A new Ubuntu user here. I just installed Ubuntu 14.04 on my gigabyte U24F laptop. At first the touch-pad (I believe it's elantech) was working fine but one day I turned it off using fn+f10 key from the keyboard. The next day I could no longer turn it back on and it has since been undetected by the system.

xinput returns

Virtual core pointer                        id=2    [master pointer  (3)]
?   ? Virtual core XTEST pointer                id=4    [slave  pointer  (2)]
?   ? Logitech USB Optical Mouse                id=11   [slave  pointer  (2)]
? Virtual core keyboard                     id=3    [master keyboard (2)]
    ? Virtual core XTEST keyboard               id=5    [slave  keyboard (3)]
    ? Power Button                              id=6    [slave  keyboard (3)]
    ? Video Bus                                 id=7    [slave  keyboard (3)]
    ? Sleep Button                              id=8    [slave  keyboard (3)]
    ? Video Bus                                 id=9    [slave  keyboard (3)]
    ? Power Button                              id=10   [slave  keyboard (3)]
    ? AT Translated Set 2 keyboard              id=12   [slave  keyboard (3)]

so there's no touch-pad detected. I'm using a USB mouse at the moment.

Attempting to run synclient gives

"Couldn't find synaptics properties. No synaptics driver loaded?"

Things I've tried so far to no avail

• Reinstalling xserver-xorg-input-synaptics.
• Checking dconf.editor settings, touchpad is enabled.
• Booting into a live usb session, touchpad no longer even works in this case. (Does this mean a fresh install wouldn't even solve the problem?)

Any help is greatly appreciated!