Does TotalSpaces work with third-party trackpads?

TotalSpaces
1

HI! I’m using the demo version of TotalSpaces, and I’ve run into a bit of an issue. I use a Logitech trackpad (T651) with my MacBook Air, and swiping between spaces doesn’t seem to be supported on the Logitech trackpad. It works just fine on the built-in trackpad on my Mac, though. I’ve tried toggling off several of the trackpad settings that I had (Mission Control, App Expose) both in the regular Trackpad preference pane and in the Logitech preference pane, but to no avail. TotalSpaces continues to work with the Mac’s trackpad but not with my external trackpad. Is there a solution to this that I’ve overlooked? Any help would be great.

Thanks!

2

Hi - I don’t know of any particular reason it wouldn’t work, but clearly it doesn’t and I don’t have such a trackpad to test with.

We definitely do work with Apple’s external trackpads.

I’ll see if I can locate a logitech trackpad to test with.

3

It seemed weird to me, too. Thanks for looking into this.

Greg

4

I just tried TotalSpaces and ran into this issue as well. Unfortunately it’s a deal breaker for me.

I think the problem is with the API OS X provides. You can use the T651 without the Logitech Preference Manager, but if you do you can’t use any of the 3+ finger functions of the built in touchpad and don’t get inertial scrolling either. I think the Logitech Preference Manager spoofs all of these. This is probably because there is no API for the sensor inputs or Apple doesn’t provide access to it. Probably the only available API is triggering various actions like activating Mission Control.

Obviously there’s an API for output from the sensors that you use to hook into when a 4 finger action has happened. I would guess that you’d need to hook into Logitech’s driver to get the same information from the T651.

I hope you can solve these issues because I’d like a grid layout for me spaces.

Cheers,
Graham

5

You may be right, I confess I am not sure how 3rd party device drivers hook into the system.

In which case I don’t hold out too much hope of being able to make TS2 work with it without a lot of custom work.