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Touchpad tap stopped working on Ubuntu 16.04 I installed genome 3.2 and then removed it, and convert back to unity. Two finger scrolling is working. I don't see touchpad settings in settings. I've tried this solution: 

synclient TapButton1=1 TapButton2=3 TapButton3=2

But it says that synaptics driver is not loaded

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

How to get touchpad taps working again?

Haroko
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3 Answers3

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It looks like you installed libinput. You have two options:

  1. Enable tapping with libinput. It can be done by adding

    Option "Tapping" "true"

to the touchpad section of /usr/share/X11/xorg.conf.d/90-libinput.conf.

Tapping in libinput is disabled by defualt.

  1. Remove libinput. That will revert to xorg-synaptics user space driver. It can be done by

    sudo apt remove xserver-xorg-input-libinput

libinput is a new user space driver that will replace xorg-synaptics in new distro versions. I do not recommend to remove it.

Pilot6
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  • Thanks, I tried option 1, enable tapping. What about system setting not showing touchpad settings, like scrolling options? – Haroko Dec 28 '16 at 12:47
  • Can I remove xorg-synaptics package safely now? – Haroko Dec 28 '16 at 12:48
  • There is no need to remove it. – Pilot6 Dec 28 '16 at 12:55
  • Which packages do I install for libinput? – nilanjanaLodh May 06 '17 at 12:17
  • It depends on which version and hwe stack is installed. – Pilot6 May 06 '17 at 13:06
  • You need to logout in order to apply the changes to the configuration file. (I tried triggering the update using udevadm without success) – Martin R. Sep 28 '17 at 23:10
  • with the first option I get an error because "Option" is not a recognised option in "that section". Can you provide the complete content of the file? – glS May 08 '18 at 08:22
  • Option "Tapping" "true" should be added before EndSection. You can also ask a new question with your file. It is not convenient to solve this type of troubles in comments. – Pilot6 May 08 '18 at 08:27
  • I have edited this file as directed and it seemed to work at first but now it's back to the same behavior. The only other option I have after scouring the internet is to remove libinput. I am reticent to do this because it's not my computer. Does anyone have personal experience removing it? Did it cause any problems? – Robert Baker Aug 03 '19 at 18:21
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I had the same problem and after a LOT of searching and trial and error I came up with this solution and I am sure It will work in your case as well. Since you tried installing gnome3 and then later un-installed it,it would have changed some settings particularly libinput. Try to remove it and I am sure your touchpad tap will start working again. I ran-

sudo apt-get remove xserver-xorg-input-libinput

or

sudo apt-get purge --auto-remove xserver-xorg-input-libinput

The last code will completely clean all the configuration files and data associated with libinput. Just reboot your computer after this and hopefully it'll start working again as it did in my case!

Amardeep Mishra
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    You do not have to remove libinput. You can enable tapping there. – Pilot6 Dec 26 '16 at 16:46
  • Hi Pilot! Thanks for pointing that out. After a lot of searching i did find that libinput has replaced synaptics in newer distros and desktop environs. I was unsure how to enable it. But removing did in fact work in my case. – Amardeep Mishra Dec 27 '16 at 02:30
  • Thanks, accepted Pilot6 answer since it provides another option, which I actually used – Haroko Dec 28 '16 at 12:46
  • Ref. https://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=2322413 sudo apt-get install xserver-xorg-input-synaptics – Amitabha Biswas Nov 01 '17 at 07:24
  • Well, oddly enough, I believe the following line is what caused my keyboard AND touchpad AND USB mouse to stop working at all (as soon as x is started). I can get in on the command line, but I can't get the wifi to work on the command line...so far, I'm not finding a way forward.

    sudo apt purge --auto-remove xserver-xorg-input-libinput

     – Pete Forsyth May 08 '19 at 01:51
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Restarting pmouse solved the problem for me. This will enable mouse options. In the terminal, execute:

sudo modprobe -r psmouse
sudo modprobe psmouse

Then the touchpad options will appear on "mouse and touchpad"
(original thread that suggested https://askubuntu.com/a/811948/567297)

Then you can enable or disable:

  1. tap to click
  2. two finger scrolling
  3. natural scrolling
Eliah Kagan
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sanjeewa kumara
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