Touchpad not working on CentOS 7.2

Question

I have installed CentOS 7.2 in my Dell Vostro 15 laptop (Dual booted alongside Windows 8). For some reason, I can't use my Touchpad at all. None of the features of Touchpad (Pointer movement, left/right click) is working.

---

I have checked if Synaptics Driver is installed. The command

$ yum list installed | grep synaptics

returns

xorg-x11-drv-synaptics.x86_64          1.8.2-1.el7                     @base    
xorg-x11-drv-synaptics-devel.x86_64    1.8.2-1.el7                     @base

---

The command

$ xinput list

returns

⎡ Virtual core pointer                      id=2    [master pointer  (3)]
⎜   ↳ Virtual core XTEST pointer                id=4    [slave  pointer  (2)]
⎜   ↳ Logitech USB Optical Mouse                id=10   [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)]
    ↳ Power Button                              id=8    [slave  keyboard (3)]
    ↳ Sleep Button                              id=9    [slave  keyboard (3)]
    ↳ Integrated_Webcam_HD                      id=11   [slave  keyboard (3)]
    ↳ AT Translated Set 2 keyboard              id=12   [slave  keyboard (3)]
    ↳ Dell WMI hotkeys                          id=13   [slave  keyboard (3)]

Has anyone ever faced and solved this issue ever? Please help. Reply if you need more information about the problem.

Solution

Based on https://askubuntu.com/questions/592925/dell-inspiron-3551-unresponsive-touchpad

1. Add i8042.nopnp to grub command line in /etc/default/grub:

   # change this:
   GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="... quiet splash"
   
   # to:
   GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="... quiet splash i8042.nopnp"
   

2. Update your grub config (as root):

   # If you're using UEFI boot
   grub2-mkconfig -o /boot/efi/EFI/centos/grub.cfg
   
   # or legacy
   grub2-mkconfig -o /boot/grub2/grub.cfg
   

3. Blacklist module i2c_hid (as root):

   echo "blacklist i2c_hid" > /etc/modprobe.d/i2c-hid.conf
   

4. Regenerate your initramfs (as root):

   cp -v /boot/initramfs-$(uname -r).img /boot/initramfs-$(uname -r).img.bak
   dracut -f
   

5. Reboot!