Enable/disable touchpad

Question

I managed to install Ubuntu 16.04 on my asus ux501 vw, but some of my shortcut are not working. I'm not looking to fix them all, but just one : the shortcut which allow me to enable or disable touchpad, so i can write long documents with working about the touchpad.

I tried to find it on google but I got nothing.

Can someone explain me how to fix that please? Thanks !

Answer 1

I created this bash script from negusp's answer. It finds and toggles TouchPad device. You can configure a custom shortcut to it in system settings.

#!/bin/bash

read TPdevice <<< $( xinput | sed -nre '/TouchPad|Touchpad/s/.*id=([0-9]*).*/\1/p' )
state=$( xinput list-props "$TPdevice" | grep "Device Enabled" | grep -o "[01]$" )

if [ "$state" -eq '1' ];then
    xinput --disable "$TPdevice" && notify-send -i emblem-nowrite "Touchpad" "Disabled"
else
    xinput --enable "$TPdevice" && notify-send -i input-touchpad "Touchpad" "Enabled"
fi

I'm setting Ctrl+Shift+F9 for toggle touchpad enable and disable like this:

Update: You may need to make your script to executable with command chmod +x filename or input /bin/bash /filepath to Command field of Custom shortcut window.

Answer 2

You want shortcut, but you can easily put 2 scripts on the desktop and execute them.

First, go to terminal. Type xinput. Output Example:

⎡ Virtual core pointer                          id=2    [master pointer  (3)]
⎜   ↳ Virtual core XTEST pointer                id=4    [slave  pointer  (2)]
⎜   ↳ SynPS/2 Synaptics TouchPad                id=12   [slave  pointer  (2)]
⎣ Virtual core keyboard                         id=3    [master keyboard (2)]
    ↳ Virtual core XTEST keyboard               id=5    [slave  keyboard (3)]
    ↳ Power Button                              id=6    [slave  keyboard (3)]
    ↳ Video Bus                                 id=7    [slave  keyboard (3)]
    ↳ Power Button                              id=8    [slave  keyboard (3)]
    ↳ Sleep Button                              id=9    [slave  keyboard (3)]
    ↳ Laptop_Integrated_Webcam_1.3M             id=10   [slave  keyboard (3)]
    ↳ AT Translated Set 2 keyboard              id=11   [slave  keyboard (3)]
    ↳ Dell WMI hotkeys 

Find the Touchpad. In this example, the touchpad is listed as id=12

Create the first script with this:

#!/bin/bash
xinput enable 12

Save it and name it touchpadenable.sh, and in terminal, mark it as executable with:

chmod +x touchpadenable.sh

Do the exact same thing again, but rename the file as touchpaddisable.sh (or whatever), and instead of

xinput enable 12

Use the command

xinput disable 12

Save, mark as executable, and you should be able to run the scripts from the desktop. Note: you may have to right-click the scripts, click properties, and allow it to be executed.

Answer 3

You must to do like negusp's answer, first check your touch device, and will shows something like this:

~$ xinput
⎡ Virtual core pointer                      id=2    [master pointer  (3)]
⎜   ↳ Virtual core XTEST pointer                id=4    [slave  pointer  (2)]
⎜   ↳ PixArt Dell MS116 USB Optical Mouse       id=10   [slave  pointer  (2)]
⎜   ↳ SynPS/2 Synaptics TouchPad                id=14   [slave  pointer  (2)]
⎜   ↳ DLLC6B2:00 06CB:75BF Touchpad             id=12   [slave  pointer  (2)]
⎣ Virtual core keyboard                     id=3    [master keyboard (2)]
    ↳ Virtual core XTEST keyboard               id=5    [slave  keyboard (3)]
    ↳ Power Button                              id=6    [slave  keyboard (3)]
    ↳ Video Bus                                 id=7    [slave  keyboard (3)]
    ↳ Power Button                              id=8    [slave  keyboard (3)]
    ↳ Sleep Button                              id=9    [slave  keyboard (3)]
    ↳ Integrated_Webcam_HD                      id=11   [slave  keyboard (3)]
    ↳ AT Translated Set 2 keyboard              id=13   [slave  keyboard (3)]
    ↳ Dell WMI hotkeys                          id=15   [slave  keyboard (3)]
    ↳ DELL Wireless hotkeys                     id=16   [slave  keyboard (3)]

