Re-enabling Touchpad tap after upgrading to Ubuntu 9.10 Karmic Koala

Currently the most recent version of Ubuntu Notebook Remix (Karmic Koala 9.10) available is the Alpha 5 release.  It is a bit buggy but still worth the upgrade from Jaunty.  One particular pain is that your touchpad won't be recognized properly and you won't be able to 'touch' to click.  You'd be surprised at how often you use the feature when suddenly it's not there anymore.  However the fix is pretty easy.  All it takes is to install one piece of software from the Synaptic Package Manager.

Fire up Systems > Administration > Synaptic Package Manager

Search for 'touchpad'

Right click on gsynaptics and 'Mark For Installation'

Hit 'Apply' and then type in your password to authorize

The TouchPad icon will now show up under System.

Fire it up and move to the second tab 'Tapping' and check to select.

Rest easy in the fact that you'll never have to click the physical buttons again.  Take that autodetect failure.