Touchpad acting erratically - often doesn't respond to my touch, but moves and clicks on its own

whenever I have the touchpad on (I turn it on/off via settings, if that matters), it will not take my input the majority of the time - but it will move on its own very erratically. An excerpt from libinput debug-events:

event7   POINTER_SCROLL_FINGER   +39.746s	vert 0.00/0.0 horiz -7.51/0.0* (finger)
 event7   POINTER_SCROLL_FINGER   +39.773s	vert 0.00/0.0 horiz -7.33/0.0* (finger)
 event7   POINTER_SCROLL_FINGER   +39.801s	vert -2.92/0.0* horiz -0.19/0.0* (finger)
 event7   POINTER_SCROLL_FINGER   +39.830s	vert -3.70/0.0* horiz -4.70/0.0* (finger)
 event7   POINTER_SCROLL_FINGER   +39.860s	vert 0.00/0.0 horiz -6.39/0.0* (finger)
 event7   POINTER_SCROLL_FINGER   +39.990s	vert 0.00/0.0* horiz 0.00/0.0* (finger)
 event7   GESTURE_HOLD_BEGIN      +40.182s	3
 event7   GESTURE_HOLD_END        +40.227s	3 cancelled
 event7   GESTURE_HOLD_BEGIN      +40.576s	3
 event7   GESTURE_HOLD_END        +40.926s	3 cancelled
 event7   GESTURE_HOLD_BEGIN      +41.252s	3
 event7   GESTURE_HOLD_END        +41.323s	3 cancelled
 event7   GESTURE_SWIPE_BEGIN     +41.323s	3
 event7   GESTURE_SWIPE_UPDATE    +41.323s	3  7.47/ 0.13 (15.15/ 0.26 unaccelerated)
 event7   GESTURE_SWIPE_UPDATE    +41.348s	3  0.92/-4.76 ( 1.00/-5.19 unaccelerated)
 event7   GESTURE_SWIPE_UPDATE    +41.375s	3 12.53/-10.92 (12.52/-10.91 unaccelerated)
 event7   GESTURE_SWIPE_UPDATE    +41.404s	3  2.51/-7.54 ( 2.50/-7.53 unaccelerated)
 event7   GESTURE_SWIPE_UPDATE    +41.515s	3  4.03/ 0.00 ( 4.13/ 0.00 unaccelerated)
 event7   GESTURE_SWIPE_END       +41.643s	3 cancelled
 event7   GESTURE_HOLD_BEGIN      +41.915s	3
 event7   GESTURE_HOLD_END        +43.184s	3 cancelled
 event7   GESTURE_HOLD_BEGIN      +43.375s	4
 event7   GESTURE_HOLD_END        +43.634s	4 cancelled
 event7   GESTURE_PINCH_BEGIN     +43.664s	4
 event7   GESTURE_PINCH_UPDATE    +43.664s	4 -15.40/ 0.00 (-15.78/ 0.00 unaccelerated)  1.00 @ -2.10
 event7   GESTURE_PINCH_UPDATE    +43.694s	4 -22.19/-3.90 (-22.17/-3.90 unaccelerated)  1.02 @ -1.67
 event7   GESTURE_PINCH_UPDATE    +43.721s	4 -1.88/-0.58 (-1.88/-0.58 unaccelerated)  1.02 @  0.11
 event7   GESTURE_PINCH_UPDATE    +43.750s	4 -1.07/-0.74 (-1.13/-0.78 unaccelerated)  1.03 @ -0.05

before this, I opened debug-events with the touchpad turned off, turned the touchpad on via settings, and clicked it a few times - this excerpt occurred after it registered a click, and I was no longer touching the pad at that time.

I have tried the following:
-installing synaptics - didnā€™t seem to do anything
-the following, which removed the touchpad from settings entirely and it did not come back until I restarted

sudo rmmod i2c_hid
sudo modprobe i2c_hid

the output of libinput list-devices for event7 is:

Device:           FTCS1000:01 2808:0102 Touchpad
Kernel:           /dev/input/event7
Group:            7
Seat:             seat0, default
Size:             146x89mm
Capabilities:     pointer gesture
Tap-to-click:     disabled
Tap-and-drag:     enabled
Tap drag lock:    disabled
Left-handed:      disabled
Nat.scrolling:    disabled
Middle emulation: disabled
Calibration:      n/a
Scroll methods:   *two-finger edge 
Click methods:    *button-areas clickfinger 
Disable-w-typing: enabled
Disable-w-trackpointing: enabled
Accel profiles:   flat *adaptive
Rotation:         n/a

notably, I turned off ā€˜disable when typingā€™ in gnome tweaks. not 100% sure of the implication there, but could be useful knowledge.

I just now checked if turning ā€˜disable when typingā€™ back on made any difference, which - it didnā€™t, but after turning off touchpad via settings with libinput debug-events still running, I was still getting events from event7 showing up in terminal even though the pad was disabled and no longer shaking my screen around like a snowglobe.

please let me know if anything needs better wording/you need further outputs, thank you for your help :slight_smile:

(I put my cpu, gpu etc. in my user signup thing so hopefully you all can see it, but if not Iā€™ll copy it in)

edit: output of inxi --admin --verbosity=7 --filter --no-host --width is as follows, apologies for missing that:

