Netbook Touchpad not Responding

**5BallJuggler** · October 30th, 2009

Hi All,

I cant get the touchpad to work on the wife's Acer Aspire One, I have the same type of netbook, and it works fine

I upgraded to a beta version of 9.10 on my netbook about a week ago and had no issues with the touchpad at all, but when I installed the official release on to the wife's it caused the touchpad to stop working,
tried the usual Fn+F7, to no avail.

I made a startup USB of 9.10 and tried that and it was all OK,
it is also OK using a bluetooth mouse.

This is my "xinput list" output

Code:

"Virtual core pointer"	id=0	[XPointer]
	Num_buttons is 32
	Num_axes is 2
	Mode is Relative
	Motion_buffer is 256
	Axis 0 :
		Min_value is -1
		Max_value is -1
		Resolution is 0
	Axis 1 :
		Min_value is -1
		Max_value is -1
		Resolution is 0
"Virtual core keyboard"	id=1	[XKeyboard]
	Num_keys is 248
	Min_keycode is 8
	Max_keycode is 255
"AT Translated Set 2 keyboard"	id=2	[XExtensionKeyboard]
	Type is KEYBOARD
	Num_keys is 248
	Min_keycode is 8
	Max_keycode is 255
"USB 2.0 Camera"	id=3	[XExtensionKeyboard]
	Type is KEYBOARD
	Num_keys is 248
	Min_keycode is 8
	Max_keycode is 255
"Sleep Button"	id=4	[XExtensionKeyboard]
	Type is KEYBOARD
	Num_keys is 248
	Min_keycode is 8
	Max_keycode is 255
"Power Button"	id=5	[XExtensionKeyboard]
	Type is KEYBOARD
	Num_keys is 248
	Min_keycode is 8
	Max_keycode is 255
"Video Bus"	id=6	[XExtensionKeyboard]
	Type is KEYBOARD
	Num_keys is 248
	Min_keycode is 8
	Max_keycode is 255
"Power Button"	id=7	[XExtensionKeyboard]
	Type is KEYBOARD
	Num_keys is 248
	Min_keycode is 8
	Max_keycode is 255
"Macintosh mouse button emulation"	id=8	[XExtensionPointer]
	Type is MOUSE
	Num_buttons is 5
	Num_axes is 2
	Mode is Relative
	Motion_buffer is 256
	Axis 0 :
		Min_value is -1
		Max_value is -1
		Resolution is 1
	Axis 1 :
		Min_value is -1
		Max_value is -1
		Resolution is 1
"SynPS/2 Synaptics TouchPad"	id=9	[XExtensionPointer]
	Type is TOUCHPAD
	Num_buttons is 12
	Num_axes is 2
	Mode is Relative
	Motion_buffer is 256
	Axis 0 :
		Min_value is 1472
		Max_value is 5472
		Resolution is 1
	Axis 1 :
		Min_value is 1408
		Max_value is 4448
		Resolution is 1

This is my wife's

Code:

