Synaptics Touchpad not properly configured on Initial Bootup
 

I have a weird problem with my Synaptics Touchpad not being detected properly. When my machine boots up, the touchpad does not function under xorg until I move my finger on the pad for a few seconds. At that point I BELIEVE a generic driver is loaded rather than the Synaptics driver (I can't scroll vertically) that is in my xorg.conf file. If I hit ctrl+alt+backspace and reboot X the proper driver is loaded and my vertical scrolling ability is restored.

If the touchpad is using a kernel module, then it would take a few seconds for the kernel to load it once it is needed. You may need to install the module during bootup so that it's available.

Dumb Question :P

How can I tell if it is using a module or not? How do I configure it to load on bootup??

Assuming you installed the synaptics driver (which is available via linuxpackages.net and should be available via SlackBuilds.org in the near future)

The synaptics driver is a X.org driver, it doesn't require any kernel-level configuration. What you need to do, depending on how you installed it, is read the xorg.conf configuration of /usr/doc/synaptics-<vers>/INSTALL file.

http://web.telia.com/~u89404340/touchpad/ is the driver you should be using with either a synaptics or alps touchpad, and that site has more info as well.