System:
  Kernel: 5.18.17-1-MANJARO arch: x86_64 bits: 64 compiler: gcc v: 12.1.1
    parameters: BOOT_IMAGE=/boot/vmlinuz-5.18-x86_64
    root=UUID=cf06b40d-92ee-41c9-91b8-89e64f1b0d3d rw quiet
    resume=UUID=5428fe88-7ae0-4d6e-b532-3534ca569289 udev.log_priority=3
  Desktop: GNOME v: 42.4 tk: GTK v: 3.24.34 wm: gnome-shell dm: GDM v: 42.0
    Distro: Manjaro Linux base: Arch Linux
Machine:
  Type: Laptop System: Notebook product: NS5x_NS7xPU v: N/A
    serial: <superuser required> Chassis: No Enclosure type: 10
    serial: <superuser required>
  Mobo: Notebook model: NS5x_NS7xPU serial: <superuser required>
    UEFI: INSYDE v: 1.07.03 date: 03/27/2022
Battery:
  ID-1: BAT0 charge: 73.9 Wh (100.0%) condition: 73.9/73.9 Wh (100.0%)
    volts: 8.7 min: 7.7 model: Notebook BAT type: Li-ion serial: <filter>
    status: full
Memory:
  RAM: total: 31.06 GiB used: 4.8 GiB (15.4%)
  RAM Report: permissions: Unable to run dmidecode. Root privileges
    required.
CPU:
  Info: model: 12th Gen Intel Core i7-1260P bits: 64 type: MST AMCP
    arch: Alder Lake built: 2021 process: Intel 7 (10nm ESF) family: 6
    model-id: 0x9A (154) stepping: 3 microcode: 0x421
  Topology: cpus: 1x cores: 12 mt: 4 tpc: 2 st: 8 threads: 16 smt: enabled
    cache: L1: 1.1 MiB desc: d-8x32 KiB, 4x48 KiB; i-4x32 KiB, 8x64 KiB
    L2: 9 MiB desc: 4x1.2 MiB, 2x2 MiB L3: 18 MiB desc: 1x18 MiB
  Speed (MHz): avg: 1025 high: 2549 min/max: 400/4700:3400 scaling:
    driver: intel_pstate governor: powersave cores: 1: 434 2: 616 3: 2039
    4: 1061 5: 1190 6: 813 7: 891 8: 666 9: 847 10: 1010 11: 616 12: 1238
    13: 584 14: 758 15: 1088 16: 2549 bogomips: 79888
  Flags: 3dnowprefetch abm acpi adx aes aperfmperf apic arat
    arch_capabilities arch_lbr arch_perfmon art avx avx2 avx_vnni bmi1 bmi2
    bts cat_l2 cdp_l2 clflush clflushopt clwb cmov constant_tsc cpuid
    cpuid_fault cx16 cx8 de ds_cpl dtes64 dtherm dts epb ept ept_ad erms est
    f16c flexpriority flush_l1d fma fpu fsgsbase fsrm fxsr gfni hfi ht hwp
    hwp_act_window hwp_epp hwp_notify hwp_pkg_req ibpb ibrs ibrs_enhanced ibt
    ida intel_pt invpcid invpcid_single lahf_lm lm mca mce md_clear mmx
    monitor movbe movdir64b movdiri msr mtrr nonstop_tsc nopl nx ospke pae pat
    pbe pcid pclmulqdq pdcm pdpe1gb pebs pge pku pln pni popcnt pse pse36 pts
    rdpid rdrand rdseed rdt_a rdtscp rep_good sdbg sep serialize sha_ni smap
    smep smx split_lock_detect ss ssbd sse sse2 sse4_1 sse4_2 ssse3 stibp
    syscall tm tm2 tpr_shadow tsc tsc_adjust tsc_deadline_timer tsc_known_freq
    umip vaes vme vmx vnmi vpclmulqdq vpid waitpkg x2apic xgetbv1 xsave xsavec
    xsaveopt xsaves xtopology xtpr
  Vulnerabilities:
  Type: itlb_multihit status: Not affected
  Type: l1tf status: Not affected
  Type: mds status: Not affected
  Type: meltdown status: Not affected
  Type: mmio_stale_data status: Not affected
  Type: retbleed status: Not affected
  Type: spec_store_bypass mitigation: Speculative Store Bypass disabled via
    prctl
  Type: spectre_v1 mitigation: usercopy/swapgs barriers and __user pointer
    sanitization
  Type: spectre_v2 mitigation: Enhanced IBRS, IBPB: conditional, RSB
    filling, PBRSB-eIBRS: SW sequence
  Type: srbds status: Not affected
  Type: tsx_async_abort status: Not affected
Graphics:
  Device-1: Intel Alder Lake-P Integrated Graphics vendor: CLEVO/KAPOK
    driver: i915 v: kernel arch: Gen-12.2 process: Intel 10nm built: 2021-22+
    ports: active: eDP-1 empty: DP-1, DP-2, DP-3, DP-4, HDMI-A-1
    bus-ID: 00:02.0 chip-ID: 8086:4626 class-ID: 0300
  Device-2: Chicony USB2.0 Camera type: USB driver: uvcvideo bus-ID: 3-7:3
    chip-ID: 04f2:b6f9 class-ID: 0e02 serial: <filter>
  Display: wayland server: X.org v: 1.21.1.4 with: Xwayland v: 22.1.3
    compositor: gnome-shell driver: gpu: i915 display-ID: 0
  Monitor-1: eDP-1 model: AU Optronics 0x429d built: 2018 res: 1920x1080
    dpi: 128 gamma: 1.2 size: 382x215mm (15.04x8.46") diag: 438mm (17.3")
    ratio: 16:9 modes: 1920x1080
  OpenGL: renderer: Mesa Intel Graphics (ADL GT2) v: 4.6 Mesa 22.1.6
    direct render: Yes
Audio:
  Device-1: Intel Alder Lake PCH-P High Definition Audio vendor: CLEVO/KAPOK
    driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel alternate: snd_sof_pci_intel_tgl
    bus-ID: 00:1f.3 chip-ID: 8086:51c8 class-ID: 0403
  Sound Server-1: ALSA v: k5.18.17-1-MANJARO running: yes
  Sound Server-2: JACK v: 1.9.21 running: no
  Sound Server-3: PulseAudio v: 16.1 running: yes
  Sound Server-4: PipeWire v: 0.3.56 running: yes
Network:
  Device-1: Intel Wi-Fi 6 AX200 driver: iwlwifi v: kernel pcie: gen: 2
    speed: 5 GT/s lanes: 1 bus-ID: 2b:00.0 chip-ID: 8086:2723 class-ID: 0280
  IF: wlp43s0 state: up mac: <filter>
  IP v4: <filter> type: dynamic noprefixroute scope: global
    broadcast: <filter>
  IP v6: <filter> type: dynamic noprefixroute scope: global
  IP v6: <filter> type: noprefixroute scope: link
  Device-2: Realtek RTL8111/8168/8411 PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet
    vendor: CLEVO/KAPOK driver: r8169 v: kernel pcie: gen: 1 speed: 2.5 GT/s
    lanes: 1 port: 3000 bus-ID: 2d:00.0 chip-ID: 10ec:8168 class-ID: 0200
  IF: enp45s0 state: down mac: <filter>
  WAN IP: <filter>
Bluetooth:
  Device-1: Intel AX200 Bluetooth type: USB driver: btusb v: 0.8
    bus-ID: 3-10:4 chip-ID: 8087:0029 class-ID: e001
  Report: rfkill ID: hci0 rfk-id: 1 state: up address: see --recommends
Logical:
  Message: No logical block device data found.
RAID:
  Message: No RAID data found.
Drives:
  Local Storage: total: 953.87 GiB used: 130.02 GiB (13.6%)
  SMART Message: Required tool smartctl not installed. Check --recommends
  ID-1: /dev/nvme0n1 maj-min: 259:0 vendor: Samsung
    model: MZVL21T0HCLR-00B00 size: 953.87 GiB block-size: physical: 512 B
    logical: 512 B speed: 63.2 Gb/s lanes: 4 type: SSD serial: <filter>
    rev: GXA7601Q temp: 33.9 C scheme: GPT
  Message: No optical or floppy data found.
Partition:
  ID-1: / raw-size: 97.66 GiB size: 95.56 GiB (97.86%) used: 12.23 GiB (12.8%)
    fs: ext4 dev: /dev/nvme0n1p3 maj-min: 259:3 label: N/A
    uuid: cf06b40d-92ee-41c9-91b8-89e64f1b0d3d
  ID-2: /boot/efi raw-size: 300 MiB size: 299.4 MiB (99.80%) used: 288 KiB
    (0.1%) fs: vfat dev: /dev/nvme0n1p1 maj-min: 259:1 label: NO_LABEL
    uuid: 87AF-20E6
  ID-3: /home raw-size: 767.93 GiB size: 754.8 GiB (98.29%) used: 117.79 GiB
    (15.6%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/nvme0n1p4 maj-min: 259:4 label: Home
    uuid: b9bb9af4-0f93-4ea6-99c7-c81e6f3b2ba1
Swap:
  Kernel: swappiness: 60 (default) cache-pressure: 100 (default)
  ID-1: swap-1 type: partition size: 87.99 GiB used: 0 KiB (0.0%)
    priority: -2 dev: /dev/nvme0n1p2 maj-min: 259:2 label: N/A
    uuid: 5428fe88-7ae0-4d6e-b532-3534ca569289
Unmounted:
  Message: No unmounted partitions found.
USB:
  Hub-1: 1-0:1 info: Hi-speed hub with single TT ports: 1 rev: 2.0
    speed: 480 Mb/s chip-ID: 1d6b:0002 class-ID: 0900
  Hub-2: 2-0:1 info: Super-speed hub ports: 1 rev: 3.1 speed: 20 Gb/s
    chip-ID: 1d6b:0003 class-ID: 0900
  Hub-3: 3-0:1 info: Hi-speed hub with single TT ports: 12 rev: 2.0
    speed: 480 Mb/s chip-ID: 1d6b:0002 class-ID: 0900
  Device-1: 3-1:5 info: Pixart Imaging Optical Mouse type: Mouse
    driver: hid-generic,usbhid interfaces: 1 rev: 1.1 speed: 1.5 Mb/s
    power: 100mA chip-ID: 093a:2510 class-ID: 0301
  Device-2: 3-7:3 info: Chicony USB2.0 Camera type: Video driver: uvcvideo
    interfaces: 4 rev: 2.0 speed: 480 Mb/s power: 500mA chip-ID: 04f2:b6f9
    class-ID: 0e02 serial: <filter>
  Device-3: 3-10:4 info: Intel AX200 Bluetooth type: Bluetooth driver: btusb
    interfaces: 2 rev: 2.0 speed: 12 Mb/s power: 100mA chip-ID: 8087:0029
    class-ID: e001
  Hub-4: 4-0:1 info: Super-speed hub ports: 4 rev: 3.1 speed: 10 Gb/s
    chip-ID: 1d6b:0003 class-ID: 0900
Sensors:
  System Temperatures: cpu: 41.0 C mobo: N/A
  Fan Speeds (RPM): N/A
Info:
  Processes: 338 Uptime: 15h 24m wakeups: 32973 Init: systemd v: 251
  default: graphical tool: systemctl Compilers: gcc: 12.1.1 clang: 14.0.6
  Packages: pacman: 1099 lib: 338 flatpak: 0 Shell: Zsh v: 5.9
  running-in: terminator inxi: 3.3.20

