Hello, I'm a total noob and just installed MX Linux 19.4 but my touchpad is so erratic, it stops working out of sudden, the gets back working, sometimes instead of moving up and down it scrolls...

My laptop is a brand new VAIO FE14, I have no idea what's going on, if I have to install drivers and how to do this.

None of this happens with an external USB mouse.

Which desktop are you using?

MX comes with fluxbox and KDE Plasma.

Next, you have a driver if the devices does anything. They are dead without a driver.

If you are using Plasma, open up System Settings, look for Input devices, and then Touchpad. There are settings there you can adjust. I sounds like the settings are set too high. Give that a go and let us know.

Personally, I have never liked touchpads, I spend more time fixing nonsense than using them. For my laptops I bought Logitech mice, and turned off the touchpad. I use the touchpad only if the mouse is inconvienient to use. Your choice.

What do you mean by "which desktop are you using?"

Also, touchpad settings are fine, I guess. It's OK and not so fast but then suddenly becomes jumpy or just stops at all

Fluxbox and KDE are two differnt desktops, each with their own settings. Linux has many different desktops available, XFCE, Gnome, Cinnamon... and the list goes on. Its a user choice. The unlike windbloze with your choice of one.

The desktop is what you see, the menues etc.

where can I check if its fluxbox or kde?

If you quote text, please put your responses below the quoted text you are responding to. (Also there's no point quoting an entire post, unless that post is out of sequence.)

As for the desktop environment you're using, presumably you downloaded an ISO from https://mxlinux.org/download-links/ - if so, and the file is named "MX-19.4.1_kde_x64.iso" you have the KDE Plasma desktop environment.
(There should also be an "About" option in the main menu which will confirm the desktop environment and versions.)


Regarding this...
KDE Plasma has options for both two-finger scrolling and edge scrolling - if you have those options enabled, it may explain the behaviour. Even if you're not deliberately using two fingers, some touchpads are over-sensitive and pick up nearby fingers that aren't actually touching.

(It's possible Fluxbox has the same settings, I've not used it so don't know.)

For testing purposes, try booting from a Live CD/USB of some other distro unrelated to MX (Ubuntu, Mageia?) and testing the touchpad. That will help show whether the problem is confined to MX or something perhaps larger.

As an aside, the Arch wiki has a pretty good article on window managers: https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php...p_environments

Wow, VAIO still makes laptops...

Oh dear. I remember when Microsoft released their first email client and it placed the cursor on top and clueless Microsoft users started typing there without moving the cursor down first. This was how top posting was invented, by clueless noobs. Everybody expected Microsoft to fix it with next release of their Outlook Express. Of course, they never did. Now this plague is infecting even forums?