Disable Synaptics Touchpad March 24, 2006
Posted by Carthik in guides, ubuntu.trackback
Update: To learn how to disable the touchpad temporarily when you are typing, read this other recent article.
I needed a quick way to disable and enable my synaptics touchpad at will, and I found one.
Make sure that in you /etc/X11/xorg.conf file, you have:
Section "InputDevice"
Identifier "Synaptics Touchpad"
Driver "synaptics"
Option "SendCoreEvents" "true"
Option "Device" "/dev/psaux"
Option "Protocol" "auto-dev"
Option "HorizScrollDelta" "0"
Option "SHMConfig" "on"
EndSection
Notice the Option “SHMConfig” “on” line — that is the one that you really need to have in there. This allows you to change some configuration parameters for the synaptics touchpad without restarting Xorg (Xserver).
Now that is taken care of.
All you have to do to disable your synaptics touchpad is to execute the command:
$synclient TouchpadOff=1
and to turn it back on, you can execute the command
$synclient TouchpadOff=0
TIP: To make it even easier to turn the touchpad on and off, you can set a keyboard shortcut and bind the shortcuts to the command to turn it on, and off, and use the keyboard shortcuts.
Ubuntu Blog 
Thanks, I may try this. I don’t know that I have a “synaptics touchpad” .. but I have a touchpad and a “rock” button on my laptop….do you know of a way to enable the rock button?? (in windows, I set it page up/down and its kinda handy)
Great tip, the Synaptics touch pad has been bothering me for some time; it’s very easy to accidently brush it or one of its click buttons while typing. Having it turned off makes my life alot easier.
[Make sure that in you /etc/X11/xorg.conf file, you have]
should read
Make sure that in your /etc/X11/xorg.conf file, you have
Just a typo.
nola, take a look at https://wiki.ubuntu.com/MultimediaKeys (for gnome) or https://wiki.ubuntu.com/KDEMultimediaKeys
The buttons *should* operate as multimedia keys. If neither of those work, you could take a look at https://wiki.ubuntu.com/ManyButtonsMouseHowto, ttps://wiki.ubuntu.com/IntellimouseMousemanBackForwardButtons and https://wiki.ubuntu.com/MX1000Mouse as the buttons may be ‘mouse buttons’ so they may help.
I’d sure like to see a way to turn on the palm check on the synaptics touchpad. as it is, Ubuntu is almost unusable on this HP dv-1000.
I’m on a Dell Latitude D600. I tried the above procedure, and it ends up disabling the “pencil eraser” mouse in the keyboard, but the touchpad still works. Any ideas?
fix palm: open console, type synclient -l… and every option available there you can tweak inside your xorg.conf.
Having the same problem as Nick but on a D610. I’ve tried everything I can think of. I would like to keep the trackpoint active and disable the touchpad, but it happens just the opposite. I’ve fiddled with /etc/X11/xorg.conf and tried different protocol and driver settings on the Synaptics section, and added another section for the TrackPoint, but that didn’t help either…
[…] The Ubuntu blog over at wordpress.com plus a number of forum posts got me to where I needed to be. While I still don’t have gsynaptics working, there is a way to turn the touchpad off from the command line. […]
Hi,
Just installed ubuntu, and i have a synaptics touch pad and nob in the keyboard on my laptop. The nob thing has a problem that causes the mouse to wander around the screen (happens in windows too). In windows i just disable the nob but leave on the touchpad. Any ideas as to how i can do this please?
Matt, the trackpoint device can be turned off my editing your /etc/X11/xorg.conf.
Since I don’t have a Thinkpad handy, all I can tell you is to look in that file, and comment out, or delete the lines that configure that mouse pointer, as also the lines that define using it as a device. Get your hands on someone even vaguely familiar with tweaking xorg.conf, or ask at the ubuntu forums, where other IBM users might be able to help you better.
Howdy all.
First time posting a comment on here, but would like to say that this blog is fantastic. Lots of interesting tips with lots of detail.
Anyway, to the point. I discovered that there are lots of settings you can change with the qsynaptics package.
All you have to do is make sure that the SHMConfig option is there in the xorg.conf file and then “sudo apt-get install qsynaptics”.
After that, each user can specify their own settings for various features of the trackpad.
The settings can be reloaded at logon by adding “qsynaptics -r” to the list of programs to be run at logon in System–>Preferences->Sessions.
One thing that I think might be useful, judging by the posts above, is the ability to have the track pad disabled while typing. I used to HATE not having that feature as I would always accidentally “click” somewhere else and end up typing in the wrong place.
Hope this helps somewhat!
[…] https://ubuntu.wordpress.com/2006/03/24/disable-synaptics-touchpad/ […]
Okay fine I admit it.. I’ve had Ubuntu for a few hours. How do I open and edit /etc/X11/xorg.conf
there is also syndaemon which will disable the touchpad while you’re typing and then reenable it after xseconds when you’re done.
