Hi there, let's break down your problem and walk through practical solutions, plus address your kernel upgrade question clearly:

1. Problem Recap #

First, let's make sure we're aligned on your situation:

• You're running Ubuntu 20.04 on a 2023 HP OMEN 16 4080, and the touchpad isn't detected (your xinput output confirms no touchpad entry)
• You've verified that Ubuntu 22.04 with kernel 6.2.0-26 works perfectly for the touchpad
• Upgrading Ubuntu 20.04's kernel to 6.2 fixes the touchpad, but breaks NVIDIA driver installation
• You can't switch to 22.04 right now because your project relies on ROS1, which has mature, stable support on 20.04

2. Fixing NVIDIA Driver Issues with Kernel 6.2 on Ubuntu 20.04 #

The root of the driver problem is using an NVIDIA driver version that doesn't support kernel 6.2. Here's a step-by-step fix:

• Clean up old driver remnants first:

  sudo apt purge nvidia* libnvidia-*
  sudo apt autoremove && sudo apt autoclean
  sudo reboot
  

• Install dependencies required for driver compilation:

  sudo apt install linux-headers-$(uname -r) build-essential dkms
  

• Use the official graphics PPA to get compatible drivers:

  sudo add-apt-repository ppa:graphics-drivers/ppa
  sudo apt update
  

  Install a driver version that explicitly supports kernel 6.2 (535 or newer is safe):

  sudo apt install nvidia-driver-535
  sudo reboot
  

• Alternative: Manual driver installation (if PPA fails):
  Download the matching .run file from NVIDIA's official site, then run it with the kernel source path specified to ensure proper compilation:

  chmod +x NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-535.104.05.run
  sudo ./NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-535.104.05.run --kernel-source-path=/usr/src/linux-headers-$(uname -r)
  

3. Alternative: Touchpad Support Without Full Kernel Upgrade (Low Success Chance) #

If you're wary of mainline kernels, you could try updating input drivers—though this is unlikely to work since the core issue is kernel-level hardware compatibility:

• Update the modern input stack libinput:

  sudo apt install --upgrade xserver-xorg-input-libinput
  

• Your lsusb shows the touchpad as 8087:0033 (Intel Corp. device). You could search for specific tweaks for this hardware ID, but based on your kernel 6.2 test results, kernel-level support is the only reliable fix here.

4. Ubuntu 20.04 Kernel 6.x Upgrade Plan from Canonical #

Ubuntu 20.04 LTS uses Hardware Enablement (HWE) stacks to deliver newer kernels to older releases. As of now, the latest HWE kernel for 20.04 is 5.19.

Canonical typically aligns HWE kernels with those from subsequent LTS releases. Since Ubuntu 22.04 has moved to kernel 6.2 as its HWE option, there's a possibility that 20.04 will get a 6.x HWE kernel in future point releases (like 20.04.8), but there's no official announcement yet.

If you don't want to wait, you can use trusted third-party PPAs (like ppa:tuxinvader/lts-mainline) to get stable 6.x kernels for 20.04—just make sure to test thoroughly with your ROS1 workflow to avoid unexpected breaks.

备注：内容来源于stack exchange，提问作者pei