How do I enable a touchpad?

Question

I installed Ubuntu 11.10 several months ago, but I haven't found a proper way to enable the touchpad.

I once tried something I can't recall the name.

Does any one have any suggestions?

Update: Here's what cat /usr/share/X11/xorg.conf.d/50-synaptics.conf shows:

# Example xorg.conf.d snippet that assigns the touchpad driver
# to all touchpads. See xorg.conf.d(5) for more information on
# InputClass.
# DO NOT EDIT THIS FILE, your distribution will likely overwrite
# it when updating. Copy (and rename) this file into
# /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d first.
# Additional options may be added in the form of
#   Option "OptionName" "value"
#
Section "InputClass"
        Identifier "touchpad catchall"
        Driver "synaptics"
        MatchIsTouchpad "on"
# This option is recommend on all Linux systems using evdev, but cannot be
# enabled by default. See the following link for details:
# http://who-t.blogspot.com/2010/11/how-to-ignore-configuration-errors.html
      MatchDevicePath "/dev/input/event*"
EndSection

Does this work? - http://askubuntu.com/questions/81805/how-do-i-enable-my-synaptics-trackpad — jrg, Feb 02 '12 at 12:38
@jrg Sorry, but seems not :( Is there a way to check if I did it right ? — Derrick Zhang, Feb 02 '12 at 12:58
Did you reboot your computer? The changes don't take affect until after that — jrg, Feb 02 '12 at 12:59
Do you actually have a synaptics trackpad? What does cat /usr/share/X11/xorg.conf.d/50-synaptics.conf tell you? — jrg, Feb 02 '12 at 13:45
@jrg I do have a synaptics one. Please see the updated post. — Derrick Zhang, Feb 03 '12 at 00:43
let us continue this discussion in chat, I have more questions to ask. — jrg, Feb 03 '12 at 00:44

score -1 · Answer 1 · edited Feb 03 '12 at 12:17

-1

Open the Software Center and search for synaptics, should have a couple of packages that after install should enable your touchpad.

I had the same problem on a Dell Inspiron 1545!

edited Feb 03 '12 at 12:17

Octavian Helm

14,355

answered Feb 02 '12 at 13:06

Evram E.

1

1

Can you give more detail about which software to install ? I searched for synaptics but only got three seemingly pointless packages. – Derrick Zhang Feb 03 '12 at 00:44

How do I enable a touchpad?

1 Answers1