How do you make the touchpad ignore touch input from the thumb when it's resting at the bottom of the touchpad?

Solution 1:

I'll answer my own question: it's all in the driver and software. Both can implement thumb-rejection, but one must do it.

In the Windows world, Microsoft Precision Touchpads seem to do a much better job of this than typical Synaptics or Elan touchpads using manufacturer-supplied drivers. Still not as good as Apple trackpads sadly.

In the Linux world, the best results I've found require using libinput with the "areas" click method. This defines a line at the bottom of the pad that completely ignored all touches and is used only for clicking. If you don't like the virtual middle-mouse button and your distro doesn't provide an interface for disabling it, put the following in your RC file to turn it into another left-click button: xinput --set-button-map <touchpad id> 1 1 3

If using the Synaptics driver, there are more customization options, but it can be trickier to set up. The information in some or all of these links will help:

• https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Touchpad_Synaptics#Bottom_edge_correction
• https://askubuntu.com/questions/221664/how-to-tune-touchpad-for-smaller-area
• https://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.php?f=208&t=198752
• https://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1440747
• https://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=2204700#post13214229
• https://bugzilla.kernel.org/attachment.cgi?id=164671
• http://pastebin.com/raw/4v9JP2pe
• https://wiki.debian.org/SynapticsTouchpad

Solution 2:

I am also a longtime Mac user adjusting to the touchpad behavior on my PC.

I have the Synaptic Driver so what I did was extend the right click corner all the way across the bottom of the trackpad and set it to primary click.

Then I set two finger click to primary click as well, and three finger click to secondary (right) click. This provides the same experience as a Mac, the primary clicking is done with the thumb, allowing for easier click w/thumb and drag with the index finger.

Then when you add in the middle finger as well and you get a right click, again just like the Mac. Hope this helps.