Touchpad has stopped working in 16.04

Question

I have a thinkpad t460. This morning when I was using the touchpad it was working fine, I closed the lid, came back an hour later and the touchpad has stopped working.

I have tried restarting, trying a different kernel version but still the same problem.

Not entirely sure where to start on fixing this

It may be relevant to know that the red nipple thing in the middle works, which is how I am managing to navigate this site right now.

I also booted into Windows where the touchpad worked fine.

xinput list ⎡ Virtual core pointer id=2 [master pointer (3)] ⎜ ↳ Virtual core XTEST pointer id=4 [slave pointer (2)] ⎜ ↳ SynPS/2 Synaptics TouchPad id=11 [slave pointer (2)] ⎜ ↳ TPPS/2 IBM TrackPoint id=13 [slave pointer (2)] ⎣ Virtual core keyboard id=3 [master keyboard (2)] ↳ Virtual core XTEST keyboard id=5 [slave keyboard (3)] ↳ Power Button id=6 [slave keyboard (3)] ↳ Video Bus id=7 [slave keyboard (3)] ↳ Sleep Button id=8 [slave keyboard (3)] ↳ Integrated Camera id=9 [slave keyboard (3)] ↳ AT Translated Set 2 keyboard id=10 [slave keyboard (3)] ↳ ThinkPad Extra Buttons id=12 [slave keyboard (3)]

synclient Couldn't find synaptics properties. No synaptics driver loaded?

sudo modprobe -rv psmouse && sudo modprobe -v psmouse rmmod psmouse insmod /lib/modules/4.4.0-28-generic/kernel/drivers/input/mouse/psmouse.ko

Sounds like an issue with the synaptics driver. What's the output of xinput list? — Alcuin Arundel, Jul 07 '16 at 18:33
Thanks @AlcuinArundel - i have updated my question with the output, any ideas? — qui, Jul 07 '16 at 18:42
Indeed ... try sudo modprobe -rv psmouse && sudo modprobe -v psmouse — Alcuin Arundel, Jul 07 '16 at 19:13
Someone else was dealing with a similar issue yesterday and seems to have found a solution. Give it a shot: http://askubuntu.com/a/796183/381089 — Alcuin Arundel, Jul 08 '16 at 22:56
Thanks again for the reply, but sadly it's still broken. Tempted to do a clean install at this point although it seems a ridiculous solution. — qui, Jul 09 '16 at 06:51
Try asking on https://www.reddit.com/r/thinkpad/ There are a lot of Linux users there who might be able to help. — Alcuin Arundel, Jul 09 '16 at 07:17
Yeah! @AlcuinArundel I've had this problem for almost a year ;-) sudo modprobe -rv psmouse && sudo modprobe -v psmouse fixes it and saves a reboot thanks! — Geoff Williams, Nov 25 '17 at 04:26

score -1 · Answer 1 · answered Sep 19 '17 at 15:55

-1

Anyone still experiencing this problem can try updating their kernel to the latest version, I tried everything else and that was the solution for me. Just use the commands

sudo apt-get install linux-image-4.11.0-14-lowlatency linux-headers-4.11.0-14-lowlatency

Obviously this installs the 4.11.0.14 lowlatency kernel which is currently the latest but you can choose your version - usually pressing tab while at typing in the version gives some options. When booting it should automatically choose the newest installed kernel but you can otherwise select advanced ubuntu options from the grub boot menu and select the kernel from there.

answered Sep 19 '17 at 15:55

Warren Scantlebury

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1

Why is 4.11 "the latest". Latest for what? Why lowlatency? How is it related to the original question? Do you have the same touchpad? – Pilot6 Sep 19 '17 at 17:31
as i said it was the latest kernel at the time of posting, its the latest because... well... its the latest i dont know what else to say there. There are 'lowlatency' and 'generic' versions of the kernel, my preliminary research seems to suggest that lowlatency has benefits with respect to low latency audio, and doesnt necessarily mean a faster kernel. Also as i said this fixed my touchpad issues, it seems as though some older versions of the kernel (around version 4.4.x but i cant pinpoint the exact version although i tried up to version 4.8.x unsuccessfully ) are having driver issues – Warren Scantlebury Sep 22 '17 at 08:29

Touchpad has stopped working in 16.04

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