I would also recommend buying laptops with disable touchpad button. It is possible to disable/enable touchpad on my Acer TM2420 with Fn+F7. It’s really nice 🙂
On my previous laptop I used to use the software solution as suggested above.
The fixed width of this site causes important info to be cut off in code samples. For example, when I look at the 2nd example,
Section “InputDevice”
Identifier “Synaptics Touchpad”
Driver “synaptics”
Option “SendCoreEvents” “true”
Option “Device” “/dev/psaux”
Option “Protocol” “auto-dev”
Option “HorizScrollDelta” “0”
Option “SHMConfig” “on”
EndSection
the third column is entirely missing
After inserting “SHMConfig” “on” line and trying to disable by typing $synclient TouchpadOff=1, I get this error:
Can’t access shared memory area. SHMConfig disabled?
hi rohit, you need to reboot first before issueing the command
Hi,
where shall i write $synclient TouchpadOff=1 ? inside inputdevice section?
Hey Legolas,
Thanks for the answer. However, I need to type in the command after each reboot; because it turns on somehow. Am I missing something?
Foster, you need to type the command in the terminal; and not in the inputdevice section
[…] Earlier, I wrote about how to enable/disable your touchpad using the synclient command. […]
rohit:
Noting Shiv’s advice earlier, I just added the line
synclient TouchpadOff=1
in the ‘startup programs’ tab at System–>Preferences->Sessions
… and it worked great. Now my touchpad is automatically disabled after logon.
I am also having a problem with my synaptic touchpad on an Alienware m7700. None of the above seems to fix the problem. I prefer to use my Logitech USB mouse. I would prefer to not have the touch pad on at all. In fact, even without the mouse attached it is hyper sensitive. I am having trouble just writing even this. According to:
http://web.telia.com/~u89404340/touchpad/trouble-shooting.txt
I seem to be having a binary compatibility issue as the log file says nothing about the synaptic driver being loading.
SHM config will not work because of the shared memory message.
What can I do to disable the touchpad entirely. I can’t find a location in the BIOS to do it.
Some folks might prefer to change the TapButton1 setting instead. Setting TapButton1=0 will disable the “button” function from the tap-pad. This way, and inadvertent tap of the pad will not disrupt your work when you are in the midst of typing, but you will still be able to move the mouse using the touch pad. A much better setting in my humble opinion.
$ synclient TapButton1=0
To see your current settings, just type synclient -l.
Thank you for posting this tip on your blog. I’ve been googling for this fix on and off all year, and yours came up tops. I can now turn off the finicky touch pad on my Latitude C640 when it interrupts my work. Cheers!
With Dapper Drake I had no problems with setting and resetting my TouchpadOff parameter. However, ever since I upgraded to Edgy Eft, it seems that no matter what parameter I put in, no changes. Is there anything else extra that needs to be done with this new version?
Thank you.
Thanks Carthik and all especially bryan (23) and no thanks (25) – the tap on my Dell Inspiron 2200 pad (even the hand rest!) was becoming infuriating – now resolved!
If anyone is having trouble with Synaptics and using Dell Laptop, you might want to use this link to update driver. http://support.us.dell.com/support/downloads/download.aspx?c=us&l=en&s=gen&releaseid=R35319&formatcnt=1&libid=0&fileid=39364Use the “touch” tab in settings>control panel>mouse and check the disable touchpad. I was trying to help a friend over the phone with this problem and decided to use my own service tag on dell.com to look up the driver for the touchpad. Hope this helps.
Now, I’ve done it! I’ve entered the stuff into my xorg.conf file, restarted X, rebooted and still I get the SHMConfg Shared memory error described above. It won’t work. Weirder still now when I log in it tells me my computer name needs to be entered in /etc/hosts (it is!) and the internet is taking forever to find any web page. I can’t see any connection. Also, all my font sizes have turned into teeny tiny 9 point. Now I am also getting a message on log in about having no administration rights and I can’t save anything, or something to that effect. Any ideas?
i have the same problem as donaldduck, i;ve enabled everything but it still get SHMConfig disabled? when i try to run the syndaemon
all you need to do on a thinkpad is to use FN+F8
Great, thanks many times, it really works. How did ya explore that?
I’ve just added
Option “SHMConfig”
to xorg.confm without the word “on” (did not see it in your window). And it works…
I also faced issue using this command on edgy.
However I found a workaround. After running the command “synclient TouchpadOff=1”, I restarted X (by using the ctrl+alt+backspace key combination). After that Touchpad was disabled.
Any clues how to work without this workaound?
Try running syndaemon: http://www.debuntu.org/2006/06/25/70-how-to-disabling-your-touchpad-while-typing
Well,
I have a Fujitsu Lifebook (c-series) with touchpad. And for the life of me, I cant get the middle up/down rocker button to work.
I have tried all combinations of SHMConfig, as in, SHMConfig on, true and without the on and true, in vain.
I tried gsynaptics, which complains that SHMConfig must be set to true (which ironically is) and qsynaptics, which complains that the Shared Memory is not accessible, and to turn SHMConfig on.
