i installed linux mint 17 on a dell inspiron 5755 the touchpad is't working. keys work. i pluged in a wireless mouse it works. i am new to linux can anybody help. thanks

I'd boot to a Live CD of something not related to Ubuntu and see if the touchpad works with it. If so, then it's a Mint problem. If not, it may be a problem with the touchpad itself.

Another thing you can do is run the command lspci (you may have to do this as root/with sudo). That should reveal the particular make/model of touchpad; post the relevant output here. Post the output(s) of the command here, being sure to surround it with code tags, which become available when you click the "Go Advanced" button beneath the "Compose Post" windows.

Touchpads are not generally connected to PCI buses, but usually via an i8042 controller (or similar), so unlikely to be enumerated via the lspci command.

So, perhaps check the kernel messaging using something like
If the touchpad is detected at the kernel level, you can then check how it is handled by Xorg...

1 members found this post helpful.

Thanks, ferrari.

Personally, I loathe touch pads with the passion of seven suns, so you taught me something.

I'm generally too lazy to plug a mouse in, so the touchpad is my pointing device by default.

FWIW, a bug report for a similar Dell model, where it was found that the following workaround was needed

This might be worth a shot.

I just ran into the same issue after installing Linux Mint 18.2 on a Dell Inspiron 5565, and your suggestion did the trick. Thanks!

I'm glad the advice shared from the bug report worked for you.