Recently i upgraded my kernel of Ubuntu 12.04 LTS from 3.2.xxx to 3.4 for some software installation , however found my Vostro Dell touchpad disabled and mouse non functional
Here are the commands which help me in getting back the control of touchpad
This command will reload the mouse driver
sudo modprobe -r psmouse
sudo modprobe psmouse proto=imps
Also this helps only to make it working in current session , to be able to have it working on every boot time as you would have already figured out , we need to add it to /etc/modprobe.d
Create a file like sudo vi mouse.conf
Add this as a content of file
options psmouse proto=imps
save it , hopefully you wont see the problem again , its like adding a service at stratup as per windows definition.
Manish