may you check the command below and post the output

sudo dmesg | grep Touch

and also

sudo dmesg | grep psmouse

grep Touch:

[    4.639807] input: FTCS1000:01 2808:0102 Touchpad as /devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:15.0/i2c_designware.0/i2c-9/i2c-FTCS1000:01/0018:2808:0102.0002/input/input8
[    9.189835] input: FTCS1000:01 2808:0102 Touchpad as /devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:15.0/i2c_designware.0/i2c-9/i2c-FTCS1000:01/0018:2808:0102.0002/input/input29

grep psmouse had no output.

are you sure that it is a synaptic-touch ?

Brand new laptop, might be driver/kernel related. Can we see the output of
inxi -Fz
Does the touch pad work under Win?

:+1: Welcome to Manjaro! :+1:

  1. Please read this:
    [HowTo] Provide System Information
    and press the three dots ā€¦ below your post and press the :pencil2: to give us more information so we can see whatā€™s really going on.
    Now we know the symptom of the disease, but we need some more probing to know where the origin liesā€¦ :grin:
  2. An inxi --admin --verbosity=7 --filter --no-host --width would be the minimum required information for us to be able to help you. (Personally Identifiable Information like serial numbers and MAC addresses will be filtered out by the above command)
    Also, please copy-paste that output in-between 3 backticks ``` at the beginning and end of the code/text.

:+1:

inxi --admin --verbosity=7 --filter --no-host --width

@Olli Iā€™m not, I just saw it being mentioned in a lot of searches that apparently libinput doesnā€™t (didnā€™t?) play well with touchpads, so I installed it in case it would help. also I added the long inxi to my initial post, apologies for missing it

@6x12 output of inxi -Fz is:

System:
  Kernel: 5.18.17-1-MANJARO arch: x86_64 bits: 64 Desktop: GNOME v: 42.4
    Distro: Manjaro Linux
Machine:
  Type: Laptop System: Notebook product: NS5x_NS7xPU v: N/A
    serial: <superuser required>
  Mobo: Notebook model: NS5x_NS7xPU serial: <superuser required>
    UEFI: INSYDE v: 1.07.03 date: 03/27/2022
Battery:
  ID-1: BAT0 charge: 73.9 Wh (100.0%) condition: 73.9/73.9 Wh (100.0%)
CPU:
  Info: 12-core (4-mt/8-st) model: 12th Gen Intel Core i7-1260P bits: 64
    type: MST AMCP cache: L2: 9 MiB
  Speed (MHz): avg: 826 min/max: 400/4700:3400 cores: 1: 843 2: 656 3: 715
    4: 664 5: 671 6: 1049 7: 837 8: 831 9: 946 10: 801 11: 1068 12: 995 13: 895
    14: 508 15: 852 16: 890
Graphics:
  Device-1: Intel Alder Lake-P Integrated Graphics driver: i915 v: kernel
  Device-2: Chicony USB2.0 Camera type: USB driver: uvcvideo
  Display: wayland server: X.org v: 1.21.1.4 with: Xwayland v: 22.1.3
    compositor: gnome-shell driver: gpu: i915 resolution: 1920x1080~60Hz
  OpenGL: renderer: Mesa Intel Graphics (ADL GT2) v: 4.6 Mesa 22.1.6
Audio:
  Device-1: Intel Alder Lake PCH-P High Definition Audio
    driver: snd_hda_intel
  Sound Server-1: ALSA v: k5.18.17-1-MANJARO running: yes
  Sound Server-2: PulseAudio v: 16.1 running: yes
  Sound Server-3: PipeWire v: 0.3.56 running: yes
Network:
  Device-1: Intel Wi-Fi 6 AX200 driver: iwlwifi
  IF: wlp43s0 state: up mac: <filter>
  Device-2: Realtek RTL8111/8168/8411 PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet
    driver: r8169
  IF: enp45s0 state: down mac: <filter>
Bluetooth:
  Device-1: Intel AX200 Bluetooth type: USB driver: btusb
  Report: rfkill ID: hci0 state: up address: see --recommends
Drives:
  Local Storage: total: 953.87 GiB used: 130.02 GiB (13.6%)
  ID-1: /dev/nvme0n1 vendor: Samsung model: MZVL21T0HCLR-00B00
    size: 953.87 GiB
Partition:
  ID-1: / size: 95.56 GiB used: 12.23 GiB (12.8%) fs: ext4
    dev: /dev/nvme0n1p3
  ID-2: /boot/efi size: 299.4 MiB used: 288 KiB (0.1%) fs: vfat
    dev: /dev/nvme0n1p1
  ID-3: /home size: 754.8 GiB used: 117.79 GiB (15.6%) fs: ext4
    dev: /dev/nvme0n1p4
Swap:
  ID-1: swap-1 type: partition size: 87.99 GiB used: 0 KiB (0.0%)
    dev: /dev/nvme0n1p2
Sensors:
  System Temperatures: cpu: 45.0 C mobo: N/A
  Fan Speeds (RPM): N/A
Info:
  Processes: 340 Uptime: 15h 27m Memory: 31.06 GiB used: 4.86 GiB (15.6%)
  Shell: Zsh inxi: 3.3.20

