cannot install MX Linux on Windows 11 laptop [Solved]

[user101]

@user101

Please mark this thread as solved by clicking the check mark in the post that contained the solution. Then you can start a new thread for your problem touch pad.

I guess I can mark my own post as the solution (even though Windows was sacrificed), but it's not fair on all the good responses I got here. Thank you everyone for your friendly responses.

PS. I tested the touchpad last night. It's definitely dead. I am not sure how this happened. If I'm feeling adventurous I might open the laptop up to see if something got disconnected, but I have a tendency to break things more than I fix them, so I am leaving things alone for now. I have a working computer so that's good for me. Thanks again everyone.

[Stevo]

Is there a hotkey on the laptop to turn the pad on or off? Most of them have it, but it doesn't work in Linux for some.

[user101]

Is there a hotkey on the laptop to turn the pad on or off? Most of them have it, but it doesn't work in Linux for some.

Hi Stevo. Yes there is.
Now this is weird.
The F7 key doubles as the touchpad button on this Acer. I was trying it yesterday after searching for solutions to the touchpad problem on YouTube: it wouldn't work. Now I try it and it works?!

What is extra weird is that I was testing the laptop with a Windows USB stick last night. A cursor would not show up during the initial setup until I plugged a USB mouse in. So I thought it was dead for sure. Now I'm wondering whether Windows needed the button pressed too. I will test again tonight.

I cannot believe it. Everything is working now. Hah!

[Charlie Brown]

... extra weird is that I was testing the laptop with a Windows USB stick last night...I cannot believe it. Everything is working now. Hah!

That may be normal, cause I came across such a thing once (I had bookmarked that but can't find now):

One of the man had an old Toshiba Satellite and wifi was not working no matter what he tried on Linux. Then he installed Windows just to see, booted, and noticed that it was off there, turned it on: everything was fine, then he booted Linux: Voila!

... Then to make it sure, he turned it off again when on Windows, then on Linux it stopped working again.

Consequently, he said: "If someone reads this: The last time you boot Windows, don't leave this device off". :)

[user101]

Charlie Brown, yes there is quite a bit of weirdness out there.

A small update on the touchpad.
It is unreliable. It doesn't take long for it to freeze the system completely (cursor stops moving, or lags badly and 'button' presses do not work), 4-second POWER button press is required to shut down the system. I have tried switching the driver in Mx Tweak too (use libinput driver for touchpad instead of synaptics touchpad driver) but that doesn't seem to help. Either way, it typically only lasts a short time before something happens that stops me in my tracks.

So at least I can sort of explain why it wasn't working the other day. With the mouse, everything is as expected.