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Enable touchpad tap to click in i3

·779 words·4 mins·
Fedora I3 Linux
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One of the first things I look for on a fresh installation of a laptop is how to enable tap-to-click automatically. Most window managers and desktop environments make this easy with a control panel that has toggles or drop-down menus.

However, this requires a little more effort in i3. Fortunately, there are two routes to get it enabled: in xorg’s configuration or via your i3 configuration.

Via the i3 configuration #

The advantage of this method is that it’s easy to configure and test out quickly. On the other hand, this configuration change will only affect i3 on your system. (Other window managers won’t be affected.)

Start with the xinput command to determine which devices are on your system. If you’re on Fedora, just run dnf install xinput to install it.

Here’s the output on my Lenovo ThinkPad T490:

➜ xinput
⎡ Virtual core pointer                    	id=2	[master pointer  (3)]
⎜   ↳ Virtual core XTEST pointer              	id=4	[slave  pointer  (2)]
⎜   ↳ SynPS/2 Synaptics TouchPad              	id=12	[slave  pointer  (2)]
⎜   ↳ TPPS/2 Elan TrackPoint                  	id=13	[slave  pointer  (2)]
⎣ Virtual core keyboard                   	id=3	[master keyboard (2)]
    ↳ Virtual core XTEST keyboard             	id=5	[slave  keyboard (3)]
    ↳ Power Button                            	id=6	[slave  keyboard (3)]
    ↳ Video Bus                               	id=7	[slave  keyboard (3)]
    ↳ Sleep Button                            	id=8	[slave  keyboard (3)]
    ↳ Integrated Camera: Integrated C         	id=9	[slave  keyboard (3)]
    ↳ Integrated Camera: Integrated I         	id=10	[slave  keyboard (3)]
    ↳ AT Translated Set 2 keyboard            	id=11	[slave  keyboard (3)]
    ↳ ThinkPad Extra Buttons                  	id=14	[slave  keyboard (3)]

My touchpad is the second entry in the first group: SynPS/2 Synaptics TouchPad. Now we can list all the properties of this device using the id number (12 in my case) or the full name:

➜ xinput list-props "SynPS/2 Synaptics TouchPad"
Device 'SynPS/2 Synaptics TouchPad':
	Device Enabled (187):	1
	Coordinate Transformation Matrix (189):	1.000000, 0.000000, 0.000000, 0.000000, 1.000000, 0.000000, 0.000000, 0.000000, 1.000000
	libinput Tapping Enabled (322):	0
	libinput Tapping Enabled Default (323):	0
	libinput Tapping Drag Enabled (324):	1
	libinput Tapping Drag Enabled Default (325):	1
	libinput Tapping Drag Lock Enabled (326):	0
	libinput Tapping Drag Lock Enabled Default (327):	0
	libinput Tapping Button Mapping Enabled (328):	1, 0
	libinput Tapping Button Mapping Default (329):	1, 0
	libinput Natural Scrolling Enabled (330):	0
	libinput Natural Scrolling Enabled Default (331):	0
	libinput Disable While Typing Enabled (332):	1
	libinput Disable While Typing Enabled Default (333):	1
	libinput Scroll Methods Available (334):	1, 1, 0
	libinput Scroll Method Enabled (335):	1, 0, 0
	libinput Scroll Method Enabled Default (336):	1, 0, 0
	libinput Click Methods Available (337):	1, 1
	libinput Click Method Enabled (338):	1, 0
	libinput Click Method Enabled Default (339):	1, 0
	libinput Middle Emulation Enabled (340):	0
	libinput Middle Emulation Enabled Default (341):	0
	libinput Accel Speed (342):	0.000000
	libinput Accel Speed Default (343):	0.000000
	libinput Accel Profiles Available (344):	1, 1
	libinput Accel Profile Enabled (345):	1, 0
	libinput Accel Profile Enabled Default (346):	1, 0
	libinput Left Handed Enabled (347):	0
	libinput Left Handed Enabled Default (348):	0
	libinput Send Events Modes Available (307):	1, 1
	libinput Send Events Mode Enabled (308):	0, 0
	libinput Send Events Mode Enabled Default (309):	0, 0
	Device Node (310):	"/dev/input/event4"
	Device Product ID (311):	2, 7
	libinput Drag Lock Buttons (349):	<no items>
	libinput Horizontal Scroll Enabled (350):	1

The important line in the output is this one:

libinput Tapping Enabled (322):	0

Let’s turn on tap-to-click for the touchpad:

xinput set-prop "SynPS/2 Synaptics TouchPad" "libinput Tapping Enabled" 1

Your tap-to-click should now work! If it doesn’t, go back to the list of input devices and double check that there isn’t another touchpad. Some laptops show multiple touchpads even though there’s only one in the system. This is due to extra buttons being labeled as a touchpad on some laptops.

Let’s make it permanent in the i3 configuration. Open up ~/.config/i3/config and add a line:

exec xinput set-prop "SynPS/2 Synaptics TouchPad" "libinput Tapping Enabled" 1

You’re all set!

Via the xorg configuration method #

This method affects all window managers on your machine, so keep that in mind. Make a new file at /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/touchpad-tap.conf and add the following:

Section "InputClass"
        Identifier "libinput touchpad catchall"
        MatchIsTouchpad "on"
        MatchDevicePath "/dev/input/event*"
        Driver "libinput"
        Option "Tapping" "on"
EndSection

We’re telling xorg to apply this configuration to any libinput touchpad on the system (but you could use the specific name of the device here if you want), and we’re enabling the tapping option.

You can make this change effective immediately with:

xinput set-prop "SynPS/2 Synaptics TouchPad" "libinput Tapping Enabled" 1

The xorg configuration change takes effect when you log out of your X session or you reboot your computer.

Photo credit: pine watt on Unsplash