re Win, I donā€™t have it - I got this laptop custom-built with manjaro preinstalled. what I can do is boot ubuntu off a flash drive and see if it works there, if you think that will help?

If itā€™s no big deal; seeing it work, either in Win or Ubuntu, will show if the hardware is ok.

If it works elsewhere, and since this is new hardware, I would next identify the device:
cat /proc/bus/input/devices
And to see what driver it uses:
grep "Using input" /var/log/Xorg.0.log

Other options:

  • check ā€˜settingsā€™ >> ā€˜mouse+trackpadā€™ for hints
  • try the latest kernel

alright, this is really strange: I booted into flashdrive ubuntu and the touchpad worked fine, so back on Manjaro I went to get the cat /proc/bus/input/devices; I noticed that the ids were different to how I remembered, so I turned the touchpad on to grab info from libinput debug-events and make sure I had the right one, and it now works perfectly???

all I can guess is that booting into ubuntu fixed something but I have no idea what or howā€¦
I also actually have no /var/log/Xorg.0.log, but Iā€™m not sure if thatā€™s relevant any more.

if it stops working again Iā€™ll come back, but for now I guess itā€™s fixed? worst-case scenario Iā€™ll have to boot flashdrive ubuntu as a part of boot process, but on my previous laptop I had to go into bios every time too so

thank you all for your help :slight_smile:

strange but i do believe. since kernel 5.xxx a way too much strange things are happening. itā€™s really disappointing that the actual kernel 5.xx series is too buggy imho. too many changes that interfere and result in crazy behaviour.

yeah, even stranger is: I unplugged my usb controller (which I plugged in after the touchpad started workiing again) and now the touchpad is acting up again. nothing seems to have changed in cat /proc/bus/input/devices regarding the touchpad itself.

for context, I was playing hades via steam w/ proton-ge, but I donā€™t think that specifically will make a difference? my only reason for thinking it might is because of being via proton rather than native, but the touchpad was acting up before I even installed it, soā€¦

trying booting into ubuntu again to see if that at least works as a temporary fix.

edit: yes, temporary fix still works, which means I can safely test stuff out.

the event number for the touchpad is the same as after the previous restart, nothing changed there this time.
what I havenā€™t tested yet is if plugging in the controller and unplugging it without actively using it will cause this as well - itā€™s late here, so Iā€™ll test that one out tomorrow along with anything else suggested.

edit 2: well it decided to go haywire again Anyway. so back to usual testing procedures I guess
so anyway, I donā€™t have /var/log/Xorg.0.log - could be because I have wayland, checked that for a completely different thing

settings >> mouse+touchpad all I can do there that makes a difference is turning it off

I did grab a screen from libinput - all the GESTURE_HOLD_END got cancelled, maybe that means something?

1 Like

please install the package ā€œxorg-xinputā€, run the command

xinput -list

and post the output

WARNING: running xinput against an Xwayland server. See the xinput man page for details.
āŽ” Virtual core pointer                    	id=2	[master pointer  (3)]
āŽœ   ā†³ Virtual core XTEST pointer              	id=4	[slave  pointer  (2)]
āŽœ   ā†³ xwayland-pointer:16                     	id=6	[slave  pointer  (2)]
āŽœ   ā†³ xwayland-relative-pointer:16            	id=7	[slave  pointer  (2)]
āŽœ   ā†³ xwayland-pointer-gestures:16            	id=8	[slave  pointer  (2)]
āŽ£ Virtual core keyboard                   	id=3	[master keyboard (2)]
    ā†³ Virtual core XTEST keyboard             	id=5	[slave  keyboard (3)]
    ā†³ xwayland-keyboard:16          

this is the same whether I have the touchpad enabled or disabled in settings.

well letā€™s check some basic things that might cause trouble. you said with ubuntu-live the touchpad worked fine. letā€™s try something, boot into ubuntu-live again and check if everything is fine. in ubuntu live run these 2 following commands

echo $XDG_SESSION_TYPE

and the magic

inxi --admin --verbosity=7 --filter --no-host --width

if possible run also the

xinput -list

in ubuntu live.

in this case weā€™ll have some basics that are running in ubuntu. post them and store them as file.
then reboot to manjaro and we can check the diffferences. iā€™m not sure but i do not trust the wayland settings. that might be causing trouble with manjaro but unless we donā€™t have the comparision itā€™s only digging in the dark.

another test is beside to download manjaro-plasma and run this as live-iso. is the touchpad running in plasma? in this case run the 2 commands also, we need to know if itā€™s X11 or wayland.

slight correction; this flashdrive isnā€™t a live cd, it has a permanent ubuntu install on it - my old laptop was having trouble with its ssd so I was running from this as a backup
if it would make a difference though I have another flashdrive I can make into a live cd

ubuntu stats:

