Ubuntu – Left mouse button stops working

Check if you have xserver-xorg-input-evdev installed on your system:

sudo dpkg -s xserver-xorg-input-evdev

If yes, do:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:xorg-edgers/ppa  
sudo apt-get update  
sudo apt-get upgrade

If no, do:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:xorg-edgers/ppa  
sudo apt-get update  
sudo apt-get install xserver-xorg-input-evdev

Reboot.

I think I can give you the answer

Open a terminal, then type:

echo "options psmouse proto=exps" | sudo tee /etc/modprobe.d/psmouse.conf

Enter your password when prompted and then press Enter.

Now, while your right mouse click should be working after a reboot, you can try doing it without a reboot, but it might crash your desktop. It didn't for me, so here it is, type in the same terminal as root:

sudo modprobe -r psmouse; sudo modprobe psmouse

hope that helps!

edit: ok, so now that the right button works, the touchpad section of the mouse settings disappeared, and so did my custom settings and the multitouch capability, which resulted in a slow mouse pointer and no ability to scroll. I think I'll write a bug report on this one.

edit2: I searched through the web, and apparently, there is some obscure way to fix this problem, but it relies on ressources and patches that aren't available so easily anymore. I fixed this problem for me by upgrading to quantal quetzal, which includes adequate (albeit not great) support for multitouch clickpads by default