[vox-tech] Synaptics driver problem on Lenovo Thinkpad e455

[Bill Kendrick]

My wife just picked up a used Thinkpad e455 laptop and it's
working fairly well with Kubuntu 14.04 (trusty).

One big problem is: we're unable to get KDE to disable the
touchpad while she types (or, like, at all).  The KDE
control center's "Touchpad" module complains that the
Synpatics driver is not loaded.

I've dug around the web, hitting a lot of 2008 & 2009 threads
mostly, to no avail.  Has anyone got any experience with this
kind of trouble on a _recent_ version of Linux?  I'm done
stabbing in the dark, using recommended tips that are probably
useless nowadays.

The main issue is an inability to type on the thing, w/o the
mouse flying all over the screen.  (There are all sorts of
great settings to disable touchpad when typing, or when it
detects a palm vs. fingers... none of which are available to
us until we figure out this driver problem.)

Thanks in advance!

-- 
-bill!
Sent from my computer