Err, OK. There are different defaults for alps and plain-jane synaptics in
rhpxl. Apparently only the alps ones are broken.

Actually can't do it in the fdi file, the config parser in the server doesn't
understand generic options yet.

And kind of tough to do in the driver, it turns out, but I'm working on it.

0.14.6-6 doesn't seem to help:

  (--) AlpsPS/2 ALPS GlidePoint touchpad found

so the patch should be activated, and the patch appears to have same settings as
my old xorg.conf (which does work).

Three small problems with synaptics-0.14.6-alps.patch.

1) Updating wrong params structure, EventQueryHardware() is called after
alloc_param_data() when the defaults are copied into the runtime data strucure.
2) Both ->max_speed and ->min_speed are doubles, so use xf86SetRealOption
instead of xf86CheckStrOption.
3) Attempt to update ->max_speed was actually updating ->min_speed.

Hence, this interdiff (pasted, likely whitespace munged:

diff -u synaptics-0.14.6/eventcomm.c synaptics-0.14.6/eventcomm.c
--- synaptics-0.14.6/eventcomm.c        2008-03-26 18:34:57.000000000 -0400
+++ synaptics-0.14.6/eventcomm.c        2008-03-27 23:25:56.000000000 -0700
@@ -101,7 +101,7 @@

     /* awful */
     if (strstr(local->name, "ALPS")) {
-       SynapticsSHM *pars = &((SynapticsPrivate *)local->private)->synpara_default;
+       SynapticsSHM *pars = ((SynapticsPrivate *)local->private)->synpara;
        void *opts = local->options;

        pars->left_edge = xf86SetIntOption(opts, "LeftEdge", 120);
@@ -113,10 +113,8 @@
        pars->tap_move = xf86SetIntOption(opts, "MaxTapMove", 110);
        pars->scroll_dist_vert = xf86SetIntOption(opts, "VertScrollDelta", 20);
        pars->scroll_dist_horiz = xf86SetIntOption(opts, "HorizScrollDelta", 20);
-       if (!xf86CheckStrOption(opts, "MinSpeed", "0.3"))
-           pars->min_speed = 0.3;
-       if (!xf86CheckStrOption(opts, "MaxSpeed", "0.75"))
-           pars->min_speed = 0.75;
+       pars->min_speed = xf86SetRealOption(opts, "MinSpeed", 0.3);
+       pars->max_speed = xf86SetRealOption(opts, "MaxSpeed", 0.75);
     }

     return TRUE;

I found I prefer increasing AccelFactor, but I left that out since the above
gets it back to the way it was, and I'd expect any further changes simply
continue to highlight the need for generic options in fdi.

Created attachment 299437 [details]
Updated synaptics-0.14.6-alps.patch

hit the problem wwoods reported as well

In addition: the touchpad it awfully slow once I switch to a text console and back
/me looks at the patch from Chris in Comment 4 and wonders if that might fix it

Re: chrisw's patch in comment #5
tested here, mmm-mmm good (well, worksforme anyway).  SHIP IT! :)

mind if I commit/build?

(In reply to comment #7)
> Re: chrisw's patch in comment #5
> tested here, mmm-mmm good (well, worksforme anyway).  SHIP IT! :)
> 
> mind if I commit/build?

Go for it.

%changelog
* Fri Mar 28 2008 Rex Dieter <rdieter> 0.14.6-7
- Synaptics default acceleration values are way slow for alps (#437039)

I seem to be seeing this exact thing here with current rawhide. ;( 

I have resorted to adding in a Synaptics section with sane values and also
adding in the SHMConfig stuff so I can adjust with gsynaptics. 

(II) XINPUT: Adding extended input device "AlpsPS/2 ALPS GlidePoint" (type: MOUSE)

Anyone else seeing this?

Also, on suspend/resume, the pointer resets back to very slow again, and I have
to run gsynaptics or adjust in the control panel to make it usable again. 

> Anyone else seeing this?

fwiw, (still) works fine here.

Changing version to '9' as part of upcoming Fedora 9 GA.
More information and reason for this action is here:
http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/BugZappers/HouseKeeping

Closing, this is fixed in current versions with autoscaling most parameters.

Kevin: the slow on resume is most likely Bug 439386.