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Asked: 2024-09-25T17:44:29+05:30 In:

My touchpad has suddenly stopped functioning on my Ubuntu 20.04 system. I’ve tried various troubleshooting methods, but nothing seems to work. Can anyone provide guidance on how to resolve this issue?

So, I’m having a real headache with my laptop lately. I’m running Ubuntu 20.04, and out of nowhere, my touchpad just stopped working. I know this might seem like a minor issue, but let me tell you, it’s completely throwing off my workflow. I can’t even scroll or do any of my usual gestures, and I’ve gotten way too used to that convenience!

I’ve tried a bunch of things to fix it. First, I checked if it was simply disabled. You know how some laptops have a function key you can press to toggle the touchpad on and off? Yeah, I made sure that wasn’t the case. I even booted up my laptop in safe mode, thinking maybe it was some kind of glitch. That didn’t help either.

Next, I played around with the settings in the Mouse and Touchpad settings. I toggled a few options, but nothing seemed to bring it back to life. I also tried plugging in an external mouse to see if that would help me navigate and adjust settings but, honestly, that’s just a temporary fix. I don’t want to have to carry a mouse everywhere – it’s bulky, and I love the sleekness of using just the touchpad.

I did some digging online, and I came across a few commands to run in the terminal related to touchpad drivers, but I’m honestly a bit bewildered by all the technical jargon. I tried a couple of commands, but I guess I might’ve done something wrong because the touchpad still didn’t come back.

So now I’m at a loss. Has anyone else faced this irritating situation? I could really use some help here! Any fresh ideas or commands that might work? I’m willing to try almost anything at this point because I really don’t want to resort to reinstalling the entire OS. It’s just a pain, you know? Hoping someone out there has had a similar issue and found a fix! Please help me get my touchpad back!

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    2 Answers

    1. Sounds like a real hassle! Touchpads can be super finicky sometimes. Here are a few things you can try that might help get it working again:

      1. Check Touchpad is Enabled

      Even if you checked the function keys, it might still be worth diving back into the settings.

      • Open the terminal and run xinput list to see if your touchpad appears in the list. If it’s there, note the ID number.
      • Then run xinput enable [ID] replacing [ID] with your touchpad’s ID number.

      2. Update Drivers

      Try updating your drivers. Open a terminal and run:


      sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade

      Reboot afterwards and see if that helps!

      3. Check Touchpad Settings

      Sometimes it’s just a setting that needs tweaking:

      • Go to Settings > Mouse & Touchpad and check if there’s an option that’s turned off.

      4. Try `/dev/input/event*` Check

      Check if your touchpad is responding at all:


      sudo cat /dev/input/eventX

      Replace X with the number that corresponds to your touchpad from xinput list. If you see output, it means the touchpad is actually working at some level.

      5. Look at System Logs

      Sometimes the logs can tell you a lot. Run:


      dmesg | grep -i touchpad

      This might give you some clues on what’s going wrong.

      6. Kernel Issues

      If nothing else seems to work, you might be dealing with a kernel issue. Consider trying a different kernel version (like an older one) using:


      sudo apt install linux-image-

      Just make sure to reboot afterwards.

      I really hope one of these gets your touchpad back up and running! Don’t hesitate to ask if you need more help!


    2. It sounds like you’ve already done quite a bit of troubleshooting, but there are a few more steps you can take to potentially resolve your touchpad issue on Ubuntu 20.04. First, ensure that your touchpad is recognized by the system. Open a terminal and run the command xinput list. This will display a list of input devices. Look for your touchpad in that list; if it’s there, note its ID number. If it’s not, you may want to check if the touchpad is physically enabled in the BIOS settings. On some laptops, there may be an option to disable the touchpad entirely from there. If it appears with the correct ID, you can try to reset it using the command xinput enable [device ID], replacing “[device ID]” with the actual number from the previous command, which may restore functionality.

      If your touchpad is still not functioning, consider reinstalling the Synaptics or libinput drivers, which are responsible for touchpad input handling on Ubuntu. In the terminal, run sudo apt-get install --reinstall xserver-xorg-input-synaptics or sudo apt-get install --reinstall xserver-xorg-input-libinput, depending on which driver your system uses. After reinstalling, reboot your system and test the touchpad again. If you encounter any errors during this process, please share them for further assistance. You might also want to check the system logs using dmesg | grep -i touchpad for any related error messages that could provide insight into any hardware or driver issues. This methodical approach should help you identify what’s causing the issue and ultimately get your touchpad working again.


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