Appletouch trackpad sometimes stops working in unity

[Frédéric Grosshans]

Binary package hint: unity

From time to time, the trackpad of my MacBook 4,1 stops working in a unity session. Unloading and reloading the appletouch module makes the problem disappear.

This only happen during an unity session in Natty.

This bug did not happen in maverick. If I switch to a terminal window using GPM, the trackpad works as expected. The Bug doesn't happen in GDM neither, and when I open a guest session, the trackpad only works in the guest session but not in the main session ! An external USB mouse is fully functionnal.

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 11.04
Package: unity 3.8.10-0ubuntu2
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 2.6.38-8.42-generic 2.6.38.2
Uname: Linux 2.6.38-8-generic x86_64
NonfreeKernelModules: wl
Architecture: amd64
CompizPlugins: [core,bailer,detection,composite,opengl,decor,mousepoll,vpswitch,regex,animation,snap,expo,move,compiztoolbox,place,grid,imgpng,gnomecompat,wall,ezoom,workarounds,staticswitcher,resize,fade,unitymtgrabhandles,scale,session,unityshell]
Date: Tue May 3 12:41:23 2011
EcryptfsInUse: Yes
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 9.10 "Karmic Koala" - Release amd64 (20091027)
ProcEnviron:
 LANGUAGE=fr_FR:en
 LANG=fr_FR.utf8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
SourcePackage: unity
UpgradeStatus: Upgraded to natty on 2011-04-30 (2 days ago)

[Frédéric Grosshans (fgrosshans)]

The bug still happens from time to time but does not to be related to external mouse USB plugging. A lighter work-around is reloading the appletouch kernel module :

sudo rmmod appletouch
sudo modprobe appletouch

[Marco Biscaro (marcobiscaro2112)]

I think this is not a unity bug. Could you test if the problem also occurs in Ubuntu Classic?

[Frédéric Grosshans (fgrosshans)]

@Marco Biscaro : I've switched to Ubuntu classic and the problem just occurred. So I guess it's not a Unity bug

[Alberto Ruiz (alberto.ruiz)]

I'ts not a unity bug but still valid, I can confirm it in two different laptop models (MacBook A1181 and latest MacBook Pro).