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Article Number: 000129850

Touchpad Right Click Stops Working after Ubuntu 18.04 LTS is Installed

Summary: The following article provides information about how to change the touchpad settings after installing Ubuntu 18.04 Long-Term Support (LTS) on your Dell computer.

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Article Content

Symptoms

Did the right click on your touchpad stop working after installing Ubuntu 18.04 LTS?


The touchpad right click may not function on your computer after installing Ubuntu 18.04 LTS.

Cause

This is not an issue with the operating system or your touchpad. Gnome defaults to the Mac touchpad behavior where the entire touchpad is a single button. In order to right-click, you use two fingers to click instead of one.

Resolution

How to alter your Ubuntu touchpad settings

 

Note: Here are a couple of quick ways to open a terminal window in Ubuntu:
  • Press the CTRL + ALT + T keys down simultaneously
  • Click the Dash button or press the Windows key and type: terminal and press the Enter key
 

The following instructions provide two different options that depend on how you are looking to change the touchpad:

Change the Touchpad click settings:

  1. Type the following command and press the Enter key to revert to the right click:

    gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.peripherals.touchpad click-method areas

Bring up a Graphical User Interface (Graphical User Interface) with additional configuration settings

  1. Type the following command and press the Enter key to install a tweak GUI tool:

    sudo apt install gnome-tweak-tool

Note: The sudo command gives an instruction in terminal to run the following argument with administrator privileges. (You must have an admin password and rights for this, as it asks for an account and password.)
 

  1. Type the following command and press the Enter key to open the Tweak GUI tool:

    gnome-tweaks

  2. Go to keyboard and mouse and look for the Mouse click emulation section. Check the Area checkbox to enable middle and right click.

Article Properties

Affected Product

G Series, Inspiron, Latitude, Vostro, XPS, Legacy Laptop Models

Last Published Date

25 Apr 2024

Version

4

Article Type

Solution

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