I experienced the problem after I finally did a major update. Maybe it is a udev vs evdev thing.
I do not have this probem on MX (you know, the old Mepis / Antix related distro).
Funny thing is I cannot find xsettings or something there. If only I would know where to look I could compare :)
There is a EXEGNU LiveCD with Trinity, if I recall correctly it is working well there.
Warm regards,
Eric-Jan