Comment 29 for bug 782143

My impression is that gpointing-device-settings is simply a graphical frontend to the xinput command. Given that it's not part of the default install, I can't see that it has it's own critical function. The code certainly looks like a frontend, given a cursory look.

Having said that, if it were the case, I can't see why the script suggested doesn't work, given it changes the same xinput state that you can see change when gpointing-device-settings is used to disable the device. Have you tried using "xinput watch-props <device>" when trying the script or toggling gpointing-device-settings, to see what's happening.

As you can gather, I'm not an expert on the Linux input stack, just somebody with a similar problem. I hope it's helped a bit, though.