The touchpad on my laptop (Dell Inspiron 17R) didn’t just work automatically. Thanks to alfc, I found out how to install the driver for it. The Ask Ubuntu answer is very well explained.
In any regard, here’s what I did…
I downloaded the tar file from here:
https://docs.google.com/file/d/0BzNsvDx_ae6bQnFLQkNFT0dWc3c/edit
I extracted it with:
sudo tar -xf ~/Downloads/psmouse-alps-dst-0.4.tar -C /usr/src/
Then, I installed it with:
sudo bash /usr/src/psmouse-alps-dst-0.4/install.sh
After the script finished, I could see the Touchpad tab in the Mouse and Touchpad settings:
Next Step
The next thing I would love to influence is to get this into the mainstream so that the touchpad just works. I wonder what it would take to get this fixed. I have tried commenting on this bug post:
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/xf86-input-multitouch/+bug/308191
Any suggestions on were to go?