Touchpad Gestures Not Working on Zorin OS (Xorg/Wayland)

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UPDATE:

I spent a lot of time browsing forums to fix my touchpad issue, and I finally found a solution. I'm sharing this post to document my journey and help anyone facing a similar problem resolve it easily.

Initially, my earlier description of the issue was misleading (it wasn't related to touchegg)—apologies for that. The real problem was that my touchpad was being recognized as a mouse by my system.

dell@dell-Inspiron-5558:~$ xinput list
⎡ Virtual core pointer                    	id=2	[master pointer  (3)]
⎜   ↳ Virtual core XTEST pointer              	id=4	[slave  pointer  (2)]
⎜   ↳ Logitech Wireless Mouse                 	id=10	[slave  pointer  (2)]
⎜   ↳ DLLC6AD:00 06CB:75BF Mouse              	id=11	[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)]
    ↳ Sleep Button                            	id=9	[slave  keyboard (3)]
    ↳ Dell WMI hotkeys                        	id=12	[slave  keyboard (3)]
    ↳ AT Translated Set 2 keyboard            	id=13	[slave  keyboard (3)]
    ↳ DELL Wireless hotkeys                   	id=14	[slave  keyboard (3)]
    ↳ Logitech Wireless Mouse                 	id=15	[slave  keyboard (3)]

Clearly the DLLC6AD:00 06CB:75BF is being detected as a Mouse instead of a touchpad.

Here’s what I tried and what eventually worked:

1. Kernel

I came across this post by Aravisian, where they suggested backporting the kernel. I switched from 6.8.0-52-generic to 6.8.0-40-generic, but unfortunately, this did not solve the issue.

2. Changing Drivers

I attempted to switch from libinput to Synaptics, but I wasn’t sure how to do it properly. As a result, I decided not to try it.

3. Blacklisting Drivers (The Fix)

While searching for solutions, I found this Arch Linux forum post. However, I didn’t completely understand what needed to be done, so I asked ChatGPT for guidance. Based on the response, I blacklisted certain drivers, which finally fixed the issue!

Here is the exactly what i did to fix this issue:

2. Blacklist i2c_hid_acpi and i2c_hid

If your touchpad isn't working properly, blacklist the incorrect driver:

  1. Open the blacklist file:
    sudo nano /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist.conf
  2. Add these lines:
    blacklist i2c_hid_acpi
blacklist i2c_hid
  3. Save the file (CTRL + X, then Y, then ENTER).

3. Install and Load the Correct Driver

  1. Install Synaptics and Elan drivers:
    sudo apt install xserver-xorg-input-synaptics xserver-xorg-input-libinput -y
  2. Try loading the Elan driver manually:
    sudo modprobe hid_elan
  3. If Elan doesn’t work, try:
    sudo modprobe hid_multitouch

After running the above commands here is the result :
It is being recognized as a touchpad. (id 17)

dell@dell-Inspiron-5558:~$ xinput list
⎡ Virtual core pointer                    	id=2	[master pointer  (3)]
⎜   ↳ Virtual core XTEST pointer              	id=4	[slave  pointer  (2)]
⎜   ↳ Logitech Wireless Mouse                 	id=10	[slave  pointer  (2)]
⎜   ↳ DLLC6AD:00 06CB:75BF Mouse              	id=11	[slave  pointer  (2)]
⎜   ↳ DLLC6AD:00 06CB:75BF Touchpad           	id=17	[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)]
    ↳ Sleep Button                            	id=9	[slave  keyboard (3)]
    ↳ Dell WMI hotkeys                        	id=12	[slave  keyboard (3)]
    ↳ AT Translated Set 2 keyboard            	id=13	[slave  keyboard (3)]
    ↳ DELL Wireless hotkeys                   	id=14	[slave  keyboard (3)]
    ↳ Logitech Wireless Mouse                 	id=15	[slave  keyboard (3)]
    ↳ Rockerz Bliss (AVRCP)                   	id=16	[slave  keyboard (3)]

Thank you to everyone who took the time to read my post.
Any of the above 3 solutions might fix your issue. Good luck.
Hopefully, this helps someone who runs into the same frustration I did!

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