9

I want the touchpad to get disabled while typing.

Opening the system configuration and selecting "Pointing Devices" I can change only very basic settings, namely the primary and secondary button assignment, double click speed and cursor movement speed.

So, let's google...

I have found this. Further details about reasons or possible fixes are missing.

Some work-arounnds that I have found doesn't work for me. My system doesn't seem to load synaptics driver:

If type synclient I get Couldn't find synaptics properties. No synaptics driver loaded?.

I have also installed synaptiks, but at run it says that it can't find any touchpad.

Nevertheless, the basic functions of the touchpad work.

I don't know if this is relevant: my notebook is an Acer Aspire E 15 ES1-511-C18C and the Ubuntu version is, as I have said in the title, 14.04. If I run the app "Mouse and Touchpad", I can see that the device detected is "PS/2 Elantech Touchpad".

ajh@ANTONIO-ACER:~$ syndaemon 
ajh@ANTONIO-ACER:~$ killall syndaemon
syndaemon: proceso no encontrado
ajh@ANTONIO-ACER:~$ syndaemon -i 1 -K d
ajh@ANTONIO-ACER:~$ killall syndaemon
syndaemon: proceso no encontrado
ajh@ANTONIO-ACER:~$ syndaemon -i 1 -K -d
ajh@ANTONIO-ACER:~$ killall syndaemon
syndaemon: proceso no encontrado

(Note: "Proceso no encontrado" is "process not found" in Spanish).

Sachin Gevariya
  • 103
user2425
  • 223
  • 1
  • 2
  • 7
  • possible duplicate of http://askubuntu.com/questions/299868/disable-touchpad-while-typing-does-not-work – αғsнιη Oct 01 '14 at 12:56
  • read more http://www.webupd8.org/2009/11/ubuntu-automatically-disable-touchpad.html – αғsнιη Oct 01 '14 at 12:59
  • That doesn't work for me, the touchpad is not disabled while typing. $killall syndaemon gives process not found. I think that the problem is that ubuntu recognizes the touchpad as a ps2 mouse. – user2425 Oct 02 '14 at 10:09
  • Because you didn't start it to disable your touchpad. first start it then if you want to stop capturing by syndaemon while typing, use killall syndaemon to stop it. – αғsнιη Oct 02 '14 at 10:21
  • As I have said, killall syndaemon gives syndaemon: process not found. There's no syndaemons to kill... – user2425 Oct 02 '14 at 10:58
  • I also said and still say run once syndaemon then try to kill it. you want to kill a process while it's not already open. right? – αғsнιη Oct 02 '14 at 11:00
  • I have edited the question to add some terminal I/O – user2425 Oct 02 '14 at 12:39

2 Answers2

8

First entirely undo the current setting: Remove the tick for Disable touchpad while typing in Mouse & Touchpad settings.

Now search for and open Startup Applications from the Dash. Click Add.

Name: Syndaemon

Command: syndaemon -i 1.0 -K -R -t

Comment: Disable touchpad while typing, with a reasonable delay and only for tapping and scrolling

The -i 1.0 parameter sets the idle time of the keyboard to 1s. -K option ignores the Modifier keys. -R option uses the XRecord extension for detecting keyboard activity instead of polling the keyboard state. -t option disables tapping and scrolling but not mouse movements.

Click Add and then Close.

Reboot your computer.

Note: this is a user preference, so repeat this in every user account.

Babbzzz
  • 346
  • 2
  • 12
  • Good solution, but works better for me without the -R option. – lreeder Jul 12 '15 at 18:09
  • The -t seems to permanently disable tap to click and two finger scrolling permanently. – zorkerz Feb 08 '16 at 14:15
  • 2
    This has not worked for me. After a few minutes my touchpad stops responding entirely. Notably I don't have the option to Disable touchpad while typing on ubuntu 15.10 – zorkerz Feb 08 '16 at 15:09
  • @zorkerz I'm still having the same problem under Ubuntu 16.04 any luck? – Spoody Dec 15 '17 at 19:15
3

Open a terminal window and run:

gsettings get org.gnome.settings-daemon.peripherals.touchpad disable-while-typing

It should output:

true

If it doesn't, run:

gsettings set org.gnome.settings-daemon.peripherals.touchpad disable-while-typing true

Alternatively, you can install dconf editor:

sudo apt-get install dconf-editor

Open dconf-editor and browse to "org" > "gnome" > "settings-deamon" > "peripherals" > "touchpad", and tick "disable-while-typing":

enter image description here

g_p
  • 18,504
Jacob Vlijm
  • 83,767