Why can't I configure my touchpad?

I want to disable my touchpad's "tap to click" feature. Searching for this on the internet comes up with suggestions to shut it off in the "Mouse" preferences, however I am missing the touchpad tab that people keep talking about:

The closest official documentation I've been able to find is here.

• The touchpad also doesn't show up in gpointing-device-settings.
• Unchecking tap_to_click in the /desktop/gnome/peripherals/touchpad/ gconf key doesn't seem to do anything.

The missing touchpad tab indicates that your touchpad is probably not recognized as a touchpad. In that case the hardware emulates a mouse in its firmware, and isn't configurable...

There is information on the wiki about debugging touchpad detection and how to file a bug report about it.

try this:

1. alt-F2
2. type: gconf-editor
3. click Run
4. open /desktop/gnome/peripherals/touchpad/
5. uncheck: tap_to_click