How To: Setting up Touchpad on a Laptop – A Complete Guide — page 2

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2. Synaptics installation

On Ubuntu Dapper and Edgy and Debian Testing and Unstable, you need to install the package xserver-xorg-input-synaptics:

sudo apt-get install xserver-xorg-input-synaptics

Ubuntu Breezy and Debian Stable require xfree86-driver-synaptics:

sudo apt-get install xfree86-driver-synaptics

Now, there is one thing to keep in mind: there is 2 types of touchpad out there:

  • synaptics
  • ALPSPS/2 ALPS GlidePoint

In order to know which one is yours, produce the following command line:

cat /proc/bus/input/devices

and check for the line where Name is either synaptics or ALPS. My laptop produce the following result:

I: Bus=0011 Vendor=0002 Product=0008 Version=7322
N: Name="AlpsPS/2 ALPS GlidePoint"
P: Phys=isa0060/serio4/input0
S: Sysfs=/class/input/input3
H: Handlers=mouse2 ts2 event3
B: EV=f
B: KEY=420 0 670000 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
B: REL=3
B: ABS=1000003

So basically, It is a Alps touchpad.

Okie, now it is time to edit and configure your xorg configuration file.