Lenovo 14w Gen 2 – Synaptics touchpad not working in Zorin OS 18.1

Hardware Support
1

I'm looking for help getting the built-in touchpad working on my Lenovo 14w Gen 2 laptop running Zorin OS 18.1 Core.

Hardware and software:

  • Lenovo 14w Gen 2 (AMD Renoir FP6)
  • BIOS: H0CN30WW
  • Zorin OS 18.1 Core, kernel 7.0.0-38-generic
  • Dual boot with Windows 11
  • AMD I2C controller: AMDI0010:01
  • Touchpad ACPI devices: SYNA2392:00 and ELAN238E:00

Problem:

The touchpad works normally in Windows 11 but does not work in Zorin OS, even when booting from a live USB. A USB mouse works fine.

What we've discovered:

  • SYNA2392 reports ACPI status 15 (present/enabled).
  • ELAN238E reports ACPI status 0 (disabled).
  • The DSDT contains conditional I2C resources controlled by TPTY .
  • Synaptics uses I2C address 0x2C ; ELAN uses 0x15 .
  • The i2c_hid_acpi module loads, but no functioning touchpad input device appears.

We've tried driver reloads and power-management changes without success. We also compiled a modified DSDT and attempted an experimental GRUB boot, but encountered boot errors. Normal Zorin and Windows still work.

I've found GitHub projects offering ACPI fixes for the Lenovo 14w Gen 2, but they appear to target a different ELAN touchpad.

Questions:

  1. Has anyone successfully enabled the SYNA2392 Synaptics touchpad on this laptop under Zorin or Ubuntu?
  2. Is there a known kernel, BIOS, or ACPI workaround?
  3. Would a DSDT modification be necessary for this hardware configuration?
  4. Is there a safer solution that doesn't require modifying the boot process?

I'd appreciate any suggestions. I can provide diagnostic output or the original DSDT if needed.

2

I'm not sure if this thread can help you:

https://askubuntu.com/questions/1557460/lenovo-300w-gen3-cant-install-ubuntu-no-trackpad

1 Like
3

I did a Brave search via Mojeek. Zorin 18 is a fork of Ubuntu 24.04, the latter I used in the search criteria:

"Fix for SYNA2392 Synaptic touchpad on Ubuntu 24.04"

Brave A.I. search result gives:

" For the SYNA2392 Synaptics touchpad on Ubuntu 24.04 , the primary fix involves addressing kernel-level I2C HID conflicts or legacy driver incompatibilities, as modern Ubuntu defaults to libinput which may conflict with specific ACPI configurations.

1. Reset I2C HID Drivers
Many SYNA2392 issues on Ubuntu 24.04 stem from the i2c_hid_acpi module failing to initialize correctly. Reload this module to restore functionality:

sudo rmmod i2c_hid_acpi && sudo modprobe i2c_hid_acpi

To make this permanent, create a configuration file:

sudo nano /etc/modules-load.d/i2c-hid-acpi.conf

Add i2c_hid_acpi to the file and reboot.

2. Adjust GRUB Kernel Parameters
If the touchpad is still unresponsive, add specific kernel parameters to handle Synaptics intertouch protocols. Edit your GRUB configuration:

sudo nano /etc/default/grub

Modify the GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT line to include:

GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet splash psmouse.synaptics_intertouch=1"

Then update GRUB and reboot:

sudo update-grub
sudo reboot

3. Verify Driver Compatibility
Ensure you are using the libinput driver, which is the default and recommended driver for Ubuntu 24.04. The legacy xserver-xorg-input-synaptics driver is deprecated and often causes stuttering or non-functionality on newer kernels (6.8+). Remove conflicting legacy drivers if present:

sudo apt remove xserver-xorg-input-synaptics

Confirm the touchpad is detected by libinput using:

libinput list-devices

If the touchpad is detected but erratic, check for conflicting blacklist entries in /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist.conf that might be disabling i2c_hid or hid_multitouch .

AI-generated answer. Please verify critical facts."

4

Before changing the DSDT again, could you share the boot messages around the I2C controller and touchpad? For example:

sudo dmesg | grep -iE 'i2c|hid|syna|amdi|pinctrl'

Please include surrounding errors and remove any identifying information. A probe failure or timeout could help narrow down whether the I2C HID device is actually binding; a loaded module alone doesn't establish that.

One reversible experiment is to add i8042.nopnp in a one-boot GRUB edit, then compare the logs. The kernel documents it as disabling ACPI PnP/PnPBIOS discovery of keyboard/AUX controllers, so it's a long shot for an I2C touchpad, not a confirmed fix. Remove it on the next boot if it changes nothing. Given the earlier boot errors, I'd hold off on pinctrl overrides or another DSDT patch until the logs point to a specific problem.

2 Likes