i disable the pointer pad on my System 76 Kudupro laptop because it it easier for me to use a wireless mouse (which has 3 buttons). but sometimes after a long pause of non-usage, such as eating dinner and other things right after it, i find the pointer pad is enabled, again. it seems as though something might be doing this when the wireless mouse is idle. it happened this evening. the mouse was idle for about 5 hours. i disable it by holding the Fn key down and pressing the F1 key once. it is a toggle operation; doing it again would turn it back on. it seems to be specific to the laptop; i have no idea if the kernel is handling this, or not.

i am running Ubuntu Xenial Desktop 16.04.5 LTS last upgraded a couple weeks ago. the kernel i 4.4.0. the wireless mouse receiver is connected via USB.

does anyone know a way to more permanently disable the pointer pad? i'm not talking about going inside and clipping the wires. maybe there is a driver option?