The same solution for Firefox 50 and Ubuntu 16.xx still works for Firefox Quantum 57 and Ubuntu 17.10: Ubuntu 16 and touchscreen scrolling in FireFox
The solution is to launch firefox using:
env MOZ_USE_XINPUT2=1 firefox
You can make this permanent by modifying the launcher using the following:
sudo sed -i "s|Exec=|Exec=env MOZ_USE_XINPUT2=1 |g" /usr/share/applications/firefox.desktop
To undo this change, use:
sudo sed -i "s|Exec=env MOZ_USE_XINPUT2=1 |Exec=|g" /usr/share/applications/firefox.desktop
EDIT: Per @poomerang’s comment below, if you are using the Snap version of Firefox, the path in the above commands should be /var/lib/snapd/desktop/applications/firefox_firefox.desktop
Comparing touch scrolling in Firefox Quantum, using this solution. with touch scrolling in Chrome:
- Scrolling is one finger only; two finger scrolling causes the web page to zoom. This is different from Chrome, where you can scroll using two fingers, but still pinch to zoom or un-zoom.
- You can only scroll vertically or horizontally, depending on which direction your initial motion is in; this is different from Chrome, where you can scroll horizontally or vertically (or in circles) without lifting your finger(s).