Is there something I am missing?
Please advice. I had this problem since installing Dapper in Aug and Edgy in Dec.
Thank you so much. All I needed to know was Fn+F7 (I have an Acer notebook) – I must have hit those keys by mistake and disabled the mousepad – now I know I can easily turn it off and on at will.
Thanks for the help, I’m a recent Ubuntu user, I was able to quickly edit (once I figure out the case sensitive nature i.e X11, not x11) the xorg.conf file and add the “SMHConif” “on” entry (for any other newbies I have a synaptic touch pad, and at least from what I took from the intial write up, this was NOT in my orginal .conf file). After this edit, I ran the $synclient TouchpadOff=1 command and turned the touch paf off, BUT THIS ALSO DISABLED THE POINT STICK MOUSE BUTTONS (both left and right). I also had read about the program gsynaptic, which I found and installed in the multiverse, so I installed this. It is supposed to add a GUI accessed though System>Prefferences>Touchpad, but while this installed, I can’t find the prog. anywhere? Thanks for any help or thoguhts!
if you need to add the inputdevice in xorg.conf, also make sure it’s added to the serverlayout, otherwise xorg will not load the driver….
just install ksynaptics it’s a hell of a program, it disable the touchpad with 1 click!
folks !! You’ve saved my life !! was installing, uninstalling and getting mad of my comp for 4 1/2 hours and after i’ve resigned just googled a bit and fond this site & handled my probem within 10 minutes!! tahnks soooo sooo sooo sooo much !!
[…] zum Touchpad. Die entscheidende Hilfe war das Ubuntu-Blog: Um das Touchpad zu deaktiveren benötigt man folgenden Eintrag innerhalb der […]
[…] Disable Synaptics Touchpad « Ubuntu Blog disable touchpad in ubuntu linux (tags: linux ubuntu laptop howto) […]
InputDevice “Synaptics Touchpad”
I do not have above in my xorg.conf file….Can I add it?
Regarding #26 Molovoch, turning off TouchPad on Dell Latitude c640. By going into setup (hit f2 at bootup and before OS takes over) you can move to page 3 and under “pointing device” select the option “PS2 Mouse”. This tells the Laptop to respond to a mouse if plugged into the PS2 port or to the Touch Pad if no mouse attached.
I went everywhere trying to find solution before coming to this easy setting. Late but hope it helps others.
Fn + F7 on an Acer Travelmate, silly me!! (Also see # 38 by Fandam7.)
Just spent hours trying to configure my Synaptics touchpad – installing and removing configuring apps. Was just about to use the commands given at the start of this blog, and assign shortcut keys when I noticed the blue ‘finger and hand on pad’ symbol under F7 !!
Sometimes the solution is so simple and right under your nose !!
I suggest looking carefully at your function keys/keyboard before assuming that more high-tech solutions are needed. (Or assuming that these functions wouldn’t work in Linux)
Would have saved me a lot of time and frustration!
Gee I am dumb. Pretty dumb!
I’ve been tweaking with xorg.conf and following a thousand recipes that did not produce any effect other than depressing me.
So, if like me, you are running Ubuntu Edgy Eft on top of a Acer Aspire 3680, all you need to enable the touchpad is to press FN+F7. (FN is that key right aside the button with windows logo).
Also see: #47 Gavin and #38 by Fandam7.
Just that. Many thanks to the community.
Thanks for that!
adding:
“SHMConfig” “on”
to my xorg.conf file did the trick.
My laptop: Dell 6400
Awesome, that p-ed me off for a long time. You rock!
Cheers,
Taivo
thanks a lot ive added these two binds to my keys file at ~/.fluxbox/
Mod4 o :exec synclient TouchpadOff=0
Mod4 f :exec synclient TouchpadOff=1
works like a charm
I have a Dell latitude C640 and most of the time have the touchpad tap button function turned off using this this method:
– Create a new text file called disable.sh
– In this file type any commands you want to run at startup as if they were in the console i.e “synclient TapButton1=0” is all mine says
– Make it executable using “sudo chmod a+x disable.sh”
– copy this file to /home/yourname/.kde/Autostart/
This should now run he script every time KDE starts.
I have little experience in gnome but there is probably some similar directory! This will make the command run at startup and you dont have to play with system files etc, just delete disable.sh from the Autostart folder if you dont want it any more
Well, Ubuntu has a lot of meaning in Bantu speaking people. The Baganda people in Central Uganda use “Buntu” for many things for example,”Obuntu bulamu” which means the following: Decency, Politeness, graciousness or simply put a person with moral value. The Baganda call a person -Muntu, things- Bintu and many people are called- Bantu also their first king was called Kintu.
Thankyou Kasolo Kimuli David. People working together so as to raise the state of all beings is a beautiful thing to behold!
These mailing lists are places where people routinely help one another without thought of monetary reward. It is inspiring.
