5

I want to disable the touchpad while I type on my Aspire one netbook. If I issue the command syndaemon the synaptics driver is not detected:

Unable to find a synaptics device

So, I added the following to my xorg.conf file:

Section "InputDevice"
Identifier "Mouse0"
Driver "synaptics"
Option "Protocol" "auto"
Option "Device" "/dev/input/mouse0"
Option "ZAxisMapping" "4 5 6 7"
Option "CorePointer"
Option "HorizEdgeScroll" "1"
EndSection

It is still unable to find a synaptics device, however my touchpad works fine.

Mirzhan Irkegulov
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Glen
  • 111
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    Please use the synaptics tag instead of synaptic to put your question in the list of Synaptics (touchpad) questions, rather than with the Synaptic Package Manager questions. (Oh how I long to have 200 rep so I can just do this housekeeping myself.) – dgw Dec 16 '10 at 02:07
  • Is there a way to force ubuntu to recognize my touchpad, so that I can deactivate it as reccomended. I guess the touch pad is currently emulating a mouse and so is not shutting off while typing – Glen Oct 15 '10 at 16:36
  • I had the exact problem with Asus K53S laptop and xserver-xorg-input-synaptics 1.4.1-1, touchpad isn't recognized and thus can not be turned off. After i upgraded to 1.5.0-2, everything works as it should. I suggest to either upgrade to the newest version or to send a bug-report as https://wiki.ubuntu.com/DebuggingTouchpadDetection suggests. – Mirzhan Irkegulov Feb 25 '12 at 14:44

6 Answers6

4

You may try reverting the change you did (or keeping it) and installing the gpointing-device-settings package, which will provide more configuration options for your touchpad. Since Ubuntu 10.04 LTS this package replaces gsynaptics, if I remember well.

sudo apt-get install gpointing-device-settings

Once installed you can find it under System -> Preferences -> Pointing Devices.

Zanna
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MagicFab
  • 1,356
4

on my lap-top I just go to the System > Prefrences > Mouse and under the Touchpad tab make sure Disable touhpad while typing is checked... after that it automatically disable the touchpad whenever I am typing... pretty cool if you ask me...

TheXed
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3

from https://help.ubuntu.com/community/SynapticsTouchpad

The following example invokes syndaemon for 4 seconds after any keyboard activity (-i 4), except when modifier keys such as Alt or Shift are used (-K), and only disables tapping and scrolling (-t) for this period.

syndaemon -i 4 -d -t -K

add this to your Startup Applications

marto
  • 1,431
1

On my Aspire One netbook, I can just use Fn+F7 to disable and enable the touchpad.

txwikinger
  • 29,456
0

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
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0

Some touchpads emulate a mouse in their hardware/firmware, and because of that still (partially) work even if they aren't recognized as "touchpads".

If GNOME detects a touchpad, it will show the tab in the Mouse preferences as TheX explains.

Community
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JanC
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