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Dell Latitude E5520.

Fn+F5 always shows a "disabled touchpad" symbol, but it remains active.

Zanna
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user105939
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  • have you tried installing "Gnome Tweaks" and the options with in it? – PRATAP Jun 19 '18 at 16:09
  • yes I have it, there is option to disable touchpad while typing (which does not work) - can't see any way that this app helps. – user105939 Jun 19 '18 at 19:18
  • I have recently installed Ubuntu 18.04 on my friends Dell laptop.. While doing something in tweaks.. I remember once I switch on.. I could not use touchpad at all. I connected external mouse and then turned off the same button then it worked. Rite now I am at office not with Ubuntu to check it. Thought it might help you. – PRATAP Jun 19 '18 at 19:49

2 Answers2

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As a work-around you can use a gnome-shell extension:

  1. Toggle Touchpad
  2. Touchpad Indicator - that's the one I prefer
abu_bua
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  • as a workaround, I assigned ctrl F5 and alt-F5 to xinput set-prop "AlpsPS/2 ALPS GlidePoint" "Device Enabled" 1 and xinput set-prop "AlpsPS/2 ALPS GlidePoint" "Device Enabled" 0 - So workaround exists, but if I got the real thing to work, then it would also auto-disable while typing. – user105939 Jun 19 '18 at 19:20
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Use user Almas Dusal's bash script for toggling the touchpad device.

I had this problem with my Dell Inspiron. Fn+F3 used to work fine in 16.04 Xenial Xerus, but after dist-upgrading to 18.04, all I got was the popping "disabled touch-pad symbol" followed by no noticeable change in system behavior.

Above script worked like a charm.

bruno
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