You may want to try to reinstall again with the touch pad enabled, it
could be an issue of a kernel module not loading. Or see if you can
find what exact module needs to load to run the touchpad and go
through making sure that not only the kernel module is loaded properly
but (perhaps more importantly) the xorg.conf file is configured to use
the touch pad as well.

As root, you can try doing a lspci and looking through to find the
hardware that runs the touch pad. On my laptop it is a Synaptics
Touchpad but there are other vendors.

in way over my head now! how do i get to xorg.config? i read that i must set
shmconfig to "true" . what ever that is. very new at this, but want very much to
learn what i can.

i couldnt get it to work. i assume i do this from the terminal? do i put
anything before this command? am very new to all this!

You should type in a terminal

gedit /etc/X11/xorg.conf


I sure wish everyone would set there yahoo setting to traditional.
It is a real pain to trim emails to respond to them with all the extra
junk added with the new format.

You have to make sure you turn this stuff on before you install ubuntu. If
not, the drivers won't be loaded.

i sure learned that! dont know any way without ms install. dont have any discs
& couldnt find a iso 4 tablet version.

You have to make sure you turn this stuff on before you install
ubuntu. If

not, the drivers won't be loaded.

I hit Fn-F7 to turn mine on and off. I use that a lot, because I too use a
mouse most of the time. I hate it when I'm typing and accidentally touch my
thumb on the thing. Most laptops have key combinations like that. Doesn't
that work for you?

mine is f9, but it doesnt work...............

Can you turn it on in the Bios?

How about trying DSL or some other live distros. Maybe you can get one of
them to recognize the pad enough to turn it on.

Touchpads are not seen in the BIOS they are driven by software so need
to be turned on to be seen on installation.

i just turned mine on from the bios/setup menu????