Reset Synaptics Touchpad

I've got a Samsung Series 9 notebook (900x3a) running Ubuntu Natty. It's running absolutely smoothly except for some times when the touch pad gets "hiccups" and appears to recognize an additional finger blocking it for normal mouse moves. Toggling the touch pad using the function keys does not help, suspending and resuming it does, tough.

Is there an easier way to reset the synaptics driver than going to standby mode and waking the notebook up again?

Solution 1:

This worked to reset my touchpad.

sudo rmmod psmouse
sudo modprobe psmouse

If there is no terminal window open, press Alt + F2, type gnome-terminal and press Enter.

Source:
http://xpapad.wordpress.com/2009/09/09/dealing-with-mouse-and-touchpad-freezes-in-linux/

Solution 2:

Try pressing Fn+F7 or Fn+F8. One of those F keys should control your touchpad. The other is usually sound or video input

Solution 3:

I think that should be Fn+F5. Not sure if that will help after a freeze though.

Cheers

Solution 4:

another option it seems is this:

echo -n "reconnect" > /sys/bus/serio/devices/serioX/drvctl
echo -n "reconnect" > /sys/devices/platform/i8042/serioX/drvctl

you can run find /sys -name serio to find available devices.