The ALPS Glidepad/Stickpointer is used in laptop computers (Dell Cpx Sony Vaio and others) as a pointing device.
tpconfig (touch page config) was originally developed by C. Scott Ananian and is now being supported by Bruce Kall .
The latest version of tpconfig is 3.1.3.
tpconfig is currently supported as a command-line configuration tool.
The PS/2 port does not currently support sharing. Therefore the tpconfig utility will not work while any other mouse driver is loaded (gpm). This also means that you cannot use tpconfig while X Windows is running. The suggested use of tpconfig is to run it from a startup script ('touchpad' .. installed for run leves 3 and 5 and provided in the rpms) before gpm is started.
I usually run tpconfig from a start-up script which (on my RH system) goes in /etc/rc.d/init.d (and linked under various run levels as S84touchpad) to turn off the tap mode. Installation of this script and links for run levels 3 and 5 are now performed by the binary rpm
Always make sure to give execute permission to the script whereever you put it.
1) Added a 2.2.17 kernel patch that provides a mechanism for access the aux device while another process (e.g., X server) has it open. tpconfig can now be run under X.
2) Implemented --sleep option for Synaptics to allow reading and and writing sleep mode on touchpads that support it.
3) rewrite of synaptics.c to clean it up, use symbolic constants, increase abstraction level etc.
This release also includes several minor bug fixes.
(October 23, 2000): tpconfig 3.0.1 released (minor bug fixes from 3.0)
(September 29, 2000): tpconfig 3.0 released
(June 2, 2000): It has been reported that there is a problem in 2.2+ kernels which causes a timeout to occur when tpconfig runs (should report a 'timed out connecting to touch pad'). There is a kernel patch available to fix this for the kernel file drivers/char/pc_keyb.c. This is discussed in detail in a dejanews article by Julian Bradfield (Thanks to Arthur Richardson, arichardson@redroof.com for this information).
(May 8,2000):Fixed link for 2.2.13 kernel patch.
(April 12,2000): There is an updated 2.2.13 kernel patch available that fixes ACK problems between tpconfig and the kernel. It has also been reported that running tpconfig with the --rate=0 option stops some erratic movements. (Thanks to alx@muted.org for both of these items)
(February 24, 2000): Well, both Dell and Sony have started incorporated a touchpad,touchstick from ALPS. There are in at least the Dell Latitude CPx and the Sony VAIO laptop lines. tpconfig does NOT support them at this time, but I am in the process of getting the API from ALPS and will be incorporating this in the next version of tpconfig. The Dell's also incorporate the ALPS GlideStick in the middle of the keyboard (like the stick pointer in some of the IBM Thinkpads). I also intend to support the disabling of 'tapping' the GlideStick as well. Tapping of the touchpad/touchsticks drives me crazy, I'm not sure about you (causes the 'selection' of things on the screen when you don't want to)!
Version 3.1.3
Version 3.1.2
Version 3.1
Version 2.2
This page last updated: October 17, 2001
Copyright © 1998-2001 Bruce Kall