Trackpad unusable with Ubuntu (Unity) 24 LTS

[gdeangel]

I have a T16 that is humming nicely with Ubuntu Unity running as dual boot with it's own boot partition. The factory Win11 image sits idle EXCEPT that the current drivers / setting configuration for the Trackpoint that comes with Ubuntu Unity is utterly unusable. The "nub" is way too sensitive... just lifting my finger to click a button causes the pointer to jump. There is no precise control.

I was using Ubuntu 14.04 years ago on an E11 which was shipped as a Win8 OEM dud. At that time I was able to go to Lenovo's old website and find linux drivers for pertty much everything including the Trackpoint, which opened up the standard GUI type settings configuration IIRC as part of the "settings" in the then-default unity desktop. Now, after doing some research, I find that there appears to be no such "linux drivers" on Lenovo's website... they are looking at the OS to supply and/or manage the drivers. So I dug in on the state of the linux drivers for Trackpoint, and everyone seems to gush about how it is "handled fine". I disagree and will have to go back to Win11 if this can't be sorted out.

I tried editing the "40-libinput-conf" file found at /usr/share/x11/xorg.conf.d/ based on some online suggestions I found. I added the following (after doing something I don't remember to identify the trakpoint's ID):

Section "InputClass"
Identifier "Trackpoint Defaults"
MatchIsPointer "true"
MatchProduct "TPPS/2 Elan TrackPoint" # Adjust if your device name differs
Driver "libinput"
Option "AccelProfile" "flat"
Option "Accel Speed" "0.0" # Adjust this value (0.0 to 1.0) for speed
Option "ScrollButton" "3" # For middle-click scroll if needed
EndSection

On restart, the result is that the middle button no longer scrolled anymore. That makes it even less usable than with the jumpy / too sensitive nub AND the touchpad seemed to be super sensitive and causing all kinds of phantom motion (i.e,, palm detection must have shut off).

I would really appreciate some help understanding how to very simply adjust (like we used to with the standard Trackpoint driver GUI), where it was possible to adjust the speed, acceleration of the nub, easily chose what the center button behavior is, and turn off the touchpad. This is fundamental to having a Thinkpad that works like it should. The only reason I continue to purchase Thinkpads is for the Trackpoint!!!

Anyway, the state of online documentation about Linux's drivers seems to suggest that they took something that worked and made it "automatic" to simplify things for the user, but the downside is that when it doesn't work, it's much more complicated to make changes - parsing out how libinput works, evaluating whether or not to us (and how to install) synaptics. Figure out what quirks are. And even possibly start sending changes to the kernel (and figuring out how to set that up to be persistent ... and remembering how to do it again for when something frags it!)

I'm flummoxed by the fact that what used to be a simple exercise in "Go to Lenovo site. Find driver. Follow instructions. It works." has turned into "Go to Internet. Read lots of contradictory, opinionated advice. Pray you get lucky."