Need an option to disable touchpad completely

[Sandeep]

Binary package hint: xserver-xorg-input-synaptics

In Jaunty, I could disable the touchpad completely, however this functionality has been removed in Karmic.
Allow me to explain why this important:
In the normal course of typing, one tends to stop for a few seconds with the palms, still on the keyboard. At this time, there are very high chances of you triggering the touchpad.

The same problem appears in gaming on laptops, where one can inadvertently trigger the touchpad (while one is not typing anything)

"Disable while typing" is good - but we need a "disable completely" key as well. Maybe when the mouse is removed, the touchpad is re-activated or something.

In any case alt-f2 and gnome-mouse-config can be used to reactivate your touchpad.

[ssy (somsaks)]

Me too. I really want this feature. I has a script to disable touchpad completely when mouse attached by setting /desktop/gnome/peripherals/mouse/touchpad_enabled. Now the script is not working anymore.

Or else, having "Disable touchpad when mouse attached" option would be good :).

[yosubis (yosubis-deactivatedaccount)]

I think this should be added to 100 paper cuts for Lucid

[Sandeep (sandys-gmail)]

seconded for addition to papercuts - The fix is easy and hugely impacts usability on laptops.

[Xenofon Papadopoulos (xpapad)]

Agree. I'm using synclient TouchpaddOff=1 to turn the touchpad off completely, but it starts working again after a few seconds.

[yosubis (yosubis-deactivatedaccount)]

I actually found a temporary solution (it was on ubuntuforums):
1. Install gsynaptics (Touchpad in the "Software Center").
2. Unmark "Disable touchpad while typing" is not marked in "Mouse" (System->Preferences->Mouse->Touchpad).
3. Unmark "Enable touchpad" in "Touchpad" (System->Preferences->Touchpad).

It worked on 3 machines.

[Sandeep (sandys-gmail)]

confirmed gsynaptics workaround.

to the developers - please fix this. Let me reiterate that we need to disable the touchpad completely (and not just "disable while typing") for situations such as gaming - especially if you have large hands.

thanks

[Paddy Launch (paddylaunch-deactivatedaccount)]

100 paper cuts!
One fix would be simply to have gsynaptics installed by default on a laptop?

[AM (macchi)]

I also believe that improved control of touchpads in laptops/netbooks etc is necessary.
But NOT disabling the trackpad/touchpad completely! Here are a few reflections and suggestions:

1) In my opinion the most logigical move is "automatic disabling the touchpad while typing" with a user-defined TIME DELAY. If the delay is long then the disabling is also effective for users that wish a complete disable, but has the advantage of returning automatically to full functionality. If the user continues typing the trackpad is simply disabled during that time plus the delay.

2) This could be extended by the option of disabling the touchpad if and only if an external pointing device is present.

3) But I dislike permanent disabling of the trackpad since it is eventually useful for very few but may create many problems for a majority of users! WARNING: Once you click and confirm the disable trackpad option, then the user would have no pointing device! This type of "disable all" option probably creates problems for users that learn by actively experimenting with settings.

4) These GUI functions should be integrated into gnome-settings and not handled by separate packages

5) Automatic installation of relevant packages on laptops etc would be very good.

[Soren Hauberg (hauberg)]

@ #8:

I full-heartily disagree with what you say. The reason why you would want to disable the touchpad is because you have some other means of interacting with the pointer. Fact of the matter is that some people (myself included) tend to put their hands on top of the touch pad from time to time which results in unwanted pointer movement. Since this can be very annoying these people find other ways of interacting with the pointer. Personally I use a track-point; others may connect an ordinary mouse (try counting the number of people using ordinary mouses with their laptops and you will see that many people really don't like the touch pad). For these people the touch pad serves no other purpose than being highly distractive. For this reason it should be possible to completely disable the touch pad (it might be sensible to warn the user when doing this, but that is another matter).

As another example think of a blind or visually impaired user that does not use a mouse at all. Now, remember that even on default installs focus is actually dependent on the mouse. If you do not allow people to completely disable the touch pad then the result will be that visually impaired users will have a mouse moving all over the place, changing focus with out them knowing (I've seen this happen).

Now you may say, that it is fine just to disable the touch pad when the user is typing. I disagree. First of all, such measures are only heuristics and will never be perfect all the time. Second of all, the keyboard serves at least two purposes. One is typing another is wresting your arms. People have their hand on the keyboard even when they are not typing, meaning the cursor might move simply because they are resting their arms.

In summary: I disagree.