How can I enable multi-touch gestures on a laptop trackpad?

Question

My laptop has the ability to read up to 4-finger gestures, but the functionality to map and use those gestures isn't included in Elementary OS. Is there any way I can do this?

Answer 1

You probably need touchegg.

sudo apt-get install touchegg

Then run it, with touchegg in the command line. You will see something like this:

Try to make a multitouch gesture. If everything goes well the information about the
gesture must appear
[+] Avaliable gesture:
     Name ->  Flick 
[+] Avaliable gesture: 
     Name ->  Drag
[+] Avaliable gesture:
     Name ->  Pinch
[+] Avaliable gesture:
     Name ->  Rotate
[+] Avaliable gesture:
     Name ->  Tap
[+] Avaliable gesture:
     Name ->  Touch

So make the gesture, and if it appears follow the instructions from there.

If not, I'm not sure. I can't test this, as I'm on a desktop not laptop.

Answer 2

Be aware that the input stack simply does not support multitouch trackpads right now. You can interpret or simulate gesture support using things like touchegg, but you won't be able to get 1:1 finger tracking or in-app gestures for things like pinch-to-zoom. This won't be possible until the move to Wayland and LibInput