Software⏱️ 2 min read📅 2026-06-03

How to Fix: Is there a way to "restart" the touchpad driver?

Restarting the touchpad driver in Ubuntu 14.04 can be achieved by killing the 'synaptics' process and then restarting it.

Quick Answer: Try running "sudo killall synaptics" to stop the touchpad driver, then restart it with "sudo service synaptics start".

To resolve the issue of a malfunctioning touchpad driver on Ubuntu 14.04, you can try the following workaround:

⚠️ Restarting the Touchpad Driver

  • Open a terminal and run the command `sudo rmmod -f i2c_smbus` to remove the i2c_smbus module.

Then, restart your laptop and press the touchpad button repeatedly until it starts working again.

Alternatively, you can try killing the evdev process using `killall evdev` in the terminal. This will reset the touchpad driver to its default state, allowing it to restart automatically.

✅ Best Solutions to Fix It

Method 1: Restarting the Laptop

  1. Step 1: Press and hold the power button until your laptop shuts down.

By following these steps, you should be able to resolve the issue of a malfunctioning touchpad driver on Ubuntu 14.04.

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