external touchpad for Thinkpad T23? (fwd)

[Ian Smith]

On Tue, 2 Jan 2007, Jurjen Middendorp wrote:

 > On Wed, Jan 03, 2007 at 02:49:48AM +1100, Ian Smith wrote:
[..]
 > >I've just bought a Thinkpad T23, and I'm loving it .. but I'm not sure
 > >I'll ever be able to love its TrackPoint, being spoilt by the touchpad
 > >on my old Compaq Armada 1500c, with which I can be quite productive ..
 > >
 > >The only one I've been able to google up that looks nearly small enough
 > >to work with below the keyboard is the Adesso/Cirque EasyCat PS/2 or USB
 > >pad .. any chance these will (some value of) work with FreeBSD 6? 
 > >
 > >moused(8) only mentions the older (serial, and way too chunky) ALPS
 > >Glidepoint, and the Interlink Versapad which looks more the right sort
 > >of size, but appears to be no longer available?
 > >
 > >I'd appreciate any clues.

 > Moused(8) doesn't mention the ALPS glidpoint nor the Interlink VersaPad. It mentions
 > the protocols those things use, so you could use all touchpad things that use that
 > protocol.

That's true.  I'm hoping someone has tried one or the other, or another. 

 > But i can't say that i have ever used one, so you might want to wait and see if
 > there is someone that has actually used them.  Maybe you can find a computer shop
 > where you can try it?

Not around here; it'll be an ebay job I guess, and I'd rather not blow
what may come to A$100 shipped unless it has a fair chance of working
passably well .. I googled myself goggled but only found ads and press
releases, no critical reviews or user experiences.

 > Anyway, if you buy the ps/2 touchpad specify the ps/2 proto... which is actually
 > described 15 lines below the ALPS gildepoint and 11 lines below versapad ;P And
 > the adesso usb touchpad is plug-and-play so i think that that one will work if you
 > set moused to 'auto' (don't forget usb-mice kernel options?).

Ta.  I'd usually prefer PS/2 but will need to hot-plug the pad, so USB.

 > You might also want to have a look at the ion window-manager. Especially on laptops
 > it's a real pleasure to work with because it decreases the need to use a mouse for
 > things, so you don't have to carry a lot of stuff - besides your laptop.  And for
 > simple stuff like clicking links in a browser you can use the trackpoint! :)

Thankyou for the tips Jurjen,

Cheers, Ian