disable trackpad while typing doesn't work in Ubuntu 14.04

Question

I have a new Dell XPS 13 (2015) with Ubuntu 14.04. I had problems with the trackpad freezing, but those were resolved when I installed this fix.

If I open the trackpad settings, the "Disable while typing" box is checked, but it doesn't work (I tested this by simultaneously holding down a key while moving a finger around the trackpad). I'm not sure how relevant this is, but I've included the output of xinput below

⎡ Virtual core pointer                      id=2    [master pointer  (3)]
⎜   ↳ Virtual core XTEST pointer                id=4    [slave  pointer  (2)]
⎜   ↳ DLL0665:01 06CB:76AD                      id=11   [slave  pointer  (2)]
⎜   ↳ SynPS/2 Synaptics TouchPad                id=13   [slave  pointer  (2)]
⎣ Virtual core keyboard                     id=3    [master keyboard (2)]
    ↳ Virtual core XTEST keyboard               id=5    [slave  keyboard (3)]
    ↳ Power Button                              id=6    [slave  keyboard (3)]
    ↳ Video Bus                                 id=7    [slave  keyboard (3)]
    ↳ Power Button                              id=8    [slave  keyboard (3)]
    ↳ Sleep Button                              id=9    [slave  keyboard (3)]
    ↳ Integrated_Webcam_HD                      id=10   [slave  keyboard (3)]
    ↳ AT Translated Set 2 keyboard              id=12   [slave  keyboard (3)]
    ↳ Dell WMI hotkeys                          id=14   [slave  keyboard (3)]

Did you ever solve this? The trackpad is definitely not being disabled while typing and it is very frustrating. — kobejohn, Apr 02 '17 at 04:44
@kobejohn no, I sent it back, got a replacement which had the exact same problem, so I sent that back too and got a Macbook instead — Dónal, Apr 05 '17 at 17:35
Thanks for the update. This is unfortunately my thought process at the moment also. — kobejohn, Apr 06 '17 at 02:02

score 0 · Answer 1 · edited Apr 13 '17 at 12:23

0

Your touchpad is not correctly detected.

Try THIS SOLUTION first. Then if it does not help, we will look deeper.

You can undo it by removing i8042.nopnp and running

sudo rm /etc/modprobe.d/i2c-hid.conf
sudo depmod -a
sudo update-initramfs -a
sudo sed -i '/synaptics_i2c/d' /etc/modules
sudo update-grub

edited Apr 13 '17 at 12:23

Community

1

answered May 31 '15 at 21:11

Pilot6

90,100
91
213
324

I tried this solution, but it didn't fix the problem, and now it seems it seems that the problem with the touchpad freezing is back. Do you know how I can revert these changes? – Dónal May 31 '15 at 21:31
Added undo commands. – Pilot6 May 31 '15 at 21:36
thanks, I've undone those changes, any further suggestions? – Dónal May 31 '15 at 22:48
Untick "Disable while typing checkbox" and run syndaemon -i 2 -Rkd. Does this help? – Pilot6 Jun 01 '15 at 06:40
no, this didn't seem to make any difference – Dónal Jun 01 '15 at 14:47
Try this killall synadaemon && syndaemon -i 2 -d – Pilot6 Jun 01 '15 at 14:50
no, same result – Dónal Jun 01 '15 at 16:53

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Jul 03 '15 at 16:36

I encountered this issue with the same laptop - XPS 13 9343 (2015). As a side note I have not encountered the issue of the touchpad freezing.

I noticed that there are two touchpads listed by xinput as you have shown.

Checking dmesg and the log /var/log/Xorg.0.log I found errors related to the loading of the DLL0665 touchpad device (using i2c_hid driver) but no errors related to the SynPS/2 touchpad.

To disable loading of the i2c_hid module, I added this line to /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist.conf:

blacklist i2c_hid

Upon reboot the DLL0665 touchpad was no longer present in the xinput listing and syndaemon worked as expected. This is similar to the solution suggested by Pilot6, so I am unsure if it will help but it did work for me on the same hardware.

disable trackpad while typing doesn't work in Ubuntu 14.04

2 Answers2