Synaptics driver doesn't load sometimes

Sometimes (randomly), the synaptics touchpad driver won't load on bootup. When reading /var/log/boot.log, i don't see anything touchpad-driver-like being started when this happens.

But the file /dev/input/mouse0 exists and I can perform simple actions with my mousepad (pointing, clicking, but no scrolling) and the pointer speed is very low when moving it via the touchpad.

When typing synclient into terminal while this is happening, it tells me Couldn't find synaptics properties. No synaptics driver loaded?

Whats the problem here?

Solution 1:

I started having this problem after upgrading from 12.04 to 14.04. Tried purging / reinstalling xserver-xorg-input-synaptics, but the problem persisted. I decided to browse the available packages in Synaptic Package Manager, and found this:

xserver-xorg-input-synaptics-lts-trusty

I installed it alongside the other ("generic") package. Hopefully this fixes the issue.