[TriLUG] Synaptics Touchpad and 2.6.x Kernel

[David A. Cafaro]

Ok, I'm just about at my wits end here with the new 2.6 kernels. 
They've done something going from 2.4.x to 2.6.x that seems to have
broken synaptics touch-pads.  

I've googled my brains out, searched through bug-track on kernel.org and
fedora.redhat.com, and still nothing works.

I've got a brand new beautiful Sharp MM20 laptop which is incredibly
cool.  Just about everything works under the 2.4.22 kernel that comes
with Fedora Core 1.  The only failures are the internal Prism54 wireless
card (the driver exists but needs a 2.4.23> kernel) and that there's no
AGPGART support for the Efficeon processor frontside bus (So no DRI or
3D Hardware Rendering).

The 2.6.x fixes those issues, but absolutely kills the touch-pad.  No
response, nothing.  Searching around it seems that many laptops have
lost their use of Touch-pads once a 2.6.x kernel is installed.  Some
have managed to get their's back, some haven't.  I've tried Fedora Core
2 Test 3 and no luck with the touch-pad.  I also rolled my own 2.6.6
kernel and no luck there either.  I've tried using the basic PS/2
driver, the IMPS/2 driver, and even installed the Synaptics driver (and
all the special XConfig that goes with it).  Using the PS/2 driver, X
starts, but the mouse doesn't respond.  Using the Synaptics driver X
won't start, it complains about there not being an Synaptics touch-pad. 
I have test the synaptics touch-pad driver under the 2.4.22 kernel and
it works fine under there.

So final question is has anyone with a fairly new Laptop with a
Synaptics Touch-pad installed a 2.6.2> kernel and gotten it to work? 
Thanks for any clues.

-- 
David A. Cafaro <dac(at)cafaro.net>
Sys Admin to User: "You did what?!?"