Can't use both mouse and keyboard at the same time

Question

When I use the keyboard, my mouse stopped. This is terrible when I playing a game. But I can temporarily make them work together: while pressing shift, they can work together. How to fix it?

I'm using GNOME or awesomewm, and my Linux is ubuntu 20.04.

Answer 1

With Gnome Tweaks... This can easily be fixed! :D

In gnome tweaks click the "Keyboard and Mouse" tab and uncheck the slider called "Disable while typing" in the Touchpad section

Your trackpad being disabled while typing is how the trackpad works by default :D

Answer 2

Here's an Ubuntu Forums thread I found with the same question: their method doesn't require you to install Gnome Tweaks:

Run the command

gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.peripherals.touchpad disable-while-typing false

Answer 3

Oh, I found this answer at Unix & Linux that uses xinput to solve this problem: Mouse and keyboard don't work when used at the same time

The problem I was having involved the Disable While Typing Enabled feature of my trackpad. These are the steps I used to solve it.

1. Make sure xinput is installed.

2. Type xinput to find the name of the trackpad device. Mine was ETPS/2 Elantech Touchpad.

3. Run xinput --list-props "DEVICE" to list the properties of the device.

4. Go through the list until you find something like Disable While Typing.

5. Use xinput --set-prop "DEVICE" ID_OF_PROPERTY 0. For me, this was xinput --set-prop "ETPS/2 Elantech Touchpad" 294 0