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Sigh... Ubuntu update this morning appears to have killed my touchpad (ThinkPad x220). Reinstalling Synaptiks doesn't help. I love Linux and Ubuntu but not so much when stuff like this happens.
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OK +Dan Gillmor, encryption makes other approaches more desirable first. Since the trackpad works from the Guest account, you may be able to deactivate the offending config file. In many cases, a new config file will be automatically created after a reboot.
Renaming a file or directory is the safest way to deactivate it. That has the effect of deleting it, while preserving the possibility of restoring it.
The relevant user settings are probably located under your normal user's home directory. Most are marked "invisible" by having a leading dot in the filename. So if your file manager has the option to View Hidden files, you could check for a file or folder called ".synaptics" or some variation on that.
I'll check your launchpad post next, to see what was suggested. Hang in there, you're doing great to help diagnose and resolve this glitch.Sep 20, 2012
+Marc Paul Rubin If it becomes a huge mess, I'll just reinstall. But I really really don't want to do that.Sep 20, 2012- If it came to that +Dan Gillmor, it would be much easier to just create a new user account and copy over all your working settings and data. However, this really is a good learning opportunity. Any luck finding a ".synaptics" file or folder? Google might be a good friend too, in researching possible solutions.Sep 20, 2012
- +Marc Paul Rubin good point. i may try that anyway if I have enough disk space. may be tricky...Sep 20, 2012
- I'd spend a couple of hours to resolve the issue first: worth it for the experience of taking control. While these glitches occur under any OS, Linux is the best opportunity to learn and succeed. No need to copy all the data though:
Backed up all data yet? USB drive, remote "cloud" storage (perhaps Carbonite?), etc. Then you could either move the data between user accounts or, maybe better, create a shared folder for your large data files. Lots of possibilities. Any approach is better than panic ;->Sep 20, 2012 - +Marc Paul Rubin Definitely not in a panic... Actually I've backed everything up to an external drive (run it several times a week). Meanwhile I'm having fun learning more about the innards of the system...Sep 20, 2012
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