Elantech Touchpad not working on Ubuntu 16.04 and Arch Linux

I had the same problem. After googling a lot I found a workaround: in /etc/defaut/grub

sudo nano /etc/default/grub

I added i8042.reset to the line GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT

GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="i8042.reset quiet splash"

and then

sudo update-grub

Finally after a restart the touchpad works fine (multitouch included).

Okay so I found a fix for this issue.

Thanks to @Guillaume for pointing me to the right direction. This issue is very beautifully explained here on unix stackexchange.

It arises for some specific, rare devices such as mine (New Elantech Touchpad).

Sometimes touchpad would work and sometimes it wouldn't, it has got something to do with multiplexing.

To solve this issue I followed the answer by @Guillaume and added i8042.kbdreset=1 to the parameters in /etc/default/grub by following the exact same steps in the other answer.

i8042.reset didn't work for me.

I have the same touchpad on an ASUS laptop. Linux kernels below 4.5 don't have the drivers for this touchpad, so all you have to do is upgrade your kernel. Even though Linux kernels go all the way to 4.10 as of this writing, I like to trail the edge of technology, so if you just go to 4.5, you should be good.

You can find the latest kernels for Ubuntu at http://kernel.ubuntu.com/~kernel-ppa/mainline/

For example, to upgrade to 4.5.7, you would go to the ubuntu kernels link above and click into http://kernel.ubuntu.com/~kernel-ppa/mainline/v4.5.7-yakkety/

Then, download the generic .deb packages. For 64-bit, these would be:

• http://kernel.ubuntu.com/~kernel-ppa/mainline/v4.5.7-yakkety/linux-headers-4.5.7-040507_4.5.7-040507.201606100436_all.deb
• http://kernel.ubuntu.com/~kernel-ppa/mainline/v4.5.7-yakkety/linux-headers-4.5.7-040507-generic_4.5.7-040507.201606100436_amd64.deb
• http://kernel.ubuntu.com/~kernel-ppa/mainline/v4.5.7-yakkety/linux-image-4.5.7-040507-generic_4.5.7-040507.201606100436_amd64.deb

These will end up in your Downloads directory, so just open up a terminal there and type the following:

sudo dpkg -i lin*4.5.7*.deb

and follow up with rebuilding the grub bootloader

sudo update-grub

Then, reboot and select the new kernel and your touchpad should show up.