Touchpad won't work after Ubuntu 14.04 install on Toshiba Satellite S55-B5266 laptop

So I got a new Toshiba Satellite S55-B5266 laptop that had Windows 8.1 on it, installed at the factory. I decided to remove Windows 8.1, reformat the HDD and install Ubuntu 14.04 LTS on it, and so far everything looks okay except for the touchpad, which is completely unresponsive - it can't move the cursor, and the buttons have no noticeable effect. From what I read after Googling the issue, it looks like this may be a known bug:

Does anybody know of any workarounds, or other options? I have already tried the FN+F5, FN+F9+F5, CTRL+F5, CTRL+FN+F5, etc. None of those had any noticeable effect. Restarting doesn't help, and in my wonderful UEFI BIOS there is no option under "Advanced" for any pointing devices or anything else that is touchpad-related.

Here's the 'xinput list' output:

lennys@TOSHIBA:~$ xinput list
⎡ Virtual core pointer                      id=2    [master pointer  (3)]
⎜   ↳ Virtual core XTEST pointer                id=4    [slave  pointer  (2)]
⎜   ↳ Genius Optical Mouse                      id=9    [slave  pointer  (2)]
⎜   ↳ ETPS/2 Elantech Touchpad                  id=12   [slave  pointer  (2)]
⎣ Virtual core keyboard                     id=3    [master keyboard (2)]
    ↳ Virtual core XTEST keyboard               id=5    [slave  keyboard (3)]
    ↳ Power Button                              id=6    [slave  keyboard (3)]
    ↳ Video Bus                                 id=7    [slave  keyboard (3)]
    ↳ Power Button                              id=8    [slave  keyboard (3)]
    ↳ TOSHIBA Web Camera - HD                   id=10   [slave  keyboard (3)]
    ↳ AT Translated Set 2 keyboard              id=11   [slave  keyboard (3)]
    ↳ Toshiba input device                      id=13   [slave  keyboard (3)]

...and here's the 'cat /proc/bus/input/devices' output. I removed some of it because it wasn't relevant, i.e. the power button, onboard camera, etc. Included is the info on the usb mouse that's connected, for comparison. I also included the last entry because I don't know what its for exactly:

lennys@TOSHIBA:~$  cat /proc/bus/input/devices

I: Bus=0011 Vendor=0002 Product=000e Version=0000
N: Name="ETPS/2 Elantech Touchpad"
P: Phys=isa0060/serio2/input0
S: Sysfs=/devices/platform/i8042/serio2/input/input9
U: Uniq=
H: Handlers=mouse0 event4 
B: PROP=5
B: EV=b
B: KEY=e420 10000 0 0 0 0
B: ABS=661800011000003

I: Bus=0003 Vendor=0458 Product=003a Version=0111
N: Name="Genius Optical Mouse"
P: Phys=usb-0000:00:14.0-3/input0
S: Sysfs=/devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:14.0/usb2/2-3/2-3:1.0/0003:0458:003A.0002/input/input27
U: Uniq=
H: Handlers=mouse1 event12 
B: PROP=0
B: EV=17
B: KEY=70000 0 0 0 0
B: REL=103
B: MSC=10

I: Bus=0019 Vendor=0000 Product=0000 Version=0000
N: Name="Toshiba input device"
P: Phys=toshiba_acpi/input0
S: Sysfs=/devices/virtual/input/input12
U: Uniq=
H: Handlers=rfkill kbd event5 
B: PROP=0
B: EV=13
B: KEY=40000 10000 1c00000000 0 0 81501f00002000 3809604001 2000000000000 0
B: MSC=10

System settings show the touchpad and its controls, and it is definitely turned on. As far as I can see Ubuntu doesn't detect any problems, but there obviously is one because the touchpad is unresponsive. And to reiterate, I did try the FN+F5 to no effect.

Any help or advice would be greatly appreciated.

Solution 1:

Restart your laptop and while restarting press Fn+F2 to enter into BIOS and press Fn+F5 in order to refresh the hardware settings (although you cant see the BIOS getting refreshed). That's it and now just save and exit from BIOS and your touchpad starts working.

It worked for me.

Solution 2:

Look at me, answering my own question here. Oh well, hopefully this will help someone else.

My trackpad works now - I tried installing new packages, hunting around for tips etc and did not find anything that worked until today, when I tried what I found at https://askubuntu.com/a/305263/392351: power off, remove the battery and unplug everything else, then hold down the power button for a full 2 minutes to reset. Reboot, and if the BIOS/UEFI screen appears just exit and let the machine boot. Trackpad will work as advertised after that.

I also tried installing various packages for synaptic (and others), including this one but ran into dependency issues. Don't know for sure if one of the packages did the trick post-reboot, or if it was the hard-reset that I did with the power button, but it works now and thats good enough :)