moogy@moogy:~$ echo $XDG_SESSION_TYPE
x11

moogy@moogy:~$ inxi --admin --verbosity=7 --filter --no-host
System:
  Kernel: 5.15.0-46-generic x86_64 bits: 64 compiler: N/A 
  parameters: BOOT_IMAGE=/boot/vmlinuz-5.15.0-46-generic 
  root=UUID=2dc2d7f0-c9d7-40bb-966e-22cfcebe94b7 ro quiet splash 
  vt.handoff=7 
  Desktop: Gnome 3.36.9 wm: gnome-shell dm: GDM3 3.36.3 
  Distro: Ubuntu 20.04.4 LTS (Focal Fossa) 
Machine:
  Type: Laptop System: Notebook product: NS5x_NS7xPU v: N/A serial: <filter> 
  Chassis: No Enclosure type: 10 serial: <filter> 
  Mobo: Notebook model: NS5x_NS7xPU serial: <filter> UEFI: INSYDE v: 1.07.03 
  date: 03/27/2022 
Battery:
  ID-1: BAT0 charge: 73.9 Wh condition: 73.9/73.9 Wh (100%) volts: 8.7/7.7 
  model: Notebook BAT type: Li-ion serial: <filter> status: Full 
Memory:
  RAM: total: 31.06 GiB used: 1.05 GiB (3.4%) 
  RAM Report: 
  permissions: Unable to run dmidecode. Root privileges required. 
CPU:
  Topology: 8-Core model: 12th Gen Intel Core i7-1260P bits: 64 type: MT MCP 
  arch: N/A family: 6 model-id: 9A (154) stepping: 3 microcode: 41C 
  L2 cache: 18.0 MiB bogomips: 79872 
  Speed: 834 MHz min/max: 400/4700 MHz Core speeds (MHz): 1: 485 2: 660 
  3: 441 4: 620 5: 515 6: 631 7: 682 8: 729 9: 560 10: 684 11: 892 12: 1110 
  13: 506 14: 669 15: 470 16: 718 
  Flags: 3dnowprefetch abm acpi adx aes aperfmperf apic arat 
  arch_capabilities arch_lbr arch_perfmon art avx avx2 avx_vnni bmi1 bmi2 
  bts cat_l2 cdp_l2 clflush clflushopt clwb cmov constant_tsc cpuid 
  cpuid_fault cx16 cx8 de ds_cpl dtes64 dtherm dts epb ept ept_ad erms est 
  f16c flexpriority flush_l1d fma fpu fsgsbase fsrm fxsr gfni ht hwp 
  hwp_act_window hwp_epp hwp_notify hwp_pkg_req ibpb ibrs ibrs_enhanced ida 
  intel_pt invpcid invpcid_single lahf_lm lm mca mce md_clear mmx monitor 
  movbe movdir64b movdiri msr mtrr nonstop_tsc nopl nx ospke pae pat pbe 
  pcid pclmulqdq pdcm pdpe1gb pebs pge pku pln pni popcnt pse pse36 pts 
  rdpid rdrand rdseed rdt_a rdtscp rep_good sdbg sep serialize sha_ni smap 
  smep smx split_lock_detect ss ssbd sse sse2 sse4_1 sse4_2 ssse3 stibp 
  syscall tm tm2 tpr_shadow tsc tsc_adjust tsc_deadline_timer tsc_known_freq 
  umip vaes vme vmx vnmi vpclmulqdq vpid waitpkg x2apic xgetbv1 xsave xsavec 
  xsaveopt xsaves xtopology xtpr 
  Vulnerabilities: Type: itlb_multihit status: Not affected 
  Type: l1tf status: Not affected 
  Type: mds status: Not affected 
  Type: meltdown status: Not affected 
  Type: mmio_stale_data status: Not affected 
  Type: retbleed status: Not affected 
  Type: spec_store_bypass 
  mitigation: Speculative Store Bypass disabled via prctl and seccomp 
  Type: spectre_v1 
  mitigation: usercopy/swapgs barriers and __user pointer sanitization 
  Type: spectre_v2 mitigation: Enhanced IBRS, IBPB: conditional, RSB filling 
  Type: srbds status: Not affected 
  Type: tsx_async_abort status: Not affected 
Graphics:
  Device-1: Intel vendor: CLEVO/KAPOK driver: i915 v: kernel bus ID: 00:02.0 
  chip ID: 8086:4626 
  Display: x11 server: X.Org 1.20.13 driver: i915 compositor: gnome-shell 
  resolution: 1920x1080~60Hz 
  OpenGL: renderer: Mesa Intel Graphics (ADL GT2) v: 4.6 Mesa 21.2.6 
  direct render: Yes 
Audio:
  Device-1: Intel vendor: CLEVO/KAPOK driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel 
  bus ID: 00:1f.3 chip ID: 8086:51c8 
  Sound Server: ALSA v: k5.15.0-46-generic 
Network:
  Device-1: Intel Wi-Fi 6 AX200 driver: iwlwifi v: kernel port: efa0 
  bus ID: 2b:00.0 chip ID: 8086:2723 
  IF: wlp43s0 state: up mac: <filter> 
  IP v4: <filter> type: dynamic noprefixroute scope: global 
  broadcast: <filter> 
  IP v6: <filter> type: temporary dynamic scope: global 
  IP v6: <filter> type: dynamic mngtmpaddr noprefixroute scope: global 
  IP v6: <filter> type: noprefixroute scope: link 
  Device-2: Realtek RTL8111/8168/8411 PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet 
  vendor: CLEVO/KAPOK driver: r8169 v: kernel port: 3000 bus ID: 2d:00.0 
  chip ID: 10ec:8168 
  IF: enp45s0 state: down mac: <filter> 
  WAN IP: <filter> 
Drives:
  Local Storage: total: 982.52 GiB used: 16.39 GiB (1.7%) 
  SMART Message: Required tool smartctl not installed. Check --recommends 
  ID-1: /dev/nvme0n1 vendor: Samsung model: MZVL21T0HCLR-00B00 
  size: 953.87 GiB block size: physical: 512 B logical: 512 B 
  speed: 63.2 Gb/s lanes: 4 serial: <filter> rev: GXA7601Q scheme: GPT 
  ID-2: /dev/sda type: USB vendor: SanDisk model: Ultra size: 28.65 GiB 
  block size: physical: 512 B logical: 512 B serial: <filter> rev: 1.00 
  scheme: GPT 
  Message: No Optical or Floppy data was found. 
RAID:
  Message: No RAID data was found. 
Partition:
  ID-1: / raw size: 28.29 GiB size: 27.68 GiB (97.84%) 
  used: 16.38 GiB (59.2%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/sda2 label: N/A 
  uuid: 2dc2d7f0-c9d7-40bb-966e-22cfcebe94b7 
  ID-2: /boot/efi raw size: 365.0 MiB size: 364.3 MiB (99.80%) 
  used: 5.2 MiB (1.4%) fs: vfat dev: /dev/sda1 label: N/A uuid: 3783-EFA6 
  ID-3: /snap/bare/5 raw size: 4 KiB size: <superuser/root required> 
  used: <superuser/root required> fs: squashfs dev: /dev/loop4 label: N/A 
  uuid: N/A 
  ID-4: /snap/core20/1593 raw size: 62.0 MiB size: <superuser/root required> 
  used: <superuser/root required> fs: squashfs dev: /dev/loop6 label: N/A 
  uuid: N/A 
  ID-5: /snap/core20/1611 raw size: 62.0 MiB size: <superuser/root required> 
  used: <superuser/root required> fs: squashfs dev: /dev/loop0 label: N/A 
  uuid: N/A 
  ID-6: /snap/gnome-3-38-2004/112 raw size: 400.8 MiB 
  size: <superuser/root required> used: <superuser/root required> 
  fs: squashfs dev: /dev/loop1 label: N/A uuid: N/A 
  ID-7: /snap/gnome-3-38-2004/99 raw size: 248.8 MiB 
  size: <superuser/root required> used: <superuser/root required> 
  fs: squashfs dev: /dev/loop5 label: N/A uuid: N/A 
  ID-8: /snap/gtk-common-themes/1519 raw size: 65.2 MiB 
  size: <superuser/root required> used: <superuser/root required> 
  fs: squashfs dev: /dev/loop2 label: N/A uuid: N/A 
  ID-9: /snap/gtk-common-themes/1535 raw size: 91.7 MiB 
  size: <superuser/root required> used: <superuser/root required> 
  fs: squashfs dev: /dev/loop3 label: N/A uuid: N/A 
  ID-10: /snap/snap-store/558 raw size: 54.2 MiB 
  size: <superuser/root required> used: <superuser/root required> 
  fs: squashfs dev: /dev/loop7 label: N/A uuid: N/A 
  ID-11: /snap/snapd/14978 raw size: 43.6 MiB 
  size: <superuser/root required> used: <superuser/root required> 
  fs: squashfs dev: /dev/loop8 label: N/A uuid: N/A 
  ID-12: /snap/snapd/16292 raw size: 47.0 MiB 
  size: <superuser/root required> used: <superuser/root required> 
  fs: squashfs dev: /dev/loop9 label: N/A uuid: N/A 
Unmounted:
  ID-1: /dev/nvme0n1p1 size: 300.0 MiB fs: vfat label: NO_LABEL 
  uuid: 87AF-20E6 
  ID-2: /dev/nvme0n1p2 size: 87.99 GiB fs: swap label: N/A 
  uuid: 5428fe88-7ae0-4d6e-b532-3534ca569289 
  ID-3: /dev/nvme0n1p3 size: 97.66 GiB fs: ext4 label: N/A 
  uuid: cf06b40d-92ee-41c9-91b8-89e64f1b0d3d 
  ID-4: /dev/nvme0n1p4 size: 767.93 GiB fs: ext4 label: Home 
  uuid: b9bb9af4-0f93-4ea6-99c7-c81e6f3b2ba1 
USB:
  Hub: 1-0:1 info: Full speed (or root) Hub ports: 12 rev: 2.0 
  speed: 480 Mb/s chip ID: 1d6b:0002 
  Device-1: 1-1:2 info: Pixart Imaging Optical Mouse type: Mouse 
  driver: hid-generic,usbhid interfaces: 1 rev: 1.1 speed: 1.5 Mb/s 
  chip ID: 093a:2510 
  Device-2: 1-2:3 info: SanDisk Ultra type: Mass Storage driver: usb-storage 
  interfaces: 1 rev: 2.1 speed: 480 Mb/s chip ID: 0781:5581 serial: <filter> 
  Device-3: 1-7:4 info: Chicony Chicony USB2.0 Camera type: Video 
  driver: uvcvideo interfaces: 4 rev: 2.0 speed: 480 Mb/s chip ID: 04f2:b6f9 
  serial: <filter> 
  Device-4: 1-10:5 info: Intel type: Bluetooth driver: btusb interfaces: 2 
  rev: 2.0 speed: 12 Mb/s chip ID: 8087:0029 
  Hub: 2-0:1 info: Full speed (or root) Hub ports: 4 rev: 3.1 speed: 10 Gb/s 
  chip ID: 1d6b:0003 
  Hub: 3-0:1 info: Full speed (or root) Hub ports: 1 rev: 2.0 
  speed: 480 Mb/s chip ID: 1d6b:0002 
  Hub: 4-0:1 info: Full speed (or root) Hub ports: 1 rev: 3.1 speed: 20 Gb/s 
  chip ID: 1d6b:0003 
Sensors:
  System Temperatures: cpu: 42.0 C mobo: N/A 
  Fan Speeds (RPM): N/A 
Info:
  Processes: 325 Uptime: 5m Init: systemd v: 245 runlevel: 5 Compilers: 
  gcc: N/A Shell: bash v: 5.0.17 running in: gnome-terminal inxi: 3.0.38
  
