Problem with touch pad in linux

Question

I have a Lenovo g500 laptop and I recently installed Ubuntu 14.04 in it. The problem is that the touchpad in not being dectected. I ran Ubuntu in live mode before installation and the touchpad worked perfectly fine. But it stopped working after I installed Ubuntu.The same thing happened with Linux Mint. Can someone tell me what the problem is and how to fix it?

Solution

A Google for "lenovo g500 touchpad linux" returned the Laptops and Netbooks Support Page for Lenovo G500, Setting the Component Dropdown to Mouse & Keyboard yields the following:

Touchpad Driver (Synaptics, Elan)
Version: 16.4.1.0 /11.4.14 .1 
Date: 5/26/2013

Synaptics is all we needed from the entry to determine the correct driver. Readers can now issue a: sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install xserver-xorg-input-synaptics followed by a reboot. If Ubuntu returns that this driver is already installed, read the SynapticsTouchpad Ubuntu Community Documentation, specifically the Troubleshooting Section. Readers need to make sure the touchpad was detected.

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Problem

Many Live CD's use automated hardware detection to ensure that the distribution's LiveCD will work on as many devices as possible. The issue here is, that once the hardware is detected, the results aren't passed to the distribution's installer script or program. As a result, the installer only installs packages that will provide basic functionality upon reboot. In your case, the LiveCD correctly detected a Synaptics touchpad, but the installer was unaware of that. The easiest way I've found to trick the installer is to leave your external mouse unplugged during an install, thereby forcing the installer to choose the trackpad as the only pointing device.

Comments

[Jakuje]

it is more probable that the guys from askubuntu.com will help you. But prepare at least the type of touchpad.

[Richard Thomas]

@jakuje Its not just ubuntu but linux mint also doesnt detect the touchpad.

[eyoung100]

@Jakuje is correct in that Mint is a Ubuntu LTS Variant. See my answer.