GNU/Linux/Debian/Ubuntu et al have significance far beyond the world of computers. They has conclusively shown that people motivated by a sincere desire to do good more than harm can deliver the very best in ultra sophisticated stable software. If they can do better than the corporate meat-grinders in such a complex and (to many) daunting field then surely there can be few fields where they would fail to do better. For me it is much more than brilliant S/W, so enjoyable and rewarding to use. GNU/Linux/Debian/Ubuntu et al are a shining beacon of hope illuminating an otherwise scary landscape of fear and distrust.
May you all speedily acheive a state of perfect grace and peace! :0)
Hello everyone and thanks for this howto. I would like the two commands (synclient TouchpadOff=1 and synclient TouchpadOff=0) to be executed automatically when plugging/unplugging mouse. I found out how to disable touchpad when plugging mouse (System -> Preferences -> Removable Drives and media -> Input devices -> Mice -> Automatically run command …). Any idea about enabling touchpad when mouse is being unplugged? Thanks.
And one more remark: those commands are completely independent with the Fn+F7 shortcut keys on my Acer.
you can disable the touchpad without editing any aspects of a file. All you have to is that the HP TouchPads all use the driver Synaptics from http://www.synaptics.com and all you have do is download that driver from there for your operation system and then install it. Then go to Control Panel and double click Synaptics and click tapping and uncheck the box to disable the tapping on touchpad and or to leave it checked off that will allow the pad to be used as a left mouse click when you tap there.
All you have to do is get the right driver for HP TouchPad and all you have to do is visit http://www.synaptics.com and download your driver for free.
cheers
thank you. This blog was very useful.
Romes that would with my dell. So I’m going to try to do that on the other computer, Just update the drivers and see if there’s an option for that.
try this software:http://www.kingzm.com/eng/files/download/MouseManager.zip
This software is designed for these people who use several mouse.
For example, a person uses notebook PC and installed USB mouse as well.
it can set the different work state for each mouse and quickly switch primary and secondary buttons .
I also had the wandering cursor problem, although it wasnt wandering, it was racing for a corner and wouldnt come out. on top of that i had the shared memory error. i ended up adding the following to the device and it now seems to do nothing at all, which is what i wanted.
Option “MinSpeed” “0.1”
Option “MaxSpeed” “0.1”
Option “AccelFactor” “0.1”
Hi
I changed the xorg.config but when I write $synclient Touchpadoff=1 I get the response bas: Touchpadoff=1″ command not found.
Any suggestions? Thanks
I have the same problem as Bill – bash: TouchpadOff=1: command not found
Boys, I’m sorry but the message says that you must pass the command “TouchpadOff=1” not as itself; in the bash prompt type both instructions:
synclient TouchpadOff=1
Don’t type just the second part. type both.
[…] read the article and comment 25 at https://ubuntu.wordpress.com/2006/03/24/disable-synaptics-touchpad/ […]
hi everybody,
although I’ve got “SHMconfig=on” in the xorg-file (already booted) I still receive “cant access shared memory area” both on the command line and using “ksynaptics”, a KDE-tool
katibin, try the following:
1 – Edit your /etc/X11/xorg.conf and find the the section “InputDevice” having Indentifier “Synaptics Touchpad” and put the following:
Section “InputDevice”
Identifier “Synaptics Touchpad”
Driver “synaptics”
Option “SendCoreEvents” “true”
Option “Device” “/dev/psaux”
Option “Protocol” “auto-dev”
Option “HorizScrollDelta” “0”
Option “SHMConfig” “on”
EndSection
2- Restart your machine
3- After you have restarted your machine, open a terminal console and run the following command:
synclient TouchpadOff=1
that’s it. Let’s see how that works.
I can’t find any section in /etc/X11/xorg.conf where it reads “Synaptics Touchpad”. Then what do I do? My touchpad works fine, but I want to turn on SHMConfig.
I can’t find any section in /etc/X11/xorg.conf where it reads “Synaptics Touchpad”. Then what do I do? My touchpad works fine, but I want to turn on SHMConfig.
Found the answer myself:) Seems like I needed to regenerate the file after my last upgrade. This command will do this automatically (note: backup the xorg.conf file before you do this!):
sudo dpkg-reconfigure -phigh xserver-xorg
The touchpad now works like a charm!
Yesterday, I read this entire blog and tried everything here. Nothing has worked for my Ubuntu 7.10 to disable my touchpad.
Now I’m on day 2 trying to disable the touchpad.
I still get “Can’t access shared memory area. SHMConfig disabled?” when I try the command synclient TouchpadOff=1; no matter what I do to the xorg.conf file, the touchpad continues to work; and Gsynaptics says “couldn’t initialize, you have to set SHMconfig ‘true’ in xorg.conf.
If anyone has any more info, I would appreciate it. Thanks
I have the same problem on my Thinkpad with
Ubuntu 7.10 as mentioned above. I also tried all that was posted
here to fix the problem, but without success: the message “…SHMConfig disabled?” still appears and the special key, to swicht off the touchpad doesn’t work.
