touchpad no longer working on 9.04, ok on <=8.10, Neo M54N laptop

Similar to report by https://answers.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+question/69322,
but that report wasn't followed up by the user.
I've tried to attach various log files but lynx is failing, badly :(
Anyway here's a very short section of Xorg.0.log:
(WW) ETPS/2 Elantech Touchpad can't grab event device, errno=16
(--) ETPS/2 Elantech Touchpad touchpad found
Here's a very short section of dmesg output:
[ 17.243642] elantech.c: assuming hardware version 1, firmware version 2.0
[ 17.275485] elantech.c: Synaptics capabilities query result 0x00, 0x02, 0x64.
[ 17.436203] input: ETPS/2 Elantech Touchpad as /devices/platform/i8042/serio4/input/input8
Here's the laptop information, as best as I can determine:
bios-version:11/17/06
system-manufacturer:CLEVO Co.
system-product-name:M5x0N
system-version:Not Applicable

Some more bits (screen is nice but pasting >100 lines into
lynx really really sucks) from lshal output:
udi = '/org/freedesktop/Hal/devices/platform_i8042_i8042_AUX3_port_logicaldev_input'
  access_control.file = '/dev/input/event8' (string)
  access_control.type = 'mouse' (string)
  info.callouts.add = {'hal-acl-tool --add-device'} (string list)
  info.callouts.remove = {'hal-acl-tool --remove-device'} (string list)
  info.capabilities = {'input', 'input.mouse', 'input.touchpad', 'access_control'} (string list)
  info.category = 'input' (string)
  info.parent = '/org/freedesktop/Hal/devices/platform_i8042_i8042_AUX3_port' (string)
  info.product = 'ETPS/2 Elantech Touchpad' (string)
  info.subsystem = 'input' (string)
  info.udi = '/org/freedesktop/Hal/devices/platform_i8042_i8042_AUX3_port_logicaldev_input' (string)
  input.device = '/dev/input/event8' (string)
  input.originating_device = '/org/freedesktop/Hal/devices/platform_i8042_i8042_AUX3_port' (string)
  input.product = 'ETPS/2 Elantech Touchpad' (string)
  input.x11_driver = 'synaptics' (string)
  input.x11_options.SHMConfig = 'True' (string)
  linux.device_file = '/dev/input/event8' (string)
  linux.hotplug_type = 2 (0x2) (int)
  linux.subsystem = 'input' (string)
  linux.sysfs_path = '/sys/devices/platform/i8042/serio4/input/input8/event8' (string)

Here's the uname output:

Linux almkglor-laptop 2.6.28-13-generic #45-Ubuntu SMP Tue Jun 30 22:12:12 UTC 2009 x86_64 GNU/Linux

Anyway one thing I've seen in passing is that maybe, if you
boot an older kernel from grub, it'll work again : (

I'll be trying that for now, but I don't expect to keep
forcing the boot to an older kernel each time I start up

Just to confirm, but yes booting a 2.6.27 kernel allows the touchpad to work again.

What, no comments about this? WTF?

Thank you for taking the time to report this bug and helping to make Ubuntu better. We are sorry that we do not always have the capacity to look at all reported bugs in a timely manner.
There have been many changes in Ubuntu since that time you reported the bug and your problem may have been fixed with some of the updates. It would help us a lot if you could test the current Ubuntu development version (10.04). If you can test it, and it is still an issue, we would appreciate if you could upload updated logs by running "apport-collect 406291", and any other logs that are relevant for this particular issue.

We're closing this bug since it is has been some time with no response from the original reporter. However, if the issue still exists please feel free to reopen with the requested information. Also, if you could, please test against the latest development version of Ubuntu, since this confirms the bug is one we may be able to pass upstream for help.