Touchpad stopped working out of the blue
Solution 1
This is a confirmed bug which affecting many other people: Bug #549727: Touchpad stops working after login. You can find in the bug comments some partial fixes, but, keep in mind, neither one is mutually agreed by everyone.
Ubuntu 13.04 will reach soon (in January) at its end of life. So you should consider to upgrade your system to 13.10 which came with a new kernel - 3.11, that could solve your problem.
Meanwhile, to solve the problem for now, first check if your touchpad is enabled. If is enabled, try to reinstall xserver-xorg-input-synaptics
.If this will not work, change the module for your touchpad (but in this last case your touchpad scroll will be dead).
I. Check if your touchpad is enabled
Open dconf Editor, navigate to org → gnome → settings-daemon → peripherals → touchpad and make sure that tauchpad-enable is enabled/ticked (check also the other options):
Check also from terminal with the following command:
synclient | grep Touchpad
If the output is different than:
TouchpadOff = 0
then your touchpad is off and you should put it on using the following command:
synclient Touchpadoff=0
If the problem still persists, then go forward to the step II.
II. Reinstall xserver-xorg-input-synaptics
To reinstall xserver-xorg-input-synaptics
package, run the following command in terminal:
sudo apt-get install --reinstall xserver-xorg-input-synaptics
After the reinstallation is finished, reboot your system. If the problem still persists, check again if your touchpad is enabled using dconf Editor, then go forward to the step III.
III. Change the module for your touchpad
If the previous solutions didn't work, do the following:
-
Create a file called
touchpad.conf
in/etc/modprobe.d/
using the following command in terminal:sudo -i gedit /etc/modprobe.d/touchpad.conf
-
Add the following line inside the
touchpad.conf
file just created:options psmouse proto=imps
-
Save the file and close it.
-
Reboot your system,
After reboot your touchpad should work normally.
Solution 2
If the Touchpad was working earlier the way it should've, check whether (or not) it is enabled from the Keyboard. The key cmbination differs from model to model, for eg mine is Fn+F1. Check it from your laptop's user manual, or look for a function key that has a touchpad drawn on it; press this key with Fn key.
-
If the problem wasn't that simple, try reinstalling your Kernel:
Run the following command in a terminal (Ctrl+Alt+t):
dpkg -l | grep linux-image-.*-generic
Look for the kernel version you want to reinstall then run:
sudo apt-get install --reinstall linux-image-3.X.Y-ZZ-generic
Of course, you must type the real kernel version (e.g. linux-image-3.11.0-12-generic) instead of linux-image-3.X.Y-ZZ-generic.
If that too fails, run
synclient Touchpadoff=0
and check. (If it doesn't work after a reboot, just add this command to Startup Applications.)-
If even that doesn't solve a thing, let's create a configuration file for your touchpad:
sudo -H gedit /etc/modprobe.d/touchpad.conf
Add to the
touchpad.conf
file, and save:options psmouse proto=imps
Reboot your system, the touchpad should now work.
[UPDATE]
Please try upgrading to Ubuntu 13.10 Saucy as the latest Kernel 3.11*** is known to fix this bug.
In Terminal, run:
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get do-release-upgrade
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Wayne Len
Updated on September 18, 2022Comments
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Wayne Len over 1 year
So, I'm watching "The Walking Dead" and all of the sudden I lose control of my mouse through the touchpad. At first it was just for my user. I could reboot my system and switch to another user and use it just fine. I cannot explain the steps I took (I'm using the keyboard to manuver firefox right now) but it was something along the lines of:
sudo modprobe -r psmouse && sudo modprobe psmouse proto=imps
After this command, I regained control of my mouse but the computer didn't recognize it as a touchpad. I thought if I rebooted again, it may do the trick. So after I rebooted, the mouse went completely kaput. I cannot get the mouse to work at all now even though I've tried the command several times. I've tried different users and it's still the same.
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Wayne Len over 10 yearsAfter "sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get dist-upgrade && sudo reboot" mouse has been restored for other users but I'm still unable to use it.
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Wayne Len over 10 yearsdid "sudo modprobe -r psmouse && sudo modprobe psmouse proto=imps" again. I am able to use it but must enter the command every time I log in. The computer still doesn't see the touchpad as a touchpad.
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Vreality over 10 yearscan gpointing-device-settings see the touchpad?
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Braiam over 10 yearsSomething interesting in the
dmesg
? An usb mouse works ok? -
int_ua over 10 yearsCan you try 13.10 LiveUSB? Maybe it was fixed in 13.10. If that's not hardware that's failing.
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Wayne Len over 10 yearsI don't have a USB mouse and it's not hardware. I've had 13.04 installed as soon as it was release. It just now stopped working.
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Ramchandra Apte over 10 yearsCan you run
sudo lshw
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Novine over 10 yearsHow are you going to pay out 500 reputation?
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TomKat over 10 years@Novine This link answers it: askubuntu.com/help/bounty " All bounties are paid for up front and non-refundable under any circumstances. " That is, he's already paid it.
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Wayne Len over 10 yearsIt's working at startup now but it's still seen as ps/2 Generic Mouse and doesn't allow me to scroll as a touchpad.
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Radu Rădeanu over 10 years@KI4JGT See this answer to enable the scrolling.
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Radu Rădeanu over 10 yearsThere is no reasonable reason to reinstall the kernel for this purpose. And also you should add a note of warning when you put someone to do this.
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TomKat over 10 years@RaduRădeanu I misread in the comments that he has installed 13.10 "as soon as it was release(d)". My bad! I'll update. However, reinstalling the Kernel in 13.04 'may' still work as the touchpad was working fine until now.
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Sajib Acharya about 8 yearsafter wasting a day on this thing installing and reinstalling the hell out of it, Fn + F5 did it. -_-