smooth zooming already!
- rhodysurf 8y ago
  Maybe pinch gestures are not the right way to put it. Maybe spread is better? Like with 3 or four fingers spreading from or converging to center. MacOS can handle it fine.
  - floatboth 8y ago
    Oh. That. The one that revealed your desktop, right.

MattyRad 8y ago

Really happy to see I'm not the only one using Ubuntu on a MacBook air! If anyone is looking for the most customizable Ubuntu desktop (and my favorite window manager since 2010), I highly recommend compiz! > sudo apt-get install gnome-session-flashback compiz compiz-core compiz-plugins compiz-plugins-default compiz-plugins-extra compiz-plugins-main compiz-plugins-main-default compiz-plugins-main-dev compizconfig-settings-manager You'll log out of GNOME, click the settings cog, and select Flashback-Compiz. Then you'll see a wonderfully clean desktop, and then you can go into Applications -> Administration -> Compiz Config Settings, and you'll have complete and total control over your desktop! This video is kind of gaudy but it might help explain what's possible: https://m.youtube.com/watch?feature=youtu.be&v=Jb7kFWTj28g https://m.youtube.com/watch?feature=youtu.be&v=Jb7kFWTj28g MINUS the horrible sidebar, that will be replaced with an upper toolbar similar to Mac. I actually have a proper write-up for how to get the Ubuntu Desktop you deserve using compiz, but it's very much a WIP unfortunately.