Comment 78 for bug 1026046

After struggling with this for a long time I found out that there is a "new" driver for input devices: libinput, that replaces synaptics. I followed the install instructions as given here: http://askubuntu.com/questions/649103/proper-touchpad-thumb-palm-detection-with-libinput

In addition I had to uninstall an older libinput package that had been installed as a dependency to vlc I think.

Now I got thumb support and multi-touch support out of the box, and the pointer doesn't jump around on the screen any more when I'm typing. Hopefully others will find this helpful.