There is no "Input Device" section in xorg.conf
 

I'm trying to set SHMConfig to 'true' in /etc/X11/xorg.conf

I have done this before to enable the gsynaptics touchpad tool.

This morning I did a clean Ubuntu Intrepid install, was previously using Ubuntu Feisty.

But there is no "input device" section in my xorg.conf

Here is the contents of xorg.conf

----------------------------------
Section "Device"
Identifier "Configured Video Device"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
Identifier "Configured Monitor"
EndSection

Section "Screen"
Identifier "Default Screen"
Monitor "Configured Monitor"
Device "Configured Video Device"
EndSection

----------------------------------
I followed these instructions,
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Sy...hpad#shmconfig
but all it did was make my screen display more detailed and fancy.

How can I set SHMConfig to 'true' so that I can use gsynaptics?

I'm using a Dell Inspiron laptop, and I've used gsynaptics with Dapper and Feisty.

thanks

That's because most of hardware recognition is handled by other tools now. It's a bit of a nuisance sometimes - I like the old configuration files better, too. But you may want to try sudo dpkg-reconfigure xserver-xorg - you'll get a little further that way. And of course, you can always try and add the relevant section to /etc/X11/xorg.conf by hand.

M.

Yup. I got it now. Thank you.

What I needed to do was issue this:

sudo /etc/init.d/hal restart

When the /hal instructions told me to restart, I thought they meant 'just' restart the machine. LOL

Thank you.

No big deal - you found the solution yourself :)

In fact, I should've been more precise; the information is here: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/X/Config/Input - but that's only part of the story. At least it's documented to the fullest - but compared to former procedures, it's pretty complicated. There's got to be a reason for that (probably better overall performance), but if things don't work, it can be tedious to say the least.

M.