Well, this is not the direct answer, but a suggestion and examples.
If you run xinput, you will get list of your devices. Then run xinput list-props $id where $id is your touchpad id in the list.
You will have a list of options like this:
$ xinput list-props 13
Device 'SynPS/2 Synaptics TouchPad':
Device Enabled (135): 1
Coordinate Transformation Matrix (137): 1.000000, 0.000000, 0.000000, 0.000000, 1.000000, 0.000000, 0.000000, 0.000000, 1.000000
Device Accel Profile (268): 1
Device Accel Constant Deceleration (269): 2.500000
Device Accel Adaptive Deceleration (270): 1.000000
Device Accel Velocity Scaling (271): 12.500000
Synaptics Edges (292): 1765, 5371, 1637, 4453
Synaptics Finger (293): 25, 30, 0
Synaptics Tap Time (294): 180
Synaptics Tap Move (295): 234
Synaptics Tap Durations (296): 180, 180, 100
Synaptics ClickPad (297): 1
[...]
You can change all of these on-the-fly with xinput set-prop $id $propId $value where $id is the device id, $propId is property id in brackets and $value is what you want it to be. For example:
xinput set-prop 13 135 0 sets Device Enabled (135) to 0 and this will disable the touchpad.
You will need descriptions of properties and a way to make your changes permanent.
Descriptions can be found in man synaptics, but wait, they are in another cryptic format! Let's see why.
To make changes permanent, you need to create conf file in /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d, for example 30-tochpad.conf with contents like these:
Section "InputClass" # you can read more in `man xorg`
Identifier "all touchpads" # just a name for this config
MatchIsTouchpad "on" # enables this config for all detected touchpads
Driver "synaptics" # enables synaptics-specific options below
# This will disable the device
#Option "Ignore" "1"
# There are options that are generic for input-devices or mouse-like devices, see `man evdev`:
Option "ButtonMapping" "0 0 0 0 0 0 0" # i disabled all buttons here, for example
# Here go options from `man synaptics`
Option "VertTwoFingerScroll" "1"
Option "HorizTwoFingerScroll" "1"
Option "PalmDetect" "1"
Option "ClickPad" "0"
# ...etc...
EndSection
So, man synaptics describes options for xorg.conf and tells how they correspond to xinput list-props output.
PS. I tried to configure trackpoint on my ThinkPad X220 to have only two-fingers-scroll enabled, without clicks or mouse movement. I failed. Maybe you will manage to do what you want (there was an option to disable everything but clicks, maybe Synaptics Off).
Sources, more examples and unicorns:
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/X/Config/Input
https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Touchpad_Synaptics
You can fix it this way:
- Run
sudo -H gedit /etc/default/grub
In the open window edit line
GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet splash"
it should look this way
GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet splash i8042.nopnp"
Save file and run
sudo update-grub
Run
echo "blacklist i2c_hid" | sudo tee /etc/modprobe.d/i2c-hid.conf
sudo depmod -a
sudo update-initramfs -u
echo "synaptics_i2c" | sudo tee -a /etc/modules
Reboot.
Please be careful, do not retype these commands, but copy them and paste into the terminal, or you can break the whole system, if mistype.
This solution disables Plug & Play for i8042 devices, then disables i2c-hid module and enables synaptics_i2c instead or it.
Plug & Play triggers a wrong module for this device.
Best Answer
I had a similar problem with my alps touchpad. It worked on 12.10, but not on 12.04. (Have you tried yours in 12.10?) I wanted 12.04, however, so what I ended up doing was testing newer and newer kernels. I ended up with the 3.6.3 kernel, and everything is working great. (If you try this, of course do the research & take the necessary precautions, e.g. back-up.)