Enable Tap to Click in Ubuntu Linux: A Step-by-Step Guide

Tap to click in Ubuntu Linux lets you select items on your screen with a light touch on your laptop touchpad instead of pressing down hard. This built-in setting works on Ubuntu 22.04 LTS and newer releases. It also saves wear on the physical click mechanism, which is usually the first part of a touchpad to give out.

You can turn this feature on in a few clicks through the Settings app. Once it is on, your touchpad responds to a quick tap much like a smartphone screen. No restart or log-out is needed, and the change applies as soon as you flip the switch.

How to turn on or off tap to click on Ubuntu Linux

Tap to click lets you tap your touchpad to select items without physically pressing down. The short version is this: open the Settings app, go to the Mouse & Touchpad panel, and switch on the Tap to Click option. After that, your laptop responds to light finger taps. You can reverse the change the same way at any time.

You need nothing more than a laptop (or a desktop with a touchpad) running Ubuntu 22.04 LTS or newer. The steps below use the default GNOME desktop that Ubuntu ships with.

Ubuntu gathers your system settings and user accounts in one central hub, the Settings app. Everything you need for the touchpad is in there, so you never have to touch a configuration file. There are two ways to open it.

The second way is through the System menu. It works well when you can’t see the app grid or the search box.

1. Click the System menu in the top-right corner of your desktop, the area with the network, volume and battery icons.
2. You should now see a small panel with quick toggles and the Settings ⚙️ entry.

3. On the System menu, select Settings, as shown below.
4. The Settings ⚙️ app should now open in its own window, with a list of categories down the left side.

5. Find Mouse & Touchpad in the sidebar of the Settings ⚙️ app and click it.
6. The right-hand pane should now show your mouse and touchpad options.

If the sidebar is hard to read because the window is narrow, make the window wider or scroll down the list. In some releases the item is a tile rather than a sidebar entry, but it is named the same.

In the Mouse & Touchpad panel, look for the Touchpad section. This is where the touchpad itself is switched on or off.

7. Under the Touchpad section, set the Touchpad switch to On.
8. The switch should turn coloured, and the options below it should no longer be greyed out.

Turning the touchpad on activates the sensor, so a single tap can act like a physical mouse click. This feature is available in Ubuntu 22.04 and later.

If you are on a desktop PC, or Ubuntu runs in a virtual machine, you may see only the mouse options. In that case there is nothing to enable, and the steps below won’t apply.

The touchpad must be on before you can configure other options for it. If the settings below look greyed out, check this switch first.

9. With the touchpad enabled, set the Tap to Click switch to On.
10. Test it right away: rest the cursor over an icon or link and tap the touchpad once. It should be selected without any press.

Other tap gestures work now too. Tap twice quickly to double-click, and tap twice but keep your finger down on the second tap to drag an item. Many touchpads also treat a two-finger tap as a right-click.

If you don't like tapping, you can undo the change at any time.

11. Return to Settings › Mouse & Touchpad.
12. Set the Tap to Click switch to Off.

Your touchpad then goes back to needing a physical press to click.

That completes the setup. Ubuntu saves the setting as soon as you change it, so you can simply close the Settings app. There is no Apply or Save button. The setting stays in place after you restart or log out.

Conclusion:

• Enabling or disabling Tap to Click in Ubuntu Linux allows you to conveniently perform various touchpad actions without needing separate hardware buttons.
• Access the centralized System Settings panel in Ubuntu Linux to toggle the touchpad and Tap to Click settings on or off.
• Following the outlined steps will enable users to tap to click, tap twice to double click, and double tap to drag items, enhancing the touchpad functionality in Ubuntu Linux.