In my case is the device with id=12, now create a bash script with name "toggle-touch" in you Desktop folder under a folder named "bin", would be "~/Desktop/bin" and copy next code, check the device variable is pointed to my touch id=12, fix it with your case:

#!/bin/bash

device=12
state=`xinput list-props "$device" | grep "Device Enabled" | grep -o "[01]$"`

if [ $state == '1' ];then
  xinput --disable $device
else
  xinput --enable $device
fi

Set to this script execution permission:

chmod 775 /Desktop/bin/toggle-touch

Finally you can add this path to the ".bashrc" from your home folder, just add this line to the end of file:

PATH=$PATH:~/Desktop/bin

update the path with:

. .bashrc

Then you can execute this script from any place, I hope this help.

Answer 4

In my Ubuntu 18.04 Almas Dusal's answer didn't work until I changed the 'p' to lower case in TouchPad in the following line of his code:

read TPdevice <<< $( xinput | sed -nre '/Touchpad/s/.*id=([0-9]*).*/\1/p' )

After that touchpad was succesfully disabled and enabled by the script but that was not reflected in the Mouse & Touchpad settings screen. I created the following new script which toggles the touchpad while updating the settings view.

#!/bin/bash

state=$( gsettings get org.gnome.desktop.peripherals.touchpad send-events )

if [ "$state" = "'enabled'" ];then
    gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.peripherals.touchpad send-events 'disabled' \
        && notify-send -i touchpad-disabled-symbolic "Touchpad" "Disabled"
else
    gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.peripherals.touchpad send-events 'enabled' \
        && notify-send -i input-touchpad-symbolic "Touchpad" "Enabled"
fi

Answer 5

In Ubuntu 22.04, you have to use gsettings now, for both the X11 and Wayland window servers, like this:

# disable the touchpad
gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.peripherals.touchpad send-events disabled
# enable the touchpad
gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.peripherals.touchpad send-events enabled
# enable the touchpad automatically if an external mouse is NOT plugged in, but
# disable it automatically if one is
gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.peripherals.touchpad send-events disabled-on-external-mouse

# get the current setting
gsettings get org.gnome.desktop.peripherals.touchpad send-events

See my full answer and more details here: How to enable/disable the touchpad/trackpad in Ubuntu 22.04 from the command-line

Answer 6

Update 2020: use this script here: eRCaGuy_dotfiles...touchpad_toggle.sh. It handles X11 and Wayland window servers, and versions of Ubuntu including 14.04, 16.04, 18.04, 20.04, and even 22.04.

See also my Ubuntu 22.04 answer here.

Original answer:

Tested and works on Ubuntu 14.04, 16.04, and 18.04.

Do like @Almas Dusal's answer, which does like @negusp's answer, except use my modified script instead since it has 3 additional benefits (UPDATE: benefits 1 and 3 below were added 12 Sept. 2019):

1. It searches the output of xinput for both Touchpad AND TouchPad, since some systems have the P capitalized while others do not. This makes my script compatible with more systems (hopefully ALL systems).
2. It adds the 2-second auto-closing popup windows via zenity in order to show whether your touchpad is now ENABLED or DISABLED. See screenshots of these popup windows below.
3. It properly fixes your scroll wheel speed, enabling imwheel (which fixes your slow scroll wheel problem in Ubuntu/Linux when using a mouse scroll wheel) when you are using a mouse, while disabling imwheel when using a touchpad, since imwheel otherwise makes the touchpad scrolling really glitchy when enabled. Be sure to uncomment the respective lines to make this work. Ex: # imwheel -b "4 5" and # killall imwheel.

#!/bin/bash

# GS_toggle_touchpad.sh
# - toggle the touchpad on and off

# Gabriel Staples
# Written: 2 Apr. 2018 
# Updated: 12 Sept. 2019 

# References:
# - https://askubuntu.com/a/874865/327339
# - https://askubuntu.com/questions/844151/enable-disable-touchpad/1109515#1109515 <-- my own ans!

