Ubuntu 18.4 LTS (Bionic Beaver) has been released with Gnome Desktop (until 16.4 LTS uses Unity) and many cool features making it best version of Ubuntu ever released. Although Ubuntu 18.4 is great it comes with little bugs for touhpad and the problem is that, the touchpad cursor movement is not smooth and jumps around. I am using Dell Inspiron 15 3000 Series laptop that uses Synaptics touchpad. Many other laptops that use Synaptics will also have this touchpad problem, so here is how to fix that.
Ubuntu 18.4 comes with libinput touchpad driver by default and the machine is missing Synaptics touchpad driver.
To trace down the problem check your input devices, run this code in terminal to see the complete list.
xinput list
You can see there your Synaptics touchpad. After that lets check if Synaptics driver has been installed or not. Type below command to get complete list of installed packages.
apt list --installed
Search for xserver-xorg-input-synaptics , this one is missing. I have already installed Synaptics so it is showing in screenshot.
Now it is conformed that synaptics driver is missing, so we should install it. Make sure to check all the 4 source in Software and Updates. See the screenshot below.
Now install Synaptics driver.
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install xserver-xorg-input-synaptics
After installing Synaptics reboot or logout now you can feel smooth cursor movement. However the right click is disabled in Ubuntu 18.4 LTS, you can tap with two fingers for right click. If you want to use touchpad right click, install Gnome Tweaks.
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install gnome-tweaks
Open Tweaks and in the Keybord and Mouse section, and under Mouse Click Emulation tick Area.
Let me know it this worked for you or not through the comment below.
looks like it solved problem with my thinkpad, it was crazy after getting into sleep mode…. now it looks like that everything is fine. I is a very first test but cheers!!!!!!!!!!
I thank you for this article. I followed your instructions…or believe I did, and have the Synaptics file installed. I am running a Lenovo Flex 11 computer. sometimes the touch pad will work when I boot up, but after a moment or two it stops working and must use an external mouse I have. After installing the Synaptics file and re-booting my Lenovo, the touchpad still does not work. The touchpad is not recognized as existing in the “Devices” settings.
I admit to near perfect ignorance in this matter. Is there such a thuing as some process happening during boot-up, which obscures or interferes with the memory location which tells my computer that it has a touch pad, sometimes?
I thank you for your time and effort in this matter.
I can’t exactly tell the solution. But you can try reinstalling touchpad driver and updating Ubuntu if any available.
Thank you so much! I am new to Ubuntu and my Lenovo G40-80 touchpad didn’t smooth well on the first try after I install Ubuntu. After I install the synaptics driver, the touchpad works well especially for the two-finger scrolling 🙂
Glad to hear.. 😊
Nice article. My problem was that fast swipes on the touchpad seemed to be ignored. I found myself having to gesture slowly and deliberately, which was quite annoying. Solution: in Tweaks, turn off “Disable While Typing”.
Thanks for you valuable comment.
It’s not working , I’m using acer predator helios 300
All the solution in this site works unless they are out dated. If can’t find correct solution don’t say it does not work, instead give discription of your problem and what actualy you did.
it is not working.
Maybe you have different problem than described here.
That works great, but another problem occurred – now I need to double-tap to click. Is there a way to fix?
Gnome Tweaks may be helpful. There is some setup for touchpad. Try installing Gnome Tweaks and instruction to install it is given at end of this post.
Perfecto, funciona genial en mi Lenovo g40-80 (driver: Elan, Synaptic) con Ubuntu. Muchas gracias, saludos desde Chile.
(Perfect, it works great on my Lenovo g40-80 (driver: Elan, Synaptic) with Ubuntu. Thank you very much, greetings from Chile.)
I’m glad it helped you.
Thank you my Touchpad is now working properly
It’s glad to hear.