Touchpad doesn't work

[Hansenator]

Hello,

I just installed DSL on an old presario laptop and everything seems to work except the touchpad. When the screen comes up the curser is there but it disappears when I try to use it. A usb mouse seems to work but, since there's only one usb port, I'd like to get the touchpad working and would really appreciate any help.

I'm still kind of a newbie to Linux configuration and am not really sure where to look to start troubleshooting so don't be afraid of dumming it down too much.

Thanks

Chris Hansen

[saivin]

You need to install 'synaptics' driver for touchpad to work. Don't know if apt-get thing works on DSL. As root try:

apt-get install synaptics

[Hansenator]

You need to install 'synaptics' driver for touchpad to work. Don't know if apt-get thing works on DSL. As root try:

apt-get install synaptics

Thanks for the tip. When I tried it I got this message. The explanation seems pretty straight-forward but I'm not sure what to do with the information.

Reading Package Lists... Done
Building Dependency tree... Done
Package synaptics has no available version, but exists in the database.
This typically means that the package was mentioned in a dependency and 
never uploaded, has been obsoleted or is not available with the contents
of sources.list
However the following packages replace it:
     tpconfig
E: Package synaptics has no installation candidate

[coopstah13]

that means run the command to install tpconfig instead of synaptics

[Hansenator]

I typed

apt-get install tpconfig

and it installed stuff and a configuration wizard thing came up and I went through it and re-booted but it didn't work.

I know it's possible for the touchpad to work because I've had a couple other distros of Linux on that laptop and it always worked.

[vickey_20]

Please post the o/p of

dmesg|grep -i touchpad

[Hansenator]

Please post the o/p of

dmesg|grep -i touchpad

Thanks for helping.

I typed it in just like you wrote and nothing came up. I also tried just "dmesg" and a bunch of stuff scrolled past but the command you recommended didn't return anything.

[saivin]

dmesg | grep -i synaptics

or dmesg | grep -i tpconfig are better commands to try.

Btw, did you google to find more about it? I did a simple google search and found the following info on Linux tpconfig touchpad Driver

How to use tpconfig

tpconfig is currently supported as a command-line configuration tool. The PS/2 port does not currently support sharing. Therefore the tpconfig utility will not work while any other mouse driver is loaded (gpm). This also means that you cannot use tpconfig while X Windows is running. The suggested use of tpconfig is to run it from a startup script ('touchpad' .. installed for run leves 3 and 5 and provided in the rpms) before gpm is started.

I usually run tpconfig from a start-up script which (on my RH system) goes in /etc/rc.d/init.d (and linked under various run levels as S84touchpad) to turn off the tap mode. Installation of this script and links for run levels 3 and 5 are now performed by the binary rpm.

Always make sure to give execute permission to the script whereever you put it.

[Hansenator]

I tried

dmesg | grep -i synaptics

and

dmesg | grep -i tpconfig

and both came up blank.

I also exited to the command line and tried

tpconfig -x

and it told me that the ps/2 port couldn't be opened.

I did see the article you printed but, being kind of a noob, I'm not sure how to run it from a startup script or even how to run it at all.

[vickey_20]

Since there is no o/p coming from so many commands suggested, I think the installer didn't detect the touch pad at all ( May be it didn't find the suitable dirvers at all). When latop along with the model are you using? Myabe you can find the driver for it on the manufacturer site