Touchpad issue (drag objects once the left button was clicked)

Hardware Support
1

Hi guys,

I’ve recently upgraded my PC to Zorin OS 18 Core a fantastic OS (it resumed my old pc)! However, my touchpad works only partially.

There’s no issue when opening files or selecting objects, but when I press the left button and try to move the cursor (right or left), the touchpad becomes unresponsive.

For example:

  • When I try to select text (click on the first word and drag to the last),
  • When I try to resize a window (click on the border and drag),
  • Or when I need to drag and drop files.

The only workaround is to use an external mouse, but since I’m on a laptop, I’d really prefer not to.
No driver updates are available.

Touchpad in use, from hardinfo tool [sudo apt hardinfo]):
-Input Devices-

  • Lid Switch*
  • Power Button*
  • AT Translated Set 2 keyboard*
  • ALPS0001:00 0911:5288 Touchpad*
  • Intel HID events*
  • Intel HID 5 button array*
  • Video Bus*
  • HDA Intel PCH Mic*
  • HDA Intel PCH Headphone*
  • HDA Intel PCH HDMI/DP,pcm:3*
  • HDA Intel PCH HDMI/DP,pcm:7*
  • HDA Intel PCH HDMI/DP,pcm:8*

How can I fix it?

Thank you in advance for your help
Angelo

2

Welcome to the Forum!

Does Your System run in Wayland or X11? You can check that in Settings>System>Info>Systemdetails. When it runs in Wayland, You could try it with switching to X11/Xorg.

To do that, go to the Login Screen, not the Lock Screen. Simply reboot for that. On the Login Screen, click on Your Profile so that the Password Field appears. When it is appeared, You should see a Gear Icon in the bottom right Corner. Click on it and choose the Option ''Zorin Desktop on Xorg'' and then log in and test if it works better now.

3

Hi Ponce-De-Leon, first of all thanks for your answer.
I ran Wayland (PS: thanks for the clear instruction for checking and switch the environment, they were appreciated), I tryed to switch to X11/Xorg following your suggestion but I've the same behaviour: I cannot move/resize windows or use drag and drop for files and text selection! Just to clarify, this is probably due to my laptop (is a CHUWI laptop), but the strange thing is that I didn't have this issue with other Debian based distro... probably it also worked with the previous Zorin 17.x (not 100% sure)

4

You could download it and test it. Zorin 17 is still supported unitl 2027.

5

I wonder if experimenting with touchpad sensitivity could help.
See this: Adjust Touchpad Sensitivity in Ubuntu 24.04 | 25.04 | UbuntuHandbook

6

thank you for your suggestion but

  • probably I'm not so expert
  • the issue seems to be different
7

Probably one answer is already inside my question.
What I was thinking is to run a Debian-based live distro where the touchpad works properly and check which driver is being used. Once I have this information, I suppose (sorry, I’m quite new to the Linux world) it should be possible to use the same driver.

Is this feasible? And once I know which driver to use, where should I look for it?

Thanks in advance for your help!