[SOLVED] How to enable right-click on old Mac touchpad

[Member punranger]

Hi, first post here.

I just installed AntiX to revive an old 2009 Macbook. It works great, except I have a problem with the touchpad: I can’t figure out how to right-click, which would be very useful to set file permissions, and to enable other desktops, for example. Basic hand gestures and left clicking works just fine. In the full system info, I could not find any specific info on the touchpad, just the general info on the computer given below. Full system info attached.

Machine:   Type: Laptop System: Apple product: MacBook5,2 v: 1.0 serial: <filter> Chassis: 
           type: 10 v: Mac-F22788AA serial: <filter> 
           Mobo: Apple model: Mac-F22788AA serial: <filter> BIOS: Apple 
           v: MB52.88Z.0088.B05.0904162222 date: 04/16/09 

Any help would be much appreciated.

• This topic was modified 2 years, 6 months ago by punranger.

Attachments:

1. Full_info.txt

antiX linux: The best way to revive an old computer - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JCTaUAP6sSg

[Member PPC]

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I don’t have a Mac to this, but, you can try installing “synaptics” (if you haven’t yet) and try this: https://www.linux.org/threads/right-click-with-macbook.9667/

I hope that helps

P.

[Member Xecure]

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I supose this is because the macbook doesn’t have a specific button for right-click (or that button doesn’t work) and you need a gesture to get it to work?

People on the net propose using two-finger tap on the touchpad to get right-click. If I am not mistaken, by default in antiX, right-click is set as a three finger tap (tap 3 fingers at the same time on the touchpad). You can change it to two-finger tap instead running this command (will only chnage the cnfiguration for this session, so no permanent damage, don’t worry):
synclient tapbutton2=3

If you are satisfied with this workaround, edit the xorg.conf file for synaptics driver
sudo geany /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/synaptics.conf
And make sure these specific lines look like this:

Option "TapButton2" "3" # multitouch
Option "TapButton3" "2" # multitouch

The first one makes 2 finger tap do a right-click, the second one makes the three-finger tap do “middle-click”

If you want a solution with “Modifierkey + 1-finger-tap = right-click”, you need to add this key combination to your keys file (for whatever window manager you are using). It will probably need to use xdotool (I think already installed in antiX).

Example for icewm: (edit ~/.icewm/keys)
key "Ctrl+Pointer_Button1" xdotool click 3

Edit: I fear the last solution doesn’t work on icewm. You might need to install a program (like easystroke) to configure key+mouse_button to work as right click.

• This reply was modified 2 years, 6 months ago by Xecure. Reason: big error in code

antiX Live system enthusiast.
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[Member punranger]

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Hi, seems there was a reply by user Xecure that was removed. Thanks Xecure and PPC for pointing out the three finger tap as well as the other tips. Problem solved!

antiX linux: The best way to revive an old computer - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JCTaUAP6sSg

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