Comments on: Disabling the Laptop TouchPad in Ubuntu Linux

By: Jason

Jason — Thu, 22 Apr 2010 14:43:55 +0000

Fantastic tip thanks so much this was driving me crazy!

Jason

By: anon

anon — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 23:18:01 +0000

apt-get install gsynaptics

By: PO

PO — Thu, 02 Apr 2009 12:53:01 +0000

Hi there,

To provide information for other users, I should say;
I am using Ubuntu 8.10 on an old Asus Laptop W1N.
Last method that you have supplied works flawlessly and without any problem.

Thanks a lot,

By: rvdavid

rvdavid — Sun, 21 Sep 2008 21:48:41 +0000

Thank you for providing additional resources for Kubuntu users Walter. Glad you managed to get it all going!

By: Walter

Walter — Sat, 20 Sep 2008 21:00:29 +0000

Another Approach using a single shortcut key to turn TouchPad Off/ON in Kubuntu.
See last post in following link:
http://forums.techguy.org/unix-linux/746623-solved-deactivating-touchpad-kibuntu.html
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walt
St. Thomas, Ontario = 42.77?N, 81.11?W =
RASC: Royal Astronomical Society of Canada

By: Walter

Walter — Tue, 16 Sep 2008 01:48:30 +0000

*** SOLUTION FOUND ***
A very simple solution has been found: sudo rmmod psmouse (to disable touchpad) and sudo modprobe psmouse (to enable mouse again).
SEE this link for the very simple solution:
http://ubuntuforums.org/showpost.php…9&postcount=13
walt

By: Walter

Walter — Mon, 15 Sep 2008 00:48:03 +0000

Thank you for your suggestions rvdavid. I have actually tried everything you and many more things in the past month. Nothing seems to work. I have also been on many forum sites and found out that even the “gurus” have no real idea of what is going on. Some of them have admitted to the very same problem. In one place I picked up a subtle hint from a developer that this is not a priority item and there is some sort of security issue involved in memory access concerning synclient etc… I just downloaded a recent version of Kubuntu 8.04 LTS (Hardy Heron) and perhaps this version has all access to these memory areas block because when I enter the code synclient TouchPadOff=1 I receive an error message saying “Can’t access shared memory area. SHMConfig disabled?” – and I do have the code “SHMConfig” “on” in the xorg.conf file, so the error message does not match the facts!!!!
This touchpad has been causing all sorts of confusion during typing this message @#E$*&^%!!!
Thank you again for the offered help,
walt

By: rvdavid

rvdavid — Sun, 14 Sep 2008 22:47:32 +0000

Hi Walter,

qsynaptics is basically telling you that it can’t change your settings until you have set SHMConfig to “on” in your xorg.conf file.

in your /etc/X11/xorg.conf file, do you have anything that resembles the following?

Section “InputDevice”
Identifier “Synaptics Touchpad”
Driver “synaptics”
Option “SendCoreEvents” “true”
Option “Device” “/dev/psaux”
Option “Protocol” “auto-dev”
Option “HorizEdgeScroll” “0″
Option “SHMConfig” “on”
EndSection

If not, then try doing a backup of your xorg.conf file by doing the following:
$sudo cp /etc/X11/xorg.conf /etc/X11/xorg.conf.backup

Then try appending the parameters above to your xorg.conf file. Save the file and restart X

If adding the parameters, causes you problems or locks your X session, you can restore the revert the xorg.conf file to it’s previous state by doing the following:
$sudo mv /etc/X11/xorg.conf.backup /etc/X11/xorg.conf

Good luck with it, let us know how you go!

regards,

rvdavid

By: Walter

Walter — Sat, 13 Sep 2008 18:15:18 +0000

Hi,
I was hoping to find the solution I needed here. I tried everything you specified and more in the past month.
Nothing seems to work in Kubuntu. Do you have something for Kubuntu? The qsynaptics screen that appears has no active buttons to click except for the ‘Cancel’ button and a message saying that the ‘synaptics driver driver must be loaded and to set SHMConfig to “on” in Xfree86Config. Kubuntu does not have Xfree86Config. Instead the “SHMConfig” “on” code goes into xorg.conf and I have had it there for a month now. My laptop touchpad is a Logitech NOT a Synaptics but the xorg.conf file does not even mention it.
Also there is no System >> Preferences >> Sessions selection in Kubuntu. Do you have help for Kubuntu?
Thank you for your time,
walt

By: DK

DK — Mon, 30 Jun 2008 19:41:35 +0000

#!/bin/bash
#
# create a desktop launcher to run this (better still, a toolbar icon so that single click does it)…
#
/usr/bin/synclient TouchpadOff=$(if [[ $(expr `synclient -l | grep TouchpadOff | cut -f2 -d =`) == 0 ]]; then echo 1; else echo 0; fi)