I would be also thankfull for any advise.
maybe the following command from Bjorn can help you:
sudo dpkg-reconfigure -phigh xserver-xorg
Here’s a little BASH script I wrote to check to toggle on/off the TapButton1 function. It can easily be altered to enable the entire touch pad by replacing all of the ‘TapButton1’ with ‘TouchpadOff’.
#!/bin/bash
if [ $(synclient -l | grep TapButton1 | awk -F ‘ ‘ ‘{print $3}’) == “1” ]
then
synclient TapButton1=0
else
synclient TapButton1=1
fi
Hi
I have an Acer Aspire 5630
I run Ubuntu 7.10 Gutsy. After going trough hoops, and editing
my xorg.conf file, I finally found the thing.
Just hit Fn+F7. Now this works for this computer. But if you investigate this, you may find that there is a smilar shortcut on most Laptops.
Forget the synclient stuff, y’all are making things too complicated. Add the touchpad section to xorg.conf as mentioned in this post, but add the following two lines inside it:
Option “MaxTapTime” “0”
Option “MaxTapMove” “0”
Sweet, no more tapping.
[…] Disable Synaptics Touchpad « Ubuntu Blog […]
Hi guys, read through all above info. but none of it applies to me!
I have an Advent 7082 and the touch pad does not respond i.e. no screen cursor; could I have accidently locked it or is it a fault which will need a referral?
Thanks for any tips and Happy New Year to you all!
[…] Section “InputDevice” Identifier “Synaptics Touchpad” Driver “synaptics” Option “SendCoreEvents” “true” Option “Device” “/dev/psaux” Option “Protocol” “auto-dev” Option “HorizEdgeScroll” “0″ Option “SHMConfig” “on” EndSection https://ubuntu.wordpress.com/2006/03/24/disable-synaptics-touchpad/ […]
Sweet – thanks. I just made the switch from a Windows XP to Ubuntu preloaded on a Dell Inspiron 1525. At the top of my “concerns” list was the ability to continue using the Logitech Trackman, which I’ve used so long, I can’t use any other pointing device. Out of the box everthing worked great, including my trackman (uses a USB connection) … but that little anoyance that the touchpad enabled makes (duh, its part of the wrist-rest). Problem solved.
This nice little hack seems to no longer work with Hardy Heron. Have you found this to be true as well?
However I just found that there is an option under System>Mouse to disable the touchpad. =)
Disabling the touchpad using synclient on my DELL 620 doesn’t resolve the issues with my USB mouse randomly glitching which seem to be a commom problem. In fact when the mouse glitches the touchpad on occasion enables itself again.
The following solution is working perfectly.
# sudo vi /etc/udev/rules.d/10-local.rules
ACTION==”add”, ATTRSname!=”AlpsPS/2 ALPS GlidePoint”, ATTRSname!=”PS/2 Mouse”, KERNEL==”mouse?”, RUN+=”/sbin/rmmod psmouse”
ACTION==”remove”, ATTRSname!=”AlpsPS/2 ALPS GlidePoint”, ATTRSname!=”PS/2 Mouse”, KERNEL==”mouse?”, RUN+=”/sbin/modprobe psmouse”
Depending on your specific hardware you might need to tweak the name!=”” value above to match your hardware. To determine the specific name of your touchpad device use the following commands.
udevinfo -a -p `udevinfo -q path -n /dev/input/mouse1` |grep name
udevinfo -a -p `udevinfo -q path -n /dev/input/mouse2` |grep name
My touchpad/nipple on D620 has two mouse devices so I needed to match both devices which on my system are mouse1 and mouse2 with no other pointing devices connected.
The wordpress hosed up the syntax of my above solution. It’s missing the { and }. You might need to lookup the exact syntax as I don’t know how to paste the exact config into this thread.
Every time my Dell D600 goes into hibernation, the touchpad reactivates even though the box is not checked to enable mouse clicks on the touch pad. Any suggestion, Right now, I just have to reboot to get it to take again.
The same problem with Asus EEE + Ubuntu. The problem is not related with settings is xord.conf, but that synaptics or gsynaptics cannot be started – so touchpad cannot be configurated and there are no “touchpad” page in mouse settings. Seems that is really complex problem – it cannot be solved in ubuntu for several years.
Hooray @ post # 80 !
Disabling the touchpad in the mouse settings works fine on this thinkpad T40 ! thx !
Easy way in Ubuntu 8.04: System (menu), Preferences, Mouse, Touchpad, General, uncheck Enable touchpad.
To put “Synaptics Touchpad” before other input device in “ServerLayout”
for example:
Section “ServerLayout”
Identifier “single head configuration”
Screen 0 “Screen0” 0 0
InputDevice “Synaptics Touchpad” “Keyboard0”
EndSection
This can resolve the SHMConfig overloading problem…
Hi…tried this and it worked, it’s a compilation of a lot of the ideas expressed above…just in one bunch. Hope it helps someone out. Thanks to all for your help and ideas.
