Touchpad doesn't work properly in Dell Latitude E6400 on Ubuntu 12.10

Question

Hi,

I'm running Ubuntu 12.10 64 bit and I'm having serious problems with the touchpad on my dell latitude e6400.
I have updated my laptop to the latest bios version (A32) which I've downloaded from the official dell website by searching for bios updates that matched my laptop service tag.

Ubuntu recognizes my touchpad correctly since when I run "xinput list" I see "AlpsPS/2 ALPS DualPoint TouchPad".
I have the following problems:

The right-click button doesn't work at all.
The left-click button only works when I click on an icon in the left side bar (the unity applications panel) and when I click on icons in the top menu (such as the shut down button or the "File" menu).
In all other applications, even simply ones like the Nautilus file browser clicking doesn't work at all.
For example in Nautilus when I click on a folder nothing happens, also when I click on the "x" icon to close the window nothing happens.
It appears that Ubuntu is not properly aware of the pointer positions since when I hover over the "x" icon it doesn't become highlighted.

I tried posting this in the askubuntu forums but received no reply.
Can you guys help me with it, give me some direction to look into?

Thanks in advance,

Ido

mike_0 · Answer

it doesn't work in many other places, and Dell just doesn't care.

garthr2 · Answer

This is issue is not Dell's . It's Alps issue for not offering drivers for linux. But to play any blame game just defocuses from the solution !

First off, Linux Mint 13 KDE 64 bit recognizes the Alps pad out of the box ! Adjustments and all !

But I like the gnome version better , so I have just tried the live cd of Linux Mint 13 64 bit MATE on my M6600 Precision and got the Alps touchpad to be recognised and working. I tried this driver www.dahetral.com/.../file with these instructions bugs.launchpad.net/.../227, but it didn't work for me at first. I've used Linux for many years but with I am not fond of command lines, but decided it work by persistence !

I installed all the "touchpad" things I could find from Synaptic. Then I followed the above procedure again but no luck. The file was moved to the usr/src folder , but none of the listed commands worked for me. Then I opened a terminal and pasted : sudo rmmod psmouse && sudo modprobe -v psmouse . I then checked my settings and it worked, the Alps pad was listed along with the mouse and I had the options for vertical, horizontal and two finger scrolling. Finally a working Alps pad on my laptop !

ifeins · Answer

Hi,

Well thank you for the tip about Linux Mate 13 64bit KDE edition.

In the kde edition the touchpad works better than in all other distributions I've tried, and I've tried many of them: xubuntu, ubuntu, linux mint mate, linux mint xfce.
I do have to occasionally run the "modprobe -r psmouse; modprobe psmouse" commands, but for most of the time it works fairly.

There is still one thing that doesn't work for me and it's a big blocker: the right-click button.
The right-click button doesn't work under any circumstance, whether I'm clicking right-click on the desktop or inside an application.

Have you encountered this problem?

Thanks a lot for your help,

Ido

garthr2 · Answer

My touchpads work perfectly with both the KDE and the MATE versions of Mint 13 . Right click, left click, vertical and horizontal scrolling.

Did you check the settings of the touchpad ? It should list your pad as having 3 buttons, and I believe you can set their function but I've not had to since they worked automatically. I'm on a older version of Mint right now so I can't check but I'm pretty sure the buttons are customisable. It would make no sense for them not to be !

mcortizo · Answer

I've just installed two different Mint 14 MATE machines, 32 bits (HP laptop) and 64 bits (my E6500), both in spanish. I'd had to go to mouse settings, Touchpad tab, and check the "Activar pulsaciones del raton con el touchpad" option. There is also a radiobutton to enable vertical scroll and a checkbox for horizontal scroll.

A previous installation test with Mint 10 didn't need any configuration, as other Linux versions I had (RedHat, Debian, Ubuntu 9 to 12.10...)

Linux General

Touchpad doesn't work properly in Dell Latitude E6400 on Ubuntu 12.10

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