Permanently disable touchpad in 14.04?

Question

I want to permanently disable the touchpad, because it is nearly impossible to use the computer with the touchpad active. The Ubuntu settings lets me do this, however every time I reboot the machine or the screen is locked, the touchpad is enabled again and frequently causes horrible accidents (typing passwords in the wrong window etc).

Things I have tried that do not work:

Turning it off in /etc/rc.local (it is turned off, but then something turns it on again)
Turning it off in /etc/pm/sleep.d/ (again, it is turned off, but re-enabled)

I have considered doing some physical damage to the device, but it seems like there should be a software solution.

(I'm aware of suggested dupes, but they do not address the question of how to PERMANENTLY disable the touchpad, there are many ways to do it for a while until the system decides it knows better and re-enables it)

Please [edit] your question and add output of xinput terminal command. — Pilot6, Sep 27 '15 at 13:43

score 2 · Accepted Answer · answered Sep 27 '15 at 13:53

2

To completely remove your touchpad drivers, remove xserver-xorg-input-synaptics via

sudo apt-get remove xserver-xorg-input-synaptics

this command removes also xserver-xorg-input-all, but that's only a meta package.

Description-en: X.Org X server -- input driver metapackage This package depends on the full suite of input drivers for the X.Org X server (Xorg). It does not provide any drivers itself, and may be removed if you wish to only have certain drivers installed.

answered Sep 27 '15 at 13:53

A.B.

90,397

I love it short and precise - so therefore : +1 =) – cl-netbox Sep 27 '15 at 15:28
@cl-netbox Only therefore? That's the perfect answer =) – A.B. Sep 27 '15 at 15:46
Did you know that there sometimes are several ways to reach a goal ? =) – cl-netbox Sep 27 '15 at 15:50
@cl-netbox Sometimes? Always! =) – A.B. Sep 27 '15 at 15:51
You are absolutely right - so thanks for confirming that my answer is AWESOME ! =) – cl-netbox Sep 27 '15 at 15:53
@cl-netbox You're welcome :) – A.B. Sep 27 '15 at 15:55
Than use the gray tick at the left side of my answer and click. Means, the answer is valid. ;) – A.B. Sep 28 '15 at 18:12
Just wanted to test a bit more. The only thing that is not disabled is that it is still possible to press the touchpad for a mouse click. However this is acceptable since it requires some force. – Johan Rönnblom Sep 28 '15 at 18:27
That's not a thing of synaptics :\ Maybe we could disable your "mouse". – A.B. Sep 28 '15 at 18:29
and to fix touchpad always disabled, install all those things :D – truongnm Jun 28 '17 at 01:34

score 2 · Answer 2 · answered Oct 08 '15 at 03:20

2

I added a disable and enable shortcut to my keyboard.

# xinput

Resulted in

In system settings>keyboard>shortcuts I added enable and disable touchpad shortcuts.

The two commands for my computer are:

xinput --enable 'ETPS/2 Elantech Touchpad'

and

xinput --disable 'ETPS/2 Elantech Touchpad'

Yours may have a different device name.

Finally I assigned the two commands to "Menu" and "Shift+Menu" because I never use the menu key normally.

I hope this helps others.

answered Oct 08 '15 at 03:20

Slashthedragon

301

1

Yes, this works, but the problem was to find a way to make it happen automatically. By the time I notice the touchpad is on, something annoying has usually already happened. – Johan Rönnblom Oct 09 '15 at 16:28
@JohanRönnblom you can add the command into your ~/.bashrc file and it will automatically executed when you login next time – Abid Khairy Mar 16 '22 at 03:07

cl-netbox · Answer 3 · 2015-11-17T09:10:08.217

1

To disable the touchpad permanently install dconf-editor by opening a terminal and executing :

sudo apt-get update  
sudo apt-get install dconf-editor

Open dconf-editor and go to -> org -> gnome-> settings-daemon -> peripherals -> touchpad.

Uncheck touchpad-enabled.

If the touchpad nevertheless will be re-enabled after reboot - open a terminal and execute :

xinput list

Search for the touchpad device ID and execute :

xinput set-prop * "Device Enabled" 0

Note : * = touchpad device ID

Reference

Alternative (a helpful contribution from Jacob Vlijm - see his comment below) :

Open a terminal and execute :

gsettings set org.gnome.settings-daemon.peripherals.touchpad touchpad-enabled false

Adding

/bin/bash -c "sleep 15 && gsettings set org.gnome.settings-daemon.peripherals.touchpad touchpad-enabled false"

to Startup Applications will also permanently disable the touchpad.

edited Nov 17 '15 at 09:10

answered Sep 27 '15 at 13:46

cl-netbox

31,163
7
94
131

My answer is a lot easier than yours :P =) – A.B. Sep 27 '15 at 14:15
(removed comment, this may work permanently if done exactly as outlined, but the other solution is simpler and cleaner imo) – Johan Rönnblom Sep 28 '15 at 18:11
@JohanRönnblom : If using the other solution you will have to reinstall touchpad drivers in case you need them again. – cl-netbox Sep 28 '15 at 18:15
I have tried this solution too now and it does not work permanently. Whenever the machine is rebooted or the screen is locked, the touchpad gets reenabled again. The other solution does almost exactly what I want. – Johan Rönnblom Sep 28 '15 at 18:26
1

@JohanRönnblom : most important is that you are satisfied and we could help you, so it is absolutely okay to go with the other one - enjoy ubuntu experience ! – cl-netbox Sep 28 '15 at 18:34

Permanently disable touchpad in 14.04?

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