Comment 281 for bug 550625

Re: #261 and #263

Yes, there is "official" work on this issue, see https://bugzilla.kernel.org/show_bug.cgi?id=14660

Touchpad detection requires a driver that does actually work with the touchpad. Unfortunately, Alps seems unwilling to release any documentation on the protocol used by the device. Dell has submitted a patch that does enable ImPS/2 emulation (wheel mouse). Without it, the touchpad operates in PS/2 emulation mode (3-button-mouse). Full support will require reverse engineering of the protocol used by the touchpad (which seems to require rather complex operations during initialization), which is attempted by some people on the kernel.org bugtracker.

Since the Dell patches are NOT included in the maverick (10.10) kernel, for most of us, the device will run in PS/2 emulation mode by default.
What is supposed to work:
basic clicking: always
scrolling: with Dell patches
deactivate-on-typing, tap-to-click, GNOME mouse control: requires complete driver or workarounds

Unfortunately, this type of hardware is used in many newer notebooks (including all new Dell Latitude ("E2") notebooks, as far as I know), so I hope we shall see full support soon. However, unless Natty has picked up a driver that fully supports the device (unlikely), many of the issues are going to persist even with 11.04 (I will try a 11.04 alpha Live-CD ASAP to provide an answer for Andy (#245)).