9.04 - 9.10 Synaptic touchpad not working

[jefri_of_azure_sea]

Have you all try to turn the touchpad off then on again?

[greenie2009]

I fixed it but not exactly sure how...here's what I think I did.
I upgraded to 9.10 from 9.04 and just noticed that the "latest" kernel, 2.6.31-14-generic was not being used. I went into system> administration>synaptic package manager and checked grub-pc which installed Grub2 and uninstalled Grub. After I rebooted I found that the boot list now allowed me to select kernel 2.6.31 (this wasn't even a choice before). Everything seems to be cool now.
I hope this helps someone, sorry that I don't have a better technical explanation of what happened.

My touchpad isn't responding either. I tried following this instruction, but since I'm a complete ubuntu novice I don't really understand anything... What does it mean to select kernel 2.6.31?
In synaptic package manager it looks like I have grub-pc and grub-common installed - should I actively install grub or grub2? What is the difference between all these grubs?

Thanks
Helene

[Jandre78]

I have found a resolution for the problem I had on this site:

http://danilogurovich.wordpress.com/...hpad-behavior/

However I couldn't create the file in the manner as described. I created it in my home folder, moved it and then changed the ownership to "root". Did the reboot and its now working.

I have a Compaq presario B.T.W.

I hope this helps some of you

[Lucas van Boeschoten]

I also lost my Synaptic Touchpad when upgrading from 9.04 to 9.10. I have an Acer Travelmate 240 with a Synaptics TouchPad.

I tried the suggestion in Post #10. I got as far as the system>Administration>Synaptic Ppackage Manager, but I couldn't find a reference to grub-pc. Please explain this part.

Thanks.

[Lucas van Boeschoten]

Success! Once I found the All category, I was OK.

[bjornd]

I have found a resolution for the problem I had on this site:

http://danilogurovich.wordpress.com/...hpad-behavior/

Worked for me, on a HP tx2000.
To create the file (and fix the problem, simply:

sudo -i
echo "options psmouse proto=exps" > /etc/modprobe.d/psmouse.modprobe
reboot

[ptn]

Same problem here. I'm on a Toshiba Satellite U405-S2856

[rowleydmr]

I fixed it but not exactly sure how...here's what I think I did.
I upgraded to 9.10 from 9.04 and just noticed that the "latest" kernel, 2.6.31-14-generic was not being used. I went into system> administration>synaptic package manager and checked grub-pc which installed Grub2 and uninstalled Grub. After I rebooted I found that the boot list now allowed me to select kernel 2.6.31 (this wasn't even a choice before). Everything seems to be cool now.
I hope this helps someone, sorry that I don't have a better technical explanation of what happened.

This worked for me also. The touchpad was the only problem I have found after upgrading to 9.10 and once I had access to the 2.6.31 kernel the problem went away. Thanks Much JTCA! One note, however--Grub2 did not actually work for me and I had to go back to Grub, but after I had installed Grub-pc I was able to load with the new kernel even after I removed it and went back to grub. This made it easy for a dope like me.

[ranthony]

If you are still having a problem with your touchpad, you can find the solution at the link above, but the real answer to the problem is in one of the replies.

The solution suggested by JTCA will also work, but it requires installing the grub2 beta software; not desirable from a stability standpoint.

The problem, as several people have noted, is the original release of 9.10 gave you the option to not update your grub menu.lst file, which consequently will still point to the old linux kernel on boot; disabling several functions in the system, including the touchpad.

I will paste the full solution as posted by 'bob' to the linked blog. Thank you Bob, whoever you are.

Dieter is correct, if you chose not to update your grub menu.lst when upgrading because you have a dual boot machine (like me), then you’re still booting the old kernal and will get a bunch of other process errors.

To fix the problem, use gedit in a command window to add the new lines to your menu list as follows:

~$ sudo gedit /boot/grub/menu.lst

scroll to the bottom of the list you will find the lines that make up your grub boot options. make a copy of the most recent one and then change the kernal version number to 2.6.31-14. You will then have an entry that look like this, except with your own uuid ( it must be a different uuid from mine ):

title Ubuntu 9.10, kernel 2.6.31-14-generic
uuid 6a08943a-8da4-4b93-8d5b-440e954dba61
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.31-14-generic root=UUID=6a08943a-8da4-4b93-8d5 b-440e954dba61 ro vga=795 splash quiet
initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.31-14-generic
quiet

If you are reading this a little later in time, you will want to make sure the kernal version number is the right one. To do that, just open a command window and type “ls -al /boot” to display the current list of kernals. choose the biggest number (most recent). Right now that’s 2.6.31-14.

The current kernal, as of this writing is 2.6.31-15. If you upgrade now, you will no longer be prompted to keep your grub menu.lst file. Problem solved.

-RAnthony

[musarraf172]

Try this on your command line:

"echo options psmouse proto=exps > /etc/modprobe.d/psmouse.modprobe"

Then restart