moogy@moogy:~$ xinput list
āŽ” Virtual core pointer                    	id=2	[master pointer  (3)]
āŽœ   ā†³ Virtual core XTEST pointer              	id=4	[slave  pointer  (2)]
āŽœ   ā†³ PixArt USB Optical Mouse                	id=9	[slave  pointer  (2)]
āŽœ   ā†³ FTCS1000:01 2808:0102 Mouse             	id=12	[slave  pointer  (2)]
āŽœ   ā†³ FTCS1000:01 2808:0102 Touchpad          	id=13	[slave  pointer  (2)]
āŽœ   ā†³ ImPS/2 Generic Wheel Mouse              	id=16	[slave  pointer  (2)]
āŽ£ Virtual core keyboard                   	id=3	[master keyboard (2)]
    ā†³ Virtual core XTEST keyboard             	id=5	[slave  keyboard (3)]
    ā†³ Video Bus                               	id=6	[slave  keyboard (3)]
    ā†³ Power Button                            	id=7	[slave  keyboard (3)]
    ā†³ Sleep Button                            	id=8	[slave  keyboard (3)]
    ā†³ Chicony USB2.0 Camera: Chicony          	id=10	[slave  keyboard (3)]
    ā†³ Chicony USB2.0 Camera: IR Camer         	id=11	[slave  keyboard (3)]
    ā†³ Intel HID events                        	id=14	[slave  keyboard (3)]
    ā†³ AT Translated Set 2 keyboard            	id=15	[slave  keyboard (3)]

and just to be sure, on this install,

silvally@aether ~ $ echo $XDG_SESSION_TYPE
wayland

so yeah it may well be a wayland thing. going to make a live cd for manjaro-plasma now and try out the commands on there too

edit: manjaro plasma data:

 ļŒ’ ī‚° ļ€• ~ ī‚° echo $XDG_SESSION_TYPE                                                                        ī‚² āœ”
x11
 ļŒ’ ī‚° ļ€• ~ ī‚° inxi --admin --verbosity=7 --filter --no-host --width                                         ī‚² āœ”
System:
  Kernel: 5.15.60-1-MANJARO arch: x86_64 bits: 64 compiler: gcc v: 12.1.1
    parameters: BOOT_IMAGE=/boot/vmlinuz-x86_64 lang=en_US keytable=us tz=UTC
    misobasedir=manjaro misolabel=MANJARO_KDE_2137 quiet systemd.show_status=1
    driver=free nouveau.modeset=1 i915.modeset=1 radeon.modeset=1
  Desktop: KDE Plasma v: 5.24.6 tk: Qt v: 5.15.5 wm: kwin_x11 vt: 1 dm: SDDM
    Distro: Manjaro Linux base: Arch Linux
Machine:
  Type: Laptop System: Notebook product: NS5x_NS7xPU v: N/A
    serial: <superuser required> Chassis: No Enclosure type: 10
    serial: <superuser required>
  Mobo: Notebook model: NS5x_NS7xPU serial: <superuser required>
    UEFI: INSYDE v: 1.07.03 date: 03/27/2022
Battery:
  ID-1: BAT0 charge: 73.9 Wh (100.0%) condition: 73.9/73.9 Wh (100.0%)
    volts: 8.7 min: 7.7 model: Notebook BAT type: Li-ion serial: <filter>
    status: full
Memory:
  RAM: total: 31.06 GiB used: 3.04 GiB (9.8%)
  RAM Report: permissions: Unable to run dmidecode. Root privileges
    required.
CPU:
  Info: model: 12th Gen Intel Core i7-1260P bits: 64 type: MST AMCP
    arch: Alder Lake built: 2021 process: Intel 7 (10nm ESF) family: 6
    model-id: 0x9A (154) stepping: 3 microcode: 0x421
  Topology: cpus: 1x cores: 12 mt: 4 tpc: 2 st: 8 threads: 16 smt: enabled
    cache: L1: 1.1 MiB desc: d-8x32 KiB, 4x48 KiB; i-4x32 KiB, 8x64 KiB
    L2: 9 MiB desc: 4x1.2 MiB, 2x2 MiB L3: 18 MiB desc: 1x18 MiB
  Speed (MHz): avg: 537 high: 769 min/max: 400/4700:3400 scaling:
    driver: intel_pstate governor: powersave cores: 1: 769 2: 629 3: 635 4: 534
    5: 467 6: 468 7: 453 8: 644 9: 507 10: 460 11: 562 12: 502 13: 476 14: 510
    15: 491 16: 495 bogomips: 79888
  Flags: 3dnowprefetch abm acpi adx aes aperfmperf apic arat
    arch_capabilities arch_lbr arch_perfmon art avx avx2 avx_vnni bmi1 bmi2
    bts cat_l2 cdp_l2 clflush clflushopt clwb cmov constant_tsc cpuid
    cpuid_fault cx16 cx8 de ds_cpl dtes64 dtherm dts epb ept ept_ad erms est
    f16c flexpriority flush_l1d fma fpu fsgsbase fsrm fxsr gfni ht hwp
    hwp_act_window hwp_epp hwp_notify hwp_pkg_req ibpb ibrs ibrs_enhanced ida
    intel_pt invpcid invpcid_single lahf_lm lm mca mce md_clear mmx monitor
    movbe movdir64b movdiri msr mtrr nonstop_tsc nopl nx ospke pae pat pbe
    pcid pclmulqdq pdcm pdpe1gb pebs pge pku pln pni popcnt pse pse36 pts
    rdpid rdrand rdseed rdt_a rdtscp rep_good sdbg sep serialize sha_ni smap
    smep smx split_lock_detect ss ssbd sse sse2 sse4_1 sse4_2 ssse3 stibp
    syscall tm tm2 tpr_shadow tsc tsc_adjust tsc_deadline_timer tsc_known_freq
    umip vaes vme vmx vnmi vpclmulqdq vpid waitpkg x2apic xgetbv1 xsave xsavec
    xsaveopt xsaves xtopology xtpr
  Vulnerabilities:
  Type: itlb_multihit status: Not affected
  Type: l1tf status: Not affected
  Type: mds status: Not affected
  Type: meltdown status: Not affected
  Type: mmio_stale_data status: Not affected
  Type: retbleed status: Not affected
  Type: spec_store_bypass mitigation: Speculative Store Bypass disabled via
    prctl and seccomp
  Type: spectre_v1 mitigation: usercopy/swapgs barriers and __user pointer
    sanitization
  Type: spectre_v2 status: Vulnerable: eIBRS with unprivileged eBPF
  Type: srbds status: Not affected
  Type: tsx_async_abort status: Not affected
Graphics:
  Device-1: Intel Alder Lake-P Integrated Graphics vendor: CLEVO/KAPOK
    driver: i915 v: kernel arch: Gen-12.2 process: Intel 10nm built: 2021-22+
    ports: active: eDP-1 empty: DP-1, DP-2, DP-3, DP-4, HDMI-A-1
    bus-ID: 00:02.0 chip-ID: 8086:4626 class-ID: 0300
  Device-2: Chicony USB2.0 Camera type: USB driver: uvcvideo bus-ID: 3-7:4
    chip-ID: 04f2:b6f9 class-ID: 0e02 serial: <filter>
  Display: x11 server: X.Org v: 21.1.4 compositor: kwin_x11 driver: X:
    loaded: modesetting alternate: fbdev,vesa gpu: i915 display-ID: :0
    screens: 1
  Screen-1: 0 s-res: 1920x1080 s-dpi: 96 s-size: 508x285mm (20.00x11.22")
    s-diag: 582mm (22.93")
  Monitor-1: eDP-1 model: AU Optronics 0x429d built: 2018 res: 1920x1080
    hz: 60 dpi: 128 gamma: 1.2 size: 382x215mm (15.04x8.46") diag: 438mm (17.3")
    ratio: 16:9 modes: 1920x1080
  OpenGL: renderer: Mesa Intel Graphics (ADL GT2) v: 4.6 Mesa 22.1.6
    direct render: Yes
Audio:
  Device-1: Intel Alder Lake PCH-P High Definition Audio vendor: CLEVO/KAPOK
    driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel alternate: snd_sof_pci_intel_tgl
    bus-ID: 00:1f.3 chip-ID: 8086:51c8 class-ID: 0403
  Sound Server-1: ALSA v: k5.15.60-1-MANJARO running: yes
  Sound Server-2: JACK v: 1.9.21 running: no
  Sound Server-3: PulseAudio v: 16.1 running: yes
  Sound Server-4: PipeWire v: 0.3.56 running: yes
Network:
  Device-1: Intel Wi-Fi 6 AX200 driver: iwlwifi v: kernel pcie: gen: 2
    speed: 5 GT/s lanes: 1 bus-ID: 2b:00.0 chip-ID: 8086:2723 class-ID: 0280
  IF: wlp43s0 state: up mac: <filter>
  IP v4: <filter> type: dynamic noprefixroute scope: global
    broadcast: <filter>
  IP v6: <filter> type: dynamic noprefixroute scope: global
  IP v6: <filter> type: noprefixroute scope: link
  Device-2: Realtek RTL8111/8168/8411 PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet
    vendor: CLEVO/KAPOK driver: r8169 v: kernel pcie: gen: 1 speed: 2.5 GT/s
    lanes: 1 port: 3000 bus-ID: 2d:00.0 chip-ID: 10ec:8168 class-ID: 0200
  IF: enp45s0 state: down mac: <filter>
  WAN IP: <filter>
Bluetooth:
  Device-1: Intel AX200 Bluetooth type: USB driver: btusb v: 0.8
    bus-ID: 3-10:5 chip-ID: 8087:0029 class-ID: e001
  Report: rfkill ID: hci0 rfk-id: 0 state: up address: see --recommends
Logical:
  Message: No logical block device data found.
RAID:
  Message: No RAID data found.
Drives:
  Local Storage: total: 968.33 GiB used: 0 KiB (0.0%)
  SMART Message: Unable to run smartctl. Root privileges required.
  ID-1: /dev/nvme0n1 maj-min: 259:0 vendor: Samsung
    model: MZVL21T0HCLR-00B00 size: 953.87 GiB block-size: physical: 512 B
    logical: 512 B speed: 63.2 Gb/s lanes: 4 type: SSD serial: <filter>
    rev: GXA7601Q temp: 37.9 C scheme: GPT
  ID-2: /dev/sda maj-min: 8:0 type: USB model: USB DISK 2.0 size: 14.46 GiB
    block-size: physical: 512 B logical: 512 B type: N/A serial: <filter>
    rev: PMAP scheme: MBR
  SMART Message: Unknown USB bridge. Flash drive/Unsupported enclosure?
  Message: No optical or floppy data found.
Partition:
  Message: No partition data found.
Swap:
  Alert: No swap data was found.
Unmounted:
  ID-1: /dev/nvme0n1p1 maj-min: 259:1 size: 300 MiB fs: vfat label: NO_LABEL
    uuid: 87AF-20E6
  ID-2: /dev/nvme0n1p2 maj-min: 259:2 size: 87.99 GiB fs: swap label: N/A
    uuid: 5428fe88-7ae0-4d6e-b532-3534ca569289
  ID-3: /dev/nvme0n1p3 maj-min: 259:3 size: 97.66 GiB fs: ext4 label: N/A
    uuid: cf06b40d-92ee-41c9-91b8-89e64f1b0d3d
  ID-4: /dev/nvme0n1p4 maj-min: 259:4 size: 767.93 GiB fs: ext4 label: Home
    uuid: b9bb9af4-0f93-4ea6-99c7-c81e6f3b2ba1
  ID-5: /dev/sda1 maj-min: 8:1 size: 3.32 GiB fs: iso9660
  ID-6: /dev/sda2 maj-min: 8:2 size: 4 MiB fs: vfat label: MISO_EFI
    uuid: C80E-8B3F
USB:
  Hub-1: 1-0:1 info: Hi-speed hub with single TT ports: 1 rev: 2.0
    speed: 480 Mb/s chip-ID: 1d6b:0002 class-ID: 0900
  Hub-2: 2-0:1 info: Super-speed hub ports: 1 rev: 3.1 speed: 20 Gb/s
    chip-ID: 1d6b:0003 class-ID: 0900
  Hub-3: 3-0:1 info: Hi-speed hub with single TT ports: 12 rev: 2.0
    speed: 480 Mb/s chip-ID: 1d6b:0002 class-ID: 0900
  Device-1: 3-1:2 info: Pixart Imaging Optical Mouse type: Mouse
    driver: hid-generic,usbhid interfaces: 1 rev: 1.1 speed: 1.5 Mb/s
    power: 100mA chip-ID: 093a:2510 class-ID: 0301
  Device-2: 3-2:3 info: Kingston USB DISK 2.0 type: Mass Storage
    driver: usb-storage interfaces: 1 rev: 2.0 speed: 480 Mb/s power: 200mA
    chip-ID: 13fe:4300 class-ID: 0806 serial: <filter>
  Device-3: 3-7:4 info: Chicony USB2.0 Camera type: Video driver: uvcvideo
    interfaces: 4 rev: 2.0 speed: 480 Mb/s power: 500mA chip-ID: 04f2:b6f9
    class-ID: 0e02 serial: <filter>
  Device-4: 3-10:5 info: Intel AX200 Bluetooth type: Bluetooth driver: btusb
    interfaces: 2 rev: 2.0 speed: 12 Mb/s power: 100mA chip-ID: 8087:0029
    class-ID: e001
  Hub-4: 4-0:1 info: Super-speed hub ports: 4 rev: 3.1 speed: 10 Gb/s
    chip-ID: 1d6b:0003 class-ID: 0900
Sensors:
  System Temperatures: cpu: 48.0 C mobo: N/A
  Fan Speeds (RPM): N/A
Info:
  Processes: 333 Uptime: 3m wakeups: 242 Init: systemd v: 251
  default: graphical tool: systemctl Compilers: gcc: 12.1.1 clang: 14.0.6
  Packages: pacman: 1209 lib: 318 flatpak: 0 Shell: Zsh v: 5.9 default: Bash
  v: 5.1.16 running-in: konsole inxi: 3.3.20
 ļŒ’ ī‚° ļ€• ~ ī‚° xinput -list                                                                           ī‚² āœ” ī‚² 3s ļ‰’
zsh: correct 'xinput' to '_xinput' [nyae]? n
zsh: command not found: xinput