"Virtual core pointer"	id=0	[XPointer]
	Num_buttons is 32
	Num_axes is 2
	Mode is Relative
	Motion_buffer is 256
	Axis 0 :
		Min_value is -1
		Max_value is -1
		Resolution is 0
	Axis 1 :
		Min_value is -1
		Max_value is -1
		Resolution is 0
"Virtual core keyboard"	id=1	[XKeyboard]
	Num_keys is 248
	Min_keycode is 8
	Max_keycode is 255
"AT Translated Set 2 keyboard"	id=2	[XExtensionKeyboard]
	Type is KEYBOARD
	Num_keys is 248
	Min_keycode is 8
	Max_keycode is 255
"MLK Keyboard Mouse Set"	id=3	[XExtensionKeyboard]
	Type is KEYBOARD
	Num_keys is 248
	Min_keycode is 8
	Max_keycode is 255
	Num_buttons is 13
	Num_axes is 2
	Mode is Relative
	Motion_buffer is 256
	Axis 0 :
		Min_value is -1
		Max_value is -1
		Resolution is 1
	Axis 1 :
		Min_value is -1
		Max_value is -1
		Resolution is 1
"MLK Keyboard Mouse Set"	id=4	[XExtensionKeyboard]
	Type is KEYBOARD
	Num_keys is 248
	Min_keycode is 8
	Max_keycode is 255
"Sleep Button (CM)"	id=5	[XExtensionKeyboard]
	Type is KEYBOARD
	Num_keys is 248
	Min_keycode is 8
	Max_keycode is 255
"Power Button (CM)"	id=6	[XExtensionKeyboard]
	Type is KEYBOARD
	Num_keys is 248
	Min_keycode is 8
	Max_keycode is 255
"Video Bus"	id=7	[XExtensionKeyboard]
	Type is KEYBOARD
	Num_keys is 248
	Min_keycode is 8
	Max_keycode is 255
"Power Button (FF)"	id=8	[XExtensionKeyboard]
	Type is KEYBOARD
	Num_keys is 248
	Min_keycode is 8
	Max_keycode is 255
"Macintosh mouse button emulation"	id=9	[XExtensionPointer]
	Type is MOUSE
	Num_buttons is 5
	Num_axes is 2
	Mode is Relative
	Motion_buffer is 256
	Axis 0 :
		Min_value is -1
		Max_value is -1
		Resolution is 1
	Axis 1 :
		Min_value is -1
		Max_value is -1
		Resolution is 1

I think it's missing this, but I don't know how to fix

Code:

"SynPS/2 Synaptics TouchPad"	id=9	[XExtensionPointer]
	Type is TOUCHPAD
	Num_buttons is 12
	Num_axes is 2
	Mode is Relative
	Motion_buffer is 256
	Axis 0 :
		Min_value is 1472
		Max_value is 5472
		Resolution is 1
	Axis 1 :
		Min_value is 1408
		Max_value is 4448
		Resolution is 1

I really hope someone can help me, she may just kill me when she finds out

Thanks
Phil

**5BallJuggler** · October 30th, 2009

bump

**5BallJuggler** · October 31st, 2009

Fixed by calling a previous linux kernel in menu.lst

change default call from 2 to 0

was calling this
Ubuntu 9.10, kernel 2.6.28-15-generic

now calling this
Ubuntu 9.10, kernel 2.6.31-14-generic

Hope this helps someone else.

**MiloszK** · November 1st, 2009

That's a cool trick with the xinput list. I found that I'm missing a touchpad entry in mine as well. The folks in this thread are discussing the same problem, with different solutions, but none work for me. Did you stick with your solution of reverting to the previous kernel, or have you found a more specific solution since?

**5BallJuggler** · November 1st, 2009

Originally Posted by MiloszK

That's a cool trick with the xinput list. I found that I'm missing a touchpad entry in mine as well. The folks in this thread are discussing the same problem, with different solutions, but none work for me. Did you stick with your solution of reverting to the previous kernel, or have you found a more specific solution since?

still using the specified kernel, it is actually the letest one, i don't know why it wasn't automatically set-up.

**MiloszK** · November 2nd, 2009

OH good call. You wrote:

2.6.28-15-generic
2.6.31-14-generic

I read:

bunchofnumbers-15-sometext
bunchofnumbers-14-sometext

I gotta read more carefully!

Thank you very much!

**Rudy246** · November 5th, 2009

Hm, I tried editing my menu.lst in /boot/grub, and changed the kernel numbers from

2.6.28.15-generic
to
2.6.31.14-generic

But forgot to change the 9.04's to 9.10's, and then rebooted. My Ubuntu now only boots as a terminal with no GUI. I used PICO to edit the menu.lst file to make the 9.04's into 9.10's, but it still only boots to a command line interface when I boot into Ubuntu.

When I try to shut down in the CLI, it gives me some form of recoveery window, asking if I want to update grub boot loader, repair damaged files, etc. I tried updating the grub boot loader, but that didn't fix anything.

I also tried changing the menu.lst back to the way it was before I even touched it, but it still will now only boot into a CLI.

Any ideas?