Ubuntu 11.04 with Gnome on Dell 6510: cannot disable touchpad

[moonport]

I cannot disable touchpad. If I go to mouse preferences, there is no Touchpad tab.

I used this package but it does not install at all.

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:atareao/atareao
sudo apt-get install touchpad-indicator

Do you have any other suggestions, please?

TIA!!

I've the same issue in my Lenovo Laptop.

[moonport]

so the device you want to toggle has id 14 i believe, you can get more details by typing;

xinput --list-props 14

which will tell you all the props for that device, there should be one like enabled which can be toggled 0/1

with;

xinput set-prop [device id (14)] [enabled propery id (usualy 125)] [on/off (0/1)]

if you still can't work it post the feedback of the props;

or if you want to get it done try the pointed id eg;

xinput set-prop 2 125 0

and

xinput set-prop 2 125 1

that would disable the maser device pointer, ie disable all of these;
Virtual core XTEST pointer id=4 [slave pointer (2)]
⎜ ↳ Logitech USB Receiver id=12 [slave pointer (2)]
⎜ ↳ ImPS/2 ALPS GlidePoint id=14 [slave pointer (2)]

neways hope that sorts it for you...

It worked for me.
Thanks a lot.
Regards.

[teotihuacano]

you can paste it into gedit then save as mouse-on-off.sh (or whatever you prefer), these sort of scripts usually reside in ~/bin (home directory->bin directory), to use nautilus to change the permissions so you can run it, right click and check to box under the permissions tab, via command line chmod +x scriptname.sh.

also run

sudo apt-get install libnotify-bin

to get system popup messages when you disable or enable the touchpad

then you can add a keyboard shortcut via the system->pref menu and select that script...

Awesome! Works beatifully... You've saved me so much time trying to find out where the hell did the pointer gone to...
Ik'm going to set it up in two other friends computers who had the same problem.

[vincegata]

I've noticed that mine turns back on after I close the lid / suspend. So I hooked up the shortcut key to turn it on.

[dilidon]

just edit for your own logo/image in libnotify, n change the lockfile name to remove "mike" ...

Thanks a bunch. Running a brand new Dell n5110 with the same ALPS touchpad here. Nvidia Optimus technology related booting woes together with the touchpad issues created a lot of headache. Your script saved the day on the mouse side (had to mod it a bit because of an error it produced on my system).

To those not familiar with where icons are being stored, two icons perfect for this script can be found here:

/usr/share/icons/hicolor/32x32/actions/touchpad-enabled.png
/usr/share/icons/hicolor/32x32/actions/touchpad-disabled.png

I'm wondering though, is there/will there be a way to actually get the pad working properly (ie. horizontal scrolling, tap-clicking, automatic switching off on keyboard activity etc)? I found this patching tutorial:
http://budts.be/weblog/2010/12/dell-...n-and-touchpad
but I still haven't gotten into learning patching myself. Worth trying?

[hipogrito]

Hello,

Thank you so much for the script.

It works like a charm in my Dell Inspiron 17.

Regards,
Fran

[mfergo]

I too have the Alps touchpad (Dell Inspiron 15R) and this did not work for me so I made 2 very simple scripts as follows:
I used xprint list to identify the Alps id (14 in my case).

to enable it:

#!/bin/bash
xinput --set-prop 14 'Device Enabled' 1

and to disable it:

#!/bin/bash
xinput --set-prop 14 'Device Enabled' 0

Bear in mind that I am quite ignorant of these matters. I don't know why, in d.burba's script, there is an '8' between the 'Device Enabled' and the 1/0. It does not seem to be in the man pages for xinput.

[bluepicaso]

I too have the Alps touchpad (Dell Inspiron 15R) and this did not work for me so I made 2 very simple scripts as follows:
I used xprint list to identify the Alps id (14 in my case).

to enable it:

#!/bin/bash
xinput --set-prop 14 'Device Enabled' 1

and to disable it:

#!/bin/bash
xinput --set-prop 14 'Device Enabled' 0

Bear in mind that I am quite ignorant of these matters. I don't know why, in d.burba's script, there is an '8' between the 'Device Enabled' and the 1/0. It does not seem to be in the man pages for xinput.

thank you this worked for me.
one more thing i have dell 5110 and i found that ubuntu11.10 has some problem detecting the touchpad.. its detects it as a mouse.

[mikejonesey]

I too have the Alps touchpad (Dell Inspiron 15R) and this did not work for me so I made 2 very simple scripts as follows:
I used xprint list to identify the Alps id (14 in my case).

to enable it:

#!/bin/bash
xinput --set-prop 14 'Device Enabled' 1

and to disable it:

#!/bin/bash
xinput --set-prop 14 'Device Enabled' 0

Bear in mind that I am quite ignorant of these matters. I don't know why, in d.burba's script, there is an '8' between the 'Device Enabled' and the 1/0. It does not seem to be in the man pages for xinput.

the 8 would have been the property id

ie... device id : property id : property value = 14 8 0

same way i coded my script, par i made the 8 dynamic to a variable... (not always 8, on my current machine it's a 127)

11 127 0

11 127 1

@bluepicaso

one more thing i have dell 5110 and i found that ubuntu11.10 has some problem detecting the touchpad.. its detects it as a mouse.

please run xinput search script and paste output;
./xinput-checker.sh ps/2
or
./xinput-checker.sh pad

http://www.mikejonesey.co.uk/article...r-scripts.html

[fujisan]

Here is the script of burba improved because it could not work for me.

#!/bin/bash

# this script queries the status of the ImPS/2 ALPS GlidePoint device
# via xinput and disables / enables the device accordingly.

#get touchpad id
XINPUTNUM=`xinput list 'ImPS/2 ALPS GlidePoint' | sed -n -e's/.*id=\([0-9]\+\).*/\1/p'`

TPSTATUS=$(gconftool-2 -g /desktop/gnome/peripherals/touchpad/touchpad_enabled)

#if status fails, exit 1
test -z $TPSTATUS && exit 1
if [[ $TPSTATUS == true ]]; then
    xinput set-int-prop $XINPUTNUM "Device Enabled" 8 0;
    gconftool-2 --type bool -s /desktop/gnome/peripherals/touchpad/touchpad_enabled false
else
    xinput set-int-prop $XINPUTNUM "Device Enabled" 8 1;
    gconftool-2 --type bool -s /desktop/gnome/peripherals/touchpad/touchpad_enabled true
fi