I just wanted to post the exact sections of the /etc/X11/XF86Config that people will need to get the touchpad and mouse working on a Dell Inspiron 8100 laptop. I got it working from other LinuxQuestions posts but I thought it would help if I condensed it for newbies.

Just make sure that your ServerLayout looks like this:

Section "ServerLayout"
Identifier "single head configuration"
Screen 0 "Screen0" 0 0
InputDevice "Keyboard0" "CoreKeyboard"
#ADDED FROM LINUXQUESTIONS
InputDevice "TouchpadMouse" "CorePointer"
InputDevice "Mouse0" "SendCoreEvents"
EndSection

Just add this section somewhere (I put after my InputDevice section for mouse):

#ADDED FROM LINUXQUESTIONS
Section "InputDevice"
Identifier "TouchpadMouse"
Driver "mouse"
# Option "CorePointer"
Option "Device" "/dev/psaux"
Option "Protocol" "PS/2"
Option "Emulate3Buttons" "true"
EndSection

Hope it helps.

I'm replying to myself cause now I'm trying to do the same thing on an inspiron 2100 and it's not working. If I figure it out I'll post it to myself again.

With the above configuration neither my mouse nor my touchpad is working in X, however the touchpad is working at the command line, which to me is super weird.

Found the answer.

It's at the bottom of this page:
http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...light=touchpad

All you do is Not do what I told you to do in my first post on the subject but instead download the synaptic driver, install that and add their /etc/X11/XF86Config section and you're good to go.

I like their driver because you can set the edges on the touchpad. Very nice.