TO TURN OFF THE SYNAPTICS TOUCH PAD
1.) OPEN A TERMINAL
2.) type “sudo gedit /etc/X11/xorg.conf” (without the ” ” )
3.) PUT IN PASSWORD WHEN PROMPTED.
4.) WHEN THE FILE OPENS FIND Section “Input Device”
Identifier “Synaptics Touchpad”
Driver “synaptics”
Option “SendCoreEvents”
Etc, Etc, Etc
5.) RIGHT AT THE BOTTOM OF THIS SECTION (RIGHT BEFORE IT SAYS “EndSection” )
6.) ADD THIS LINE:> Option “SHMConfig” “on” (line it up with the other stuff above)
7.) CLICK “SAVE” (REPEAT THE COMMAND IN THE TERMINAL AND LOOK TO MAKE SURE IT’S SAVED…)
8.) THEN GO TO SYSTEM->PREFERENCES->SESSIONS…CLICK ON “STARTUP PROGRAMS”
9.) CLICK ON “ADD”
10.) NAME IT “TURN OFF SYNAPTIC TOUCHPAD”
11.) FOR THE COMMAND TYPE IN “synclient TouchpadOff=1” (without the “”)
12.) THEN CLICK “OK”
13.) REBOOT, AFTER LOGIN, YOUR TOUCHPAD SHOULD BE DISABLED.
14.) IF THIS DOESN’T WORK, CUSS AND THROW STUFF AROUND.
{= D
END.
Thanks for letting me put in my 2 cents worth. Hope it helps someone out. That touchpad was driving me crazy!
Above workaround does not work in Ubuntu Intrepid 8.10, because xorg.conf has commented out the InputDevice section for Synaptics Touchpad, “HAL is now used”. Any ideas appreciated!
Here’s what my xorg.conf looks like:
# commented out by update-manager, HAL is now used
#Section “InputDevice”
# Identifier “Synaptics Touchpad”
# Driver “synaptics”
# Option …. etc….
#EndSection
Thanks!
@89. look here: http://ubuntuforums.org/showpost.php?p=6077309&postcount=121
for 8.10:
* list devices:
xinput list
* find touchpad device id, on t61 it says like:
“SynPS/2 Synaptics TouchPad” id=4 [XExtensionPointer]
* list properties that can be set for this device:
xinput list-props 4
* if there is Device Enabled -property
Device Enabled: 0
* then you probably can change this…
xinput set-int-prop 4 “Device Enabled” 32 0
sources:
man xinput
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=967120
Thank you very much.
Try This
Press Fn +F7 to turn off and back on.
I was plagued with the “SHMConfig disabled?” error and couldn’t get the other options in xorg.conf to work, until I added the line
Options “CorePointer”
right after the line
Driver “synaptics”
Before then I had moved the Synaptics Touchpad section so it was before all the other input sections in xorg.conf. I don’t know if that was necessary or not.
BTW, this is with Debian Lenny, not Ubuntu–I hope you don’t mind.
What a relief to not select huge fields of text when I’m just trying to move the cursor, and not to have my insertion point move to the middle of a word while I’m typing !!
Thanks to everyone here; your posts and many others helped guide me to the answer I needed.
THANK YOU Wm. A. Weasel
😀
I’m also using Debian.
FYI, it isn’t needed to move the synaptics input section above any other (in fact, I have it last, after keyboard and mouse)
My xorg.conf section in Debian testing-unstable:
Section “InputDevice”
Identifier “Synaptics Touchpad”
Driver “synaptics”
Option “CorePointer”
Option “SendCoreEvents” “true”
Option “Device” “/dev/psaux”
Option “Protocol” “auto-dev”
Option “SHMConfig” “on”
EndSection
For other Debian users, comments 93 & 94 fixed it for me (CorePointer)
Cheers!
[…] […]
93 AND 94 didn’t do it for me. I am still getting the “SHMConfig Disabled” error message. I have an eeepc running Ubuntu 8.10. I’ve tried everything suggested in the forums and still no luck. Totally frustrated!
Erkko’s suggestion works. The only thing is that the command that he suggests that you use on the 5th step is formated incorrectly. The command should be:
xinput set-int-prop ‘SynPS/2 Synaptics TouchPad’ ‘Device Enabled’ 32 0
This worked beautifully for me.
Thanks Erkko
Argh, this is really bugging me. So I tried doing what you suggested. That section wasn’t there so I just added it and restarted. I still got the SHMConfig disabled error message. I then tried that xinput command and got an error message.
“X Error of failed request: BadValue (integer parameter out of range for operation)
Major opcode of failed request: 143 (XInputExtension)
Minor opcode of failed request: 37 ()
Value in failed request: 0x5d
Serial number of failed request: 15
Current serial number in output stream: 17”
A third solution is to use gconftool to toggle the touchpad setting in System > Preferences > Mouse > Touchpad
gconftool-2 –toggle /desktop/gnome/peripherals/mouse/touchpad_enabled
You can type this at the command line, put it in a script, or attach it to a launcher button on your toolbar.
