[Dell Latitude E6420] gnome-mouse-properties does not provide Touchpad settings

[Jarkko Sakkinen]

Binary package hint: gnome-control-center

There's no tab where you can change touchpad settings. For example, I would use that tab to disable "click on tap".

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 11.04
Package: gnome-control-center 1:2.32.1-0ubuntu15
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 2.6.38-8.42-generic 2.6.38.2
Uname: Linux 2.6.38-8-generic x86_64
Architecture: amd64
Date: Thu Jun 9 19:05:28 2011
ExecutablePath: /usr/bin/gnome-mouse-properties
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 11.04 "Natty Narwhal" - Release amd64 (20110426)
ProcEnviron:
 LANGUAGE=en_US:en
 PATH=(custom, user)
 LANG=en_US.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
SourcePackage: gnome-control-center
UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)

[Kent Baxley (kentb)]

This is definitely a known issue with the current batch of Dell latptops out there. The Latitude and Precision laptops all use ALPS touchpads, which have rather poor native Linux support. You'll get very basic functionality out of these touchpads, but that is about it.

The touchpads present themselves to the operating system either as a standard PS/2 mouse or a Microsoft PS/2 Intellimouse. Touchpad disable, multitouch, etc. are currently non-existent. These systems were enabled with a pre-loaded image for 10.10, and some userspace fixes were applied that helped get the touchpad in a more usable state. Some of these fixes are incorporated into 11.04 (such as side scrolling). As far as toggling the touchpad on and off, you can download the tar file from here:

http://dell.to/q0pceq

..inside the 'debs/main' folder is a toggle-touchpad debian package that will implement a userspace workaround to toggle the touchpad using the Fn+F5 hotkey (for 11.04 there's no need to install any of the other packages as those fixes are already part of the 11.04 distribution). The toggle-touchpad workaround is far from perfect, but, it will provide you with a mechanism to turn the touchpad on and off.

It is not exactly what you seek, but, I hope it at least helps out a bit. As far as the gnome-control-center itself is concerned, this is a valid feature request. Hopefully ALPS touchpad linux support will be improving in the near future.

[RoundSparrow (stephen-roundsparrow)]

I confirm that the nearly identical hardware of the Dell E6520 has this same problem.

[Hans Hellén (hans-hellen)]

Fn+F5 does not toggle the touchpad. Only OSD messages are shown but both the touchpad and the trackstick are not affected. gnome-control-center 1:2.32.1-0ubuntu15 (natty)

[Hans Hellén (hans-hellen)]

Is there a way to use syndaemon to temporarily disable tapping?

[Hans Hellén (hans-hellen)]

As a workaround you can use external USB mouse and disable the touchpad (and the trackstick) in
BIOS Settings
– POST Behavior
– – Mouse/Touchpad, by selecting "Serial Mouse".

To enter BIOS Setup you might have to keep F12 pressed down...