Asus synaptics/elantech touchpad not detected during or after fresh install

[Hamilton Sanchez]

Bug occurred during a fresh install of Ubuntu-13.04. Attempted to fix by attempting another fresh install as well as reverting to the previous 12.04 version and switching interfaces such as installing Kubuntu. The mouse responds perfectly fine yet the touch pad is not even detected. All Synaptics touch pad drivers are up to date and I have attempted to uninstall and reinstall the drivers multiple times, yet the touch pad will not respond.

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 13.04
Package: xserver-xorg-input-synaptics 1.6.2-1ubuntu6
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 3.8.0-29.42-generic 3.8.13.5
Uname: Linux 3.8.0-29-generic x86_64
ApportVersion: 2.9.2-0ubuntu8.3
Architecture: amd64
Date: Mon Sep 2 01:44:19 2013
InstallationDate: Installed on 2013-09-01 (0 days ago)
InstallationMedia: Kubuntu 13.04 "Raring Ringtail" - Release amd64 (20130424)
MarkForUpload: True
ProcEnviron:
 LANGUAGE=
 PATH=(custom, no user)
 XDG_RUNTIME_DIR=<set>
 LANG=en_US.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
SourcePackage: xserver-xorg-input-synaptics
UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)

[Dave Gilbert (ubuntu-treblig)]

High: Problem with essential hardware component (touchpad) - although the work around of the mouse is tempting to set a little lower.

Hamilton please confirm:
   1) which model computer you're using
   2) Does 13.10 help?
   3) When you say you reverted to 12.04, which 12.04? 12.04.1,12.04.2,12.04.3? They have different kernel/X sets
   4) Does the firmware have something for disabling the touchpad (e.g. fn+F?) - just check that it's not the problem.

Jonathan: Unless your machine turns out to be identical to Hamilton's a separate bug report is probably in order.

[Alessio Gatti (volperossa)]

I've recently purchased an ASUS model X551CA. This is quite recent and becoming quite popular. I've got exactly the same issue: teh Elantech Touchpad is correctly managed by the kernel and Ubuntu, but not "seen completely" by Xorg. Teh consequence is that in System, Settings the tab and items related to touchpad (e.g. dual finger scroll) aren't available, and the touchpad is just seen as a PS2 Mouse. I've currently a kernel higher than 3.0 installed, as I'm on Ubuntu 12.04LTS 64bit; I've also tried the same with an Ubuntu 13.10 via pendrive and got the same behavior. So I can EXCLUDE that the 13.xx resolves this issue.

I've already asked ASUS support for help, but i doubt that I'll get any from them. I've tested with another PC the pendrive I then used on the ASUS and it worked OK (pendrive is OK). I've checked the BIOS options on the ASUS touchpad and I could DISABLE it OK (then not even a PS/2 mouse-like device was detected, as expected), so I can exclude that the device is disabled by BIOS.

I believe that users being on a Long Term Support release of UBUNTU expect that a fundamental item that is part of that distribution works fine and if not gets supported. Please let me know what I can do to promote this and help on solution.

Thanks

Alessio

[Gilles (gilles-keller)]

Hello !

same issue as Alessio, on same laptop (ASUS X551CA).
i've tried with 12.04.3 LTS and 13.10 : in System, Settings the tab and items related to touchpad (e.g. dual finger scroll) aren't available, and the touchpad is just seen as a PS2 Mouse.
in a terminal, by typping "xinput", it's recognized as "PS/2 Elantech Touchpad".

so, no multi touch features avaible, even no 2 fingers scroll.

thanks

Gilles

[Alessio Gatti (volperossa)]

At this point I'm not sure anymore that we re all experiencing the same issue, but mine (and Gilles, as he owns the same computer) was completely resolved within bug #1166442 (here the link: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/linux/+bug/1166442).

Not sure what the process is now with this bug, but I cannot say anymore to be impacted by this issue. Thanks.

[Gilles (gilles-keller)]

Same as Alessio...

thanks