# Search for id number of "TouchPad" OR "Touchpad" in `xinput` list; manually type `xinput` to see all your devices
read TouchPadDeviceId <<< $( xinput | sed -nre '/TouchPad|Touchpad/s/.*id=([0-9]*).*/\1/p' ) 

state=$( xinput list-props "$TouchPadDeviceId" | grep "Device Enabled" | grep -o "[01]$" )

echo "TouchPadDeviceId = $TouchPadDeviceId"
echo "state = $state"

if [ "$state" -eq '1' ];then
    xinput --disable "$TouchPadDeviceId"
    zenity --info --text "Touchpad DISABLED" --timeout=2
    # Next line required only if using imwheel to fix slow scroll speed in Chrome, for ex; see here: 
    # https://askubuntu.com/a/991680/327339
    # imwheel -b "4 5"
else
    xinput --enable "$TouchPadDeviceId"
    zenity --info --text "Touchpad ENABLED" --timeout=2
    # Next line required only if using imwheel to fix slow scroll speed in Chrome, for ex; see here: 
    # https://askubuntu.com/a/991680/327339
    # killall imwheel
fi

Note that the imwheel thing is only required if you are following this answer to fix your scroll wheel speed too: Permanently fix Chrome scroll speed

Now, assign it a shortcut key of Ctrl + Alt + P (or whatever you choose [the 'P' stands for touch'P'ad in my case]). My addition to the script above is the zenity self-closing popup window part, which I describe more in my answer here (https://superuser.com/a/1310142/425838).

Now, when I use the shortcut above, I see this popup window, which auto-closes after 2 seconds:

And if I press it again I get this popup window, which auto-closes after 2 seconds:

Perfect!

As an added bonus, if you are a heavy mouse user, just add the command which calls your script above to your startup programs in Ubuntu so it runs and disables your track pad every time your computer starts up! I have this set so I can quit bumping the track pad with the base of my hand and deleting stuff accidentally all the time! Now, when my hand bumps the track pad, nothing happens because it's disabled. :)

Note: this all works great in Ubuntu 18.04 as well as older versions. I've tested it in Ubuntu 18.04 and Ubuntu 14.04. Here's a screenshot from the shortcut settings window in 18.04:

Related:

1. UPDATE: Get the latest version of this script from my eRCaGuy_dotfiles project here!
2. Permanently fix Chrome scroll speed

Answer 7

I using this command to set a shortcut in Ubuntu without script file.
It's simple and work fine!

bash -c "xinput set-prop $(xinput list --id-only 'Elan Touchpad') 'Device Enabled' $(expr 1 - $(xinput list-props $(xinput list --id-only 'Elan Touchpad') | grep 'Device Enabled' | grep -o '[01]$'))"

Where value Elan Touchpad is my device name.
To get name, using command xinput.

Ubuntu shortcut config

Answer 8

Leaving my script here (more or less the same as above). Works out of the box, no need for prior lookup of the device ID.

#!/bin/bash

function query_device_id {
    xinput list | grep -i touchpad | sed 's/.*id=\([0-9]*\).*/\1/g'
}

let device_id=$(query_device_id)

let state=$(xinput list-props $device_id | grep Enabled | awk '{print $4;}')

let new_state=$((1 - $state))

xinput set-prop $device_id "Device Enabled" $new_state

Answer 9

Create a shell script and paste below code in to it and name it touchPadDisable.sh

#!/bin/bash
temp=$(xinput | grep -i "Elantech Touchpad" | cut -d"=" -f 2 | cut -d"[" -f 1)
xinput disable $temp

Create another shell script and paste below code in to it and name it touchPadEnable.sh

#!/bin/bash
temp=$(xinput | grep -i "Elantech Touchpad" | cut -d"=" -f 2 | cut -d"[" -f 1)
xinput enable $temp

First script will disable touchpad and second one will enable touchpad.

You can add this script to custom shortcuts in keyboards.

Answer 10

Another alternative is to download this gnome extension https://extensions.gnome.org/extension/935/toggle-touchpad/