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

[Nick Schmalenberger]

On Mon, Apr 27, 2015 at 01:21:17AM -0700, Bill Kendrick wrote:
> 
> 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!
>
Does lsmod say any synaptics kernel modules are already loaded?
Assuming it is referring to the kernel module and not some
separate X Windows driver, it might help to load one of
synaptics_usb or synaptics_i2c, maybe before X starts? The usual
place to put kernel modules to be loaded for no apparent reason
is /etc/modules. Once it does load, dmesg might have helpful
information about how the module is detecting the touchpad.
-Nick