Hi,
I’m using Gentoo, and nothing work for me … my touchpad is working but scroll no.
In comand “synclient -l” i have:
Can’t access shared memory area. SHMConfig disabled?
Any idea to Scroll work ?
Thank’s
Thank you Jim! That was such a simple but profound improvement to my Dell Mini 10v experience.
It’s idiots like you Craig, who are destroying our language.
Do you even know what the word, “Profound” means? Sheesh!
Though I’m using Ubuntu, comment 94/95 worked…kinda. The touchpad IS disabled (no more ‘can’t access shared memory’ error!)…but I needed the nub mouse…the actual trackpoint…disabled. There’s something screwy with my Dell Latitude C840 that makes the mouse drift to the lower-left or upper right. It’s a problem with the nub, as forcing it in the opposite direction will make the mouse behave…kinda.
Is there a way to disable that, too? I’m one step away from attempting to take the whole thing apart and cutting the wire!
It worked but every time I get an email it turns it back on! What gives?
Works like charm, thanks! I had to use ‘8’ for format instead of ’32’ (kernel_2.6.31-15-generic/xorg 1:7.4+3ubuntu1 / xinput_1.4.2-1):
xinput set-int-prop “SynPS/2 Synaptics TouchPad” \
“Device Enabled” 8 0
thanks for this tip. in UBUNTU 9.04 and my Acer Extensa 4620Z, I used the touchpad configuration setting to ignore touchpad when mouse is present.
i shifted to Win 7 on the Acer and could not find a way to disable the touchpad, until this post.
No matter how you slice it, UBUNTU has it all over any Windows product and I will be going back to 9.04 this week.
Worked great for me in ZenWalk Linux.
thankss admin
Someone used my laptop and when I try to use it, I have a problem with my touchpad: it doesn’t work. My laptop is a Dell Latitude C640.
Can anyone help me , please ?
Thanks.
Thanks, it worked on me. I have HP Mini 110, unlike the others which use shortcut fn+f…, HP have special button to deactivate the touchpad usually at the upper side of the touchpad. Mine doesn’t have it at the upper side but in the mouse, kinda strange. And my Lucid recognize the button as Alt+Tab so I can’t make use of the button.
I have assign the command synaptic Touchpad to f5 shortcut, I tried to assign using fn button but Lucid seems doesn’t recognize fn button.
Anybody know how to enable fn button in Lucid shortcut configuration?
great article 😀
Hmm…I’m not sure if this works for me. It would appreat the script is executed when I shut down, not when I log in.
Also another question: the script I want to roon requires root access. Do I need to do anything sepcial?
synclient does nothing to turn off the touchpad on ubuntu lucid.
I’m on a Dell Latitude D600. I tried the above procedure, and it ends up disabling the “pencil eraser” mouse in the keyboard, but the touchpad still works. Any ideas?
I’d sure like to see a way to turn on the palm check on the synaptics touchpad. as it is, Ubuntu is almost unusable on this HP dv-1000.
Thanks for the hint. Now I can disable the touchpad on my Dell Studio 1458 by using the function keys F6 and F7.
[…] have tried using some instructions I found (Disable Synaptics Touchpad & Disable tapping and scrolling on a Synaptics touchpad) from the other question, but I […]
Hey all. Britney in comment #115 says that lucid has problems with thi. I run mint 10 based off lucid and I was wondering if there is a solution to this. I have a eee pc 1015pn. I did all he above and I see the value changing when I press the fn+F3 hotkey to do the touhpadOff but the touchpad is still on dispite the value either way. My xorg.conf has the following sections :
Section “InputDevice”
Identifier “Synaptics Touchpad”
Driver “synaptics”
Option “SendCoreEvents” “true”
Option “Device” “/dev/psaux”
Option “Protocol” “auto-dev”
Option “HorizScrollDelta” “0”
Option “SHMConfig” “on”
EndSection
Section “ServerLayout”
Identifier “single head configuration”
Screen 0 “Default Screen” 0 0
InputDevice “Synaptics Touchpad” “Keyboard0”
EndSection
Am I doing something wrong or is this not possible on Lucid?
– Sam
any help is great
Many thanks sharing fantastic informations. Ones websiteis consequently cool. We are impressed from the main factors that you’ve with this blog. The item reveals precisely how nicely people perceive this specific subject. Thank your share with me! http://www.fakeray-bansunglasses.com.
İYİ
antalya ev ilaçlama
Install gpointing-device-settings. It has it all.
Very helpful posting!
been struggling with keyboard weirdness (bumping touchpad) for a long time and this was a big help. Touchpad off but (eraser) cursor controller still enabled which was fine with me.
This worked for the debian lenny distribution on my Dell M4400..
see also: http://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/slackware-14/cant-access-shared-memory-area-shmconfig-disabled-692073/
if you have problems like I did in that tmpfs wasn’t configured/mounted
$synclient TouchpadOff=1
$synclient TouchpadOff=0
Worked Perfectly !!
