Comment 17 for bug 129477

Gents, I've consulted with my laptop expert. The device in the Dell 1420 is a new ALPS pad and is not recognized by the Feisty kernel, nor is it ever going to (perhaps when Gutsy is released). To whit:

<rtg> BenC or mjg59: Am I smoking crack on this one: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+bug/129477 ? What does a Synaptics touchpad do under windows that these guys expect?
<mjg59> rtg: It's a new-model ALPS pad. The kernel doesn't recognise it.
<rtg> mjg59: So PS/2 emulation is the best we can expect w/Feisty, right?
<mjg59> With Feisty, yes
<rtg> mjg59: Thanks.
<mjg59> rtg: In PS/2 emulation mode it only reports relative motion. In native mode it gives absolute coordinates which give the synaptics userspace driver the ability to implement additional functionality (like scrolling)
<rtg> I guess I've never used a touchpad like that.
<mjg59> Basically everything (other than very old stuff and bleeding-edge alps) works like that in Linux

So, if your touchpad acts like a standard mouse, then that is as good as it gets for Feisty. If it does not provide any 2D mouse motion, or is not detected at all (which is what I assumed by the report title), then its broken.

P.S. In future bug reports, please attach only uncompressed files.