Lubuntu 26.04
Acer Aspire One725 laptop. AMD Dual core cpu. 4GM RAM.
At power-on the touchpad and mouse not working. Don’t know how to get in to settings using keyboard only.
Touchpad works on Live Lubuntu, but not my Telink wireless mouse.
Touchpad worked OK for the last few days when I installed it (not sure if mouse was working).
Any ideas?
Things to check:
Step 1:
Restart and go to BIOS/UEFI and check if the touchpad is enabled
Step 2:
At the desktop, use Ctrl+Alt+T to open a terminal and run this command:
xinput list
Copy the terminal output and paste it back here in a reply. Highlight the text and use either Ctrl+E on the keyboard or the </> icon in the composer to wrap with code tags (preformatted text).
Thanks
On my own install, I can login using only keyboard, then open a terminal using CtrlAltT then open the Keyboard and Mouse Settings using the command
lxqt-config-input
That can be operated using only keyboard too, though I do find that a little harder…
In the manual, using that page is documented at
https://manual.lubuntu.me/stable/3/3.2/3.2.8/keyboard_and_mouse.html
I’m not sure this would help you though; personally I’d be considering any changes you’ve made in recent days (esp. in the last session before you rebooted and this issue appeared), and also explore the normal apt logs (eg. I’d use view /var/log/apt/history.log) looking for clues as to WHAT changed in the session/boot before the problem appeared..
@spaarks This topic belongs in Support and Help. Please leave it where it is now.
If you look at the category description for Flavors & Remixes > Lubuntu it says not for technical support.
Thanks
Hmm, is it possible that you accidentally disabled the touchpad and Bluetooth/Wireless? My laptop has Fn hotkeys for those actions. Bluetooth might be relevant for the external mouse; a cursory look around the Telink site suggests (at least some of) their devices use Bluetooth LE.
If you didn’t do it, it could also be a state saving issue.
Apologies for posting in the wrong forum.
Those commands are very useful, thanks. I reset the keyboard and mouse settings.
The touchpad now works, but stops working for several seconds, sometimes up to a minute, every time I move the cursor.
The history log is very long! and doesn’t mean anything to me. I didn’t do much in the interim apart from changing the desktop and stuff like that.
I used top which showed 2199 free out of 3600 MiB, so I guess its not a RAM problem.
There are also features like disabling the touchpad (TP) temporarily, i.e. while typing, because people get annoyed when the palm of their hand moves the cursor accidentally. There might even be some logic which turns of the TP when an external pointing device is being used, i.e. your mouse.
Erm, changing the desktop does count as “much” in my book. 
There are some major changes under the hood. It’s also not trivial to make sure that one Ubuntu desktop flavor doesn’t “bleed” into another. I’ve recently installed lubuntu-desktop-minimal beside ubuntu-desktop-minimal and after checking the former out, the Lubuntu update notifier auto-started even in the default Ubuntu session.
So maybe this is caused by a Frankenstein’s Desktop which is half old Desktop and half new, both treading on each others’ feet. They all just dump their autostart services to /etc/xdg/autostart and not all of those services are configured correctly, i.e. to only show/start in their respective desktop environment (DE), as it seems.
I meant changing the look of the desktop, not the desktop itself.
The external mouse is definitely not Bluetooth.
What I referred to is just how I do things, I tend to make changes via terminal (not GUI tools); partially as it’s the way I operate, but I find it easier to work out what I did, eg. the history command can recall what command(s) I did, eg. it contains the following
326 26/05/18 14:58:18 cp -prvu ~/.config/hexchat/* /de2900/lan/guiverc/hexchat_ubu/
327 26/05/18 14:58:48 sudo snap refresh; sudo apt update; sudo apt full-upgrade ; sudo apt autoclean; sudo apt autoremove; neofetch
328 26/05/18 14:59:41 sudo do-release-upgrade -d
which in my case I can read the date/time I ran commands, and command(s) I ran. If I change a configuration file; the command would be a vim followed by the name of the file I changed (and usually I leave a .txt file in that directory telling me why I made that change too)
If the system changed say 3pm (15:00) on 26 May 2026; those few commands were run just before that time, and I’d start there & read backwards. Those commands show me backing up data from my hexchat (logs etc), updating apps, then performing a do-release-upgrade which is a BIG change…
As for the apt logs, as its a rather long file, I don’t read it all, but view parts before the problem occurred usually; it’s reasonably easy to read too in regards date, and for the apt commands in my history I didn’t find any changes at that exact time, but the closest to it is the following
Start-Date: 2026-05-18 15:50:42
Commandline: apt full-upgrade libegl-mesa0 libgbm1 libgl1-mesa-dri libglx-mesa0 mesa-libgallium tracker-extract
Requested-By: guiverc (1000)
Install: localsearch:amd64 (3.11.0-1ubuntu1, automatic)
Upgrade: libglx-mesa0:amd64 (25.2.8-2ubuntu1, 26.0.3-1ubuntu1), libgbm1:amd64 (25.2.8-2ubuntu1, 26.0.3-1ubuntu1), mesa-libgallium:amd64 (25.2.8-2ubuntu1, 26.0.3-1ubuntu1), libgl1-mesa-dri:amd64 (25.2.8-2ubuntu1, 26.0.3-1ubuntu1), tracker-extract:amd64 (3.8.2-4ubuntu2, 3.11.0-1ubuntu1), libegl-mesa0:amd64 (25.2.8-2ubuntu1, 26.0.3-1ubuntu1)
Remove: mesa-va-drivers:amd64 (25.2.8-2ubuntu1)
End-Date: 2026-05-18 15:50:52
I actually check for and perform updates many times per day, and not having anything to update can thus be expected, but as I’m using this as example I wasn’t worried about picking matching data. Key is the the DATE/TIME should be pretty easy to see, as well as INSTALL:, UPGRADE: and REMOVE: followed by a list of packages; these are changes I look for.
If things STOP working for several seconds; I’d be ensuring the system isn’t thrashing, ie. if your machine is lacking RAM (4GB isn’t a lot, especially if you’re running large apps; and a web browser is a HUGE app given most web sites have our machines do all the processing instead of their servers), I tend to find I need to increase the swapfile size, as the calamares installer has a set default size which can be too small in my opinion for older RAM-limited devices.
Next if it’s wireless, I’d look for radio interference; which can be other older devices (TV, fridges, anything with electrical components or motors in it actually) which maybe interfering with data transmission & reception; but IF it this AND you say it’s a laptop; just moving to a different location should resolve or change if it’s this; and if you find the same in any location this won’t be your issue.
If it’s specific to your hardware, I have no useful suggestions though sorry (no clues if the issue relates to kernel or kernel module (aka driver issue), not for now anyway - but maybe others can aid here.
My 2c thoughts anyway.
Great point! @spaarks, have a look at the output of this command:
free -htv
free -htv shows 1.3 used 1.2 free and no swapfile space used.
Also when the freezes happen?
Thanks for all that, but most of it is beyond me. Last time I did cmd line was with PC-DOS over 40 ears ago!
So, I installed LM MATE and all is well, and not too slow for a 14 year old laptop.
Takes 1m40s to boot up from cold, and Firefox takes 40s to start up.
cpu frequency 800-1000 MHz
After a freeze, open a terminal and run
sudo dmeg | tail
What is the output?
sudo dmeg command not found
Apologies.
sudo dmesg | tail
Missed the S
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