I just installed Ubuntu on an old Dell laptop where Windows 10 was out of service life. This computer is a touch screen. The screen has been cracked for years. Whenever I did a major window upgrade I had to go into device drivers and disable the touch screen and all was fine. How can I do this with Ubuntu? I'm having the old screen issues with Ubuntu. I'm a newbie. Thanks, Dave
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https://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/587364/disable-touchscreen-in-wayland-by-parsing-proc-bus-input-devices-via-awk – mashuptwice Feb 13 '22 at 15:47
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What version of Ubuntu? – David Feb 13 '22 at 16:42
5 Answers
As this article states, there is a kernel Module called "hid_multitouch" which handles Touchscreen stuff. Try opening a Terminal, and typing sudo modprobe -r hid_multitouch
, then hit Enter, and type your Password. Now see if your Touchscreen still works.
Yes, it does still work: sorry, in this case I can't help you any further.
No, it doesn't work anymore: Great! but there's still a small problem: you would have to do this every time when the system boots up. To make this permanent, go into a Terminal, and do sudo -i
, and enter your password to become Administrator, then do echo "blacklist hid_multitouch" >> /etc/modprobe.d/hid_multitouch
and finally reboot
to restart. After rebooting your System and see if Touchscreen stays disabled.
Greetings Eric

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Eric, Thanks. The command to disable the touchscreen seemed to work. Making it permanent and my being a newbie, not sure specifically how to enter this command to make it permanent. Also, once I get that done on what type of new installation will I need to redo this process? echo "blacklist hid_multitouch" >> /etc/modprobe.d/hid_multitouch – DaveB Feb 19 '22 at 23:19
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1Open a Terminal, than type
sudo -i
and hit enter. Confirm your Password. Then, paste theecho "blacklist hid_multitouch" >> /etc/modprobe.d/hid_multitouc
and hit enter. You shouldn't get anything back. Next, reboot your system. The Touchscreen should be disabled permanently now. – Letsric Feb 20 '22 at 09:04 -
Eric, Thanks, that did it. Appreciate your help. Touchscreen is disabled. – DaveB Feb 20 '22 at 15:59
Disabling touch screen on Linux
I have a dell inspiron 5557 laptop with broken touchscreen. The cursor jumps and clicks randomically each few seconds making the BIOS utility and graphic interfaces unusable and here is how I disabled it:
Solution:
- Press Alt+F3 to open a console;
- Edit /etc/rc.local to disable the touchscreen device;
- Make /etc/rc.local executable and reboot.
$ sudo nano /etc/rc.local
#!/bin/sh
ls -1 /sys/bus/hid/drivers/hid-multitouch | grep 2A94:5241 > /sys/bus/hid/drivers/hid-multitouch/unbind
$ sudo chmod +x /etc.rc.local
$ reboot
How to find the correct device:
If your laptop is not exactly the same as mine, you may need to find the correct usb device to disable it:
$ lsusb | grep -i touch
Bus 001 Device 006: ID 2a94:5241 G2Touch Multi-Touch(...)
$ cd /sys/bus/hid/drivers/hid-multitouch
$ ls -1
0003:2A94:5241.0006
0018:06CB:7621.0001
bind
(...)
then, test it:
$ sudo bash
$ cd /sys/bus/hid/drivers/hid-multitouch
$ echo "0003:2A94:5241.0006" > unbind
$ killall -9 Xorg
In my case, the gnome become unresponsive when I disabled the device. That is why I include a killall -9 Xorg
in the above example.
If your device is AAAA:BBBB:CCCC:DDDD, use the AAAA:BBBB:CCCC or BBBB:CCCC as deviceid on the /etc/rc.local script. The last 4 digits changed often to me.

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The solution from @Lucas worked for me.
Just to add, when I initially chose a device to unbind, my mouse became unresponsive so I had to use the touchscreen to get back to my shell. I was able to rebind to make it work again.
From his example of devices, it was equivalent to:
echo "0003:2A94:5241.0006" > bind
I then tried the next one and it was the correct one to unbind. Created rc.local, rebooted and it worked!
I have a Dell XPS 15 9520 running Ubuntu 22.04.2

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Disabling the module did not do it for me. Instead this worked https://www.blackmoreops.com/2021/09/24/how-to-disable-touchscreen-on-ubuntu/
sudo nano /usr/share/X11/xorg.conf.d/99-disabletouch.conf
Section "InputClass"
Identifier "Touchscreen catchall"
MatchIsTouchscreen "off"
EndSection

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Just try this method:
- Go to your system BIOS menu( Power off laptop and restart, press F1 continously till open BIOS menu)
- Search Touchscreen option and disable it. (It is in system related options)
- Apply or save changes and Exit from BIOS. It is surely starting and now your touch screen is disable.
Happy Coding.