Booting into Win7 causes erratic multitouch in Ubuntu

[Dan Pat]

I'm running Ubuntu 11.10 64 bit on an HP Envy 14 laptop. Ever since I set up a dual boot with Win7, I've had issues with two finger gestures in Ubuntu. As I came to use Ubuntu as my main OS, the problems seemed to disappear. I have since come to realize that most times, but not every time, I boot into Windows, multitouch becomes crippled on returning to Ubuntu.

The basic symptoms include the mouse jumping on placing a second finger on the track pad. I can still access two finger right-click, but it usually takes around 4 or 5 attempts. Two finger scroll is totally gone, and this gesture sometimes results in opening the right click menu. Nothing else in the OS seems to be altered from what I can tell besides this behavior. Rebooting multiple times or the next day eventually resets the trackpad behavior until I boot into Windows again.

Does anyone have any suggestions? This bug makes me dread switching into Windows, not that I really WANT to use it ever . I've been dealing with this for around four months since I installed Ubuntu. Any and all help is appreciated. Thanks in advance!

[prshah]

Does anyone have any suggestions?

Do you have a "clickpad", ie, where the "buttons" are actually just corners on the trackpad?

I have this, and it is a problem for me too. However, I understand 12.04 (out in about a week!) has better support for clickpads.

Rather than futz around now, I've decided to wait to see if 12.04 does anything to clear up the issue. I suggest you can do the same; you can always go back to troubleshooting if required.

[Mark Phelps]

To the OP: since, unfortunately, Canonical has STILL not seen fit to provide any way of doing a roll-back to an older version of Ubuntu, once you do an upgrade, I would NOT upgrade to 12.04 at this time.

IF you do decide to do that after it's released, I would suggest you look into using Clonezilla to image off your current Ubuntu setup to an external drive. At least that way, if 12.04 is no improvement, or if it makes matters worse, you have an easy way to get your current setup back.

[Dan Pat]

Do you have a "clickpad", ie, where the "buttons" are actually just corners on the trackpad?

Yes, that's what I meant. There are two zones on the pad that act as left and right click in Windows, but Ubuntu only recognizes one and two finger clicks for these actions. I'm not certain, but I think my clickpad is supposed to recognize three finger gestures as well. I have never been able to make those work in either Windows or Ubuntu.

I'm beyond excited for the release of 12.04, but I'm not about to upgrade. I have final exams looming ahead next week, and I need to keep my computer as stable as possible until then. I'll be ready to mess around with that in about 3 or 4 weeks time. Mark, thanks for the tip with Clonezilla. I haven't heard of that utility before, but I would definitely feel more comfortable upgrading with that kind of protection.

Beyond just fixing this error, I'm interested to see what settings would change based on switching to Windows and performing multiple reboots. Based on my basic understanding of operating systems, I can't think of any reason why this should happen. It's obvious that some setting or configuration is being affected, now it's just a matter of pinpointing what it is.