Short answer: Linux Mint has no scroll speed slider in its touchpad settings, but the underlying libinput driver does expose one. Increase the “Scrolling Pixel Distance” value (the default is 15, valid range 10 to 50) with xinput to test it, then make it permanent with an Xorg configuration file at /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/99-touchpad-scroll.conf. Higher numbers mean slower scrolling.
Why there is no scroll speed option in Linux Mint
If you have gone looking in Menu > System Settings > Mouse and Touchpad, you already know the frustration. The Touchpad tab gives you:
- Enable or disable the touchpad
- Tap to click
- Disable touchpad while typing
- Click actions
- Reverse scrolling direction
- Scrolling method (two finger, edge, or none)
- Pointer speed
That last one is the trap. It changes how fast the cursor moves, not how fast the page scrolls. There is genuinely no scrolling speed control in the Cinnamon interface, and this has not changed through Cinnamon 6.x and Mint 22.
The reason is upstream. Mint, like Ubuntu, uses the libinput driver for touchpads, and libinput’s designers have been deliberately conservative about exposing tuning knobs. The setting we need does exist, it simply never got a slider.
Step 1: find your touchpad device ID
Open a terminal and run:
xinput listYou will get a list of input devices. Look for the one with “Touchpad” in the name. On a Lenovo IdeaPad, for example, it looks like this:
SYNA2B34:01 06CB:7F8D Mouse id=6 [slave pointer (2)]
SYNA2B34:01 06CB:7F8D Touchpad id=7 [slave pointer (2)]Note the ID number next to the Touchpad entry. In this case it is 7.
Do not worry if you see two entries with the same hardware name, one labelled Mouse and one labelled Touchpad. Many Synaptics and Elan touchpads present two device nodes. Scrolling comes from the Touchpad one, so that is the ID you want.
Step 2: check the setting exists
Before changing anything, confirm the property is available on your hardware:
xinput list-props 7 | grep -i scrollReplace 7 with your own ID. You are looking for these two lines:
libinput Scrolling Pixel Distance (340): 15
libinput Scrolling Pixel Distance Default (341): 15If those lines are missing entirely, your touchpad does not expose the property and you will need a different approach. See the troubleshooting section below.
Step 3: test a new scroll speed
Scrolling Pixel Distance is the distance your fingers have to travel to generate one unit of scroll. That means the relationship is inverted from what you might expect: a higher number produces slower scrolling.
Try this:
xinput set-prop 7 "libinput Scrolling Pixel Distance" 30Now go and scroll through a long web page and a file manager window. Too fast still? Try 40, then 50.
Two things to know while you experiment. The valid range is 10 to 50, and anything outside it fails with a BadValue error rather than a helpful message. And none of this survives a reboot, so you can try as many values as you like without committing to anything.
Step 4: make the change permanent
Once you have a value you are happy with, create an Xorg configuration snippet:
sudo mkdir -p /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d
sudo nano /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/99-touchpad-scroll.confPaste in the following, substituting your chosen number:
Section "InputClass"
Identifier "touchpad scroll speed"
MatchIsTouchpad "on"
MatchDevicePath "/dev/input/event*"
Driver "libinput"
Option "ScrollPixelDistance" "40"
EndSectionSave with Ctrl+O, Enter, then exit with Ctrl+X. Log out and back in, then verify:
xinput list-props 7 | grep "Scrolling Pixel Distance"Both lines should now read 40, the active value and the Default. That is your confirmation that the config file is being applied. A runtime xinput set-prop can only change the active value, never the default, so a default of 40 could only have come from the configuration file.
Why not just use Startup Applications?
This is the advice you will find on a lot of forum threads: drop the xinput set-prop command into Startup Applications and be done with it. It works, but it is the weaker option for two reasons.
First, timing. Startup entries run after the desktop session has loaded, so you get a second or two of default fast scrolling on every login before the correction lands.
Second, and more annoyingly, device IDs are not stable. Plug in a USB mouse and your touchpad’s ID can shift, at which point the startup command is setting a property on the wrong device or failing silently. The Xorg snippet matches on device type rather than ID, so it is immune to this.
Troubleshooting
The property does not appear in list-props. Some older or unusual touchpads run under the legacy synaptics driver instead of libinput. There the equivalent setting is VertScrollDelta, adjusted through a 70-synaptics.conf file, and the sign convention is different again.
It worked, then stopped after an update. Check the file is still present and that nothing in /usr/share/X11/xorg.conf.d/ is loading after it. Files load in alphabetical order, which is why the 99 prefix matters.
You are running a Wayland session. Mint’s Wayland support is still experimental, and Xorg configuration files do not apply there. Log into the standard Cinnamon session instead.
Scrolling is still too fast in one specific application. Some applications apply their own multiplier on top of the driver. Firefox is the usual culprit. Go to about:config, accept the warning, and search for mousewheel.default.delta_multiplier_y. Setting it below 100 slows Firefox scrolling specifically, leaving the rest of the system alone.
Frequently asked questions
Does a higher Scrolling Pixel Distance mean faster or slower scrolling?
Slower. The value is the finger travel distance required per scroll unit, so increasing it means you have to move further to scroll the same amount.
What is the default value in Linux Mint?
15. The permitted range is 10 to 50.
Will this affect my mouse wheel too?
No. The MatchIsTouchpad "on" line restricts the rule to touchpads, so external mice are untouched.
Does this apply to all users on the machine?
Yes. An Xorg configuration file is system wide, so every account on that laptop gets the same scroll speed. That is usually what you want on a shared machine, but it is worth knowing before you set it very slow.
Does it work on other distributions?
Yes. Anything running libinput under Xorg follows the same approach, including Ubuntu, Debian, Fedora and Pop!_OS. Only the desktop settings panel differs.
AGGA IT provides IT support to small businesses across Bicester, Oxford and the surrounding area. If your team is wrestling with something more consequential than trackpad settings, get in touch.