both of them run x11 and work fine - although I havenā€™t stayed on either long enough to see if the touchpad goes haywire again, the fact that booting into x11 seems to fix it does have implicationsā€¦

Further testing updates:

-switched kernel from 5.18.17-1 to 5.15.60-1 - touchpad worked for about five minutes then started to be erratic

-logged out and logged back in with xorg: touchpad option did not even appear in settings. notably, cursor was being erratic the same way between logging out and logging back in.

-shut down, booted back to 5.18 with xorg after enabling touchpad in wayland: touchpad option still doesnā€™t appear in settings, but touchpad works.

this all seems to reinforce that it is a wayland issue; my main concern is that the touchpad option doesnā€™t appear in settings on xorg, but itā€™s probably just elsewhere? given that the setting still seems to have an effect

I will update at the end of the day (context: 11am now) if it doesnā€™t act up, or sooner if it does

edit: yeah itā€™s acting up again after half an hour. going back to wayland for now so I can at least turn it off

edit again: went back to xorg to fix another issue and do some testing, interesting thing:
the touchpad enabled setting in dconf editor has no effect on it. maybe itā€™s being seen as a mouse somehow? (nor does ā€˜disable while typingā€™, whether set here or in gnome-tweaks)
it does let me two-finger scroll thoughā€¦

been poking at things a little more to see if I can get any more info, hereā€™s what Iā€™ve noticed:

-itā€™s been doing the same thing across all combinations of kernel 5.15/5.18 and wayland/xorg, I donā€™t think itā€™s a purely wayland thing any more;
-on xorg the touchpad is apparently treated as a mouse, while on wayland itā€™s treated as a touchpad, in terms of how it shows up in settings;
-even with the touchpad disabled (via xinput disable on xorg and just turning off touchpad in settings on wayland) its movements come up in libinput debug-events;

-literally while I was typing this, I had just booted back to wayland/5.18 to check if the aforementioned libinput debug-events thing was happening there too, and I got an odd freeze. the mouse wouldnā€™t move so I thought my old mouse was breaking at first, but keyboard commands wouldnā€™t work either, but the music was still playing as normal and notification sounds were appearing, but nothing screen-wise. and the fan was being the loudest Iā€™ve ever heard it, louder than while playing pretty intensive games.

force-turned-off, booted back to xorg. whenever I switch from wayland to xorg (but not vice versa) the touchpad starts working again for a short time, but - it started before I actually switched it, which is also strangeā€¦

edit: and now the movement is Not coming up in libinput debug-events. I do not understand

@Cruithne can you check if this works for you?