Linux 6.12 Drops New Driver That Ended Up Breaking Laptop Touchpad Support For Many Users

If you have been trying out Linux 6.12-rc1 or a recent Linux Git snapshot and discovered your laptop's touchpad is no longer working, you are far from alone. The good news is the issue has been quickly tracked down and has led to a new input driver being reverted.

Back during the Linux 6.12 merge window alongside a whole lot of exciting new kernel features there was a new input driver introduced: the PixArt PS/2 touchpad that's found in some laptops.

But it turns out this driver was overzealous in claiming touchpads even if they were not supported by this driver or even from PixArt... So those trying out the Linux 6.12 early state on laptops could find their laptop touchpad no longer working since it was being erroneously claimed by this PixArt driver.

As a result, as of this afternoon this driver has been reverted in Linux 6.12 Git. Until the proper supported device handling code is implemented for the Linux v6.13 merge window or later, this driver is ejected from the kernel.

Over the past few days there's been various reports of the touchpad support breaking under Linux that's now attributed to that faulty driver incorrectly claiming unrelated touchpads.