HowTo: Disable Synaptics Touchpad While Typing

**Shekibobo** · May 14th, 2009

When I open xorg.conf, there is not one section that mentions "Input Device." What am I do to?

Right now, I'm using touchfreeze, which doesn't even seem to work half the time, and anyway my taskbar is getting full. I really just want something that will run at startup and keep going in the background. Is there possibly another way I can do this?

I love ubuntu, but I keep running into problems and exceptions with my system on nearly every tutorial I go through, and the problems I encounter always seem like one of the rarest kinds, so I spend hours trying to fix something that seems very simple for everyone else.

Using ubuntu 9.04 on a 64bit.

**sgosnell** · May 15th, 2009

The other fixes in this thread, involving editing the hal file or the xorg.conf file, will work. If you don't have a necessary section, just add it by copying and pasting.

**FokkerCharlie** · May 18th, 2009

This isn't working for me.

I have set up the /etc/hal/fdi/policy/shmconfig.fdi file as discussed, and tried several variations on the syndaemon command.

However, there's no effect from running syndaemon, my touch pad is still just as responsive when I'm typing as it ever was!

I am using Jaunty 64.

Any ideas?
Cheers
Charlie

**sergiom99** · May 23rd, 2009

maybe this doesnt work in JJ.
There is no such section in xorg.conf and when I added it, there was no response either.

**smalldog** · June 7th, 2009

Originally Posted by sergiom99

maybe this doesnt work in JJ.
There is no such section in xorg.conf and when I added it, there was no response either.

First of all, you must confirm that your touchpad is correct detected when kernel bootup instead of a PS/2 mice. You can using "dmesg" to verify it.

Secondly, you can check the HAL setting by "lshal".

Last, it must loaded with proper drive under X-windows. Using "xinput list" to verify your touchpad was properly setup under X-windows. Sometimes, it is detected as PS/2 device.

All of above, you should find a word "synaptics", Otherwise, you should reconfigure you system.

Good luck

**ugm6hr** · June 7th, 2009

This is in the Outdated tips section - since it does not apply to Intrepid or Jaunty.

The new automatic xorg settings mean that enabling shmconfig requires a different setting:
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Sy...ng%20SHMConfig

This gives a comprehensive overview of how to do exactly this.

**kevinguillorytraining** · October 9th, 2009

Thanks for nice how-to

**73ckn797** · December 7th, 2009

Ubuntu 9.10 has the ability to disable Synaptics Touchpad While Typing.

Go to System/Preferences/Mouse and there is an option to disable the touchpad when typing.

[IMG]file:///tmp/moz-screenshot.png[/IMG]

**Tootler** · September 30th, 2010

Originally Posted by 73ckn797

Ubuntu 9.10 has the ability to disable Synaptics Touchpad While Typing.

Go to System/Preferences/Mouse and there is an option to disable the touchpad when typing.

This is enabled by default in my (Lucid) setup. However I found the 2s default time is insufficient.

This page from the Ubuntu support documentation explains how to increase it:

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/SynapticsTouchpad

**andreisun** · March 2nd, 2011

Originally Posted by edmicman

I did "syndaemon -i 1 -d -t -K" and that seems to work pretty well. I agree, though, that this is a simple problem that should be fixed by default!

Hi, i have a problem, my touchpad doesn't work. I've tried various solutions from the forum and i get: Unable to find a synaptics device.
What should i do? I am a beginner...

Thanks,

Andrei