How to configure touchpad on Ubuntu

You can use gsynaptics for Gnome or ksynaptics for KDE. It's easier than editing xorg.conf and the settings will apply on the current running session of Gnome/KDE.

First: install the package:

Gnome:

sudo aptitude install gsynaptics

KDE:

sudo aptitude install ksynaptics

Second: Edit xorg.conf

Backup xorg.conf and then edit:

sudo cp /etc/X11/xorg.conf /etc/X11/xorg.conf_backup
gksudo gedit /etc/X11/xorg.conf

Find the following:

Section "InputDevice"
Identifier "Synaptics Touchpad"
Driver "synaptics"
Option "SendCoreEvents" "true"
Option "Device" "/dev/psaux"
Option "Protocol" "auto-dev"
Option "HorizScrollDelta" "0"
EndSection

and add option SHMConfig and set the value to true:

Section "InputDevice"
Identifier "Synaptics Touchpad"
Driver "synaptics"
Option "SendCoreEvents" "true"
Option "Device" "/dev/psaux"
Option "Protocol" "auto-dev"
Option "HorizScrollDelta" "0"
Option "SHMConfig" "true"
EndSection

Third: Restart the X

Control + Alt + Backspace

Login again and go to System > Preferences > Touchpad and change the settings.

Ref. http://blog.csmonkey.com/2007/07/how-to-configure-touchpad-on-ubuntu.html