Thanks for the trick !
[…] #split {}#single {}#splitalign {margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;}#singlealign {margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;}#splittitlebox {text-align: center;}#singletitlebox {text-align: center;}.linkboxtext {line-height: 1.4em;}.linkboxcontainer {padding: 7px 7px 7px 7px;background-color:#eeeeee;border-color:#000000;border-width:0px; border-style:solid;}.linkboxdisplay {padding: 7px 7px 7px 7px;}.linkboxdisplay td {text-align: center;}.linkboxdisplay a:link {text-decoration: none;}.linkboxdisplay a:hover {text-decoration: underline;} function opensingledropdown() { document.getElementById('singletablelinks').style.display = ''; document.getElementById('singlemouse').style.display = 'none'; } function closesingledropdown() { document.getElementById('singletablelinks').style.display = 'none'; document.getElementById('singlemouse').style.display = ''; } Great Price SteelSeries QcK Mini Gaming Mouse Pad (Black) Free Shipping Available!Fur PadFur PadKALENDER KPOP for SHAWOLMost popular Ipad Apps auctionsUbuntu Blog […]
Symptoms of PAD, Peripheral artery disease symptoms, symptoms of pad in legs…
[…]Disable Synaptics Touchpad « Ubuntu Blog[…]…
Thanks, you’re my savior! That’s just what I was looking for =)
Note that the whole thing (including adding the Input Device section to xorg.conf) worked 100% on the fly, without ever restarting X.
In my opinion you are mistaken. Write to me in PM, we will communicate.
By the way, what do you think about this icons site?
[…] touchpad (very common in laptops), you can disable the trackpad using the synclient command. See https://embraceubuntu.com/2006/03/24/disable-synaptics-touchpad/ for a thorough […]
I read this post completely on the topic of the comparison of hottest and earlier technologies,
it’s remarkable article.
This text is worth everyone’s attention. How can I find out more?
Hi my friend! I wish to say that this article is awesome, nice written and come with almost all vital
infos. I’d like to see more posts like this .
le ministre de l’Economie Pierre Moscovici a déclaré que la position des représentants de l’Etat au conseil d’administration sera dictée uniquement par l’intérêt de l’opérateur. mais ce n’est pas une entreprise publique? a rappelé Dinin sur Radio Classique? Il accueille plut? plein d’esprit, où se trouve une baraque à frites, orthoprothésiste, C? de recettes pour les caisses publiques : TVA,??Tout celaa-t-il changé ce soir?? live depuis laplace Taksim.
nikeairmax http://www.groupemoniteur.fr/wp-content/uploads/chaussurestn.htm
Prostitution is defined as the exchange of sex for money.
Online dating works much the same way that social networking services do, and like social networking services
you want to stay connected at all times. I will let you show me that you want to be with me.
Hello there. Today working with yahoo. It is a effectively composed document. I will always search for the item plus come back to find out more within your beneficial information. Just publish. I am going to certainly returning. Hello there. Today working with yahoo. It is a effectively composed document. I will always search for the item plus come back to find out more within your beneficial information. Just publish. I am going to certainly returning.
Just wish to say your article is as astounding. The clearness
in your post is simply cool and i can assume you are an expert on this subject.
Fine with your permission let me to grab your RSS feed to keep updated with forthcoming post.
Thanks a million and please carry on the gratifying work.
Selections should be simple to grasp by the tourists.
It can be quickly incorporated into ecommerce websites, user submission content e.
Don’t hesitate this is for a limited time take advantage now.
I just wanted to disable mine because the cursor kept moving itself off the screen making the computer unusable. I had forgotten about the eraser mouse control in the keyboard. Wiggling it around some made the cursor behave. Simple fix, old computer saved from trashcan.
[…] Disable Synaptics Touchpad | Ubuntu Blog – Disable Synaptics Touchpad March 24, 2006 Posted by Carthik in guides, ubuntu. trackback. Update: To learn how to disable the touchpad temporarily when you are …… […]
I use tpn and tpf to turn my touchpad on and off. The following are in my zshell file:
alias tpf=’xinput set-prop `getID` “Device Enabled” 0′
alias tpn=’xinput set-prop `getID` “Device Enabled” 1′
getID () {
xinput list | grep –color=auto –exclude-dir={.bzr,.cvs,.git,.hg,.svn} “Synaptics TouchPad” | awk ‘{print $6 }’ | cut -d’=’ -f2
}
What’s up, I check your blog daily. Your writing style is witty, keep up the good work!
[…] Disable Synaptics Touchpad | Ubuntu Blog – Disable Synaptics Touchpad March 24, 2006 Posted by Carthik in guides, ubuntu. trackback. Update: To learn how to disable the touchpad temporarily when you are … […]
If est pas la question, puis est le départ de Illarra le résultat de la mauvaise infraction?
[…] habe versucht, einige Anweisungen zu verwenden, die ich in der anderen Frage gefunden habe (Synaptics Touchpad deaