How to use Apple Magic Trackpad with Ubuntu on multiple monitors

Submitted by The Fan Club on 7 February 2012

1. Pair and connect the Magic Trackpad with your Ubuntu computer via Bluetooth.

  • Use the Bluetooth assistant to pair and connect your trackpad.

2. Edit the X11 configuration file and add the settings needed.

The following is and example of the xorg.conf file for 3x 24" Monitors each with a resolution of 1920x1080 pixels as well as the relevant settings for using a multi-touch trackpad to work correctly across 3 screens (triple screen) using ATI Eyefinity, but this should work on nVidia and others. 

  •  Open the Terminal Window and enter :
sudo gedit /etc/X11/xorg.conf
  • Add the screen dimensions under the Screen section and the trackpad settings under the InputClass​ section :
Section "Screen"
	Identifier	"Default Screen"
	DefaultDepth	24
	SubSection "Display"
		Virtual 5760 1080
	EndSubSection
EndSection

Section "Module"
	Load	"glx"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
	Identifier  "aticonfig-Monitor[0]-0"
	Option	    "VendorName" "ATI Proprietary Driver"
	Option	    "ModelName" "Generic Autodetecting Monitor"
	Option	    "DPMS" "true"
EndSection

Section "Device"
	Identifier  "ATI radeon 5770"
	Driver      "fglrx"
	BusID       "PCI:3:0:0"
EndSection

Section "InputClass"        
	Identifier "Apple Magic Trackpad"
        MatchIsTouchpad "on"
        MatchUSBID "05ac:030e"
        Driver        "synaptics"
	Option	      "VertScrollDelta" "50"
	Option	      "HorizScrollDelta" "50"
	Option        "MinSpeed"        "0.6"
	Option        "MaxSpeed"        "1.3"
	Option        "AccelFactor"     "0.08"
	Option	      "VertResolution"	"1"
	Option	      "HorizResolution"	"3"
	Option        "TapButton1"      "1"
	Option        "TapButton2"      "2"
	Option        "TapButton3"      "3"
EndSection
  • Tip: The "VertResolution" and "HorizResolution" options above roughly represents the ratio of you combined screen resolution. For 3x 1920x1080 screens the total desktop size = 5760x1080 pixels = ratio of 5:1. We changed this to 3:1 in the settings above, you can adjust this according to your personal needs.
  • Tip: For 2 screen each 1920x1080 pixels, the setting for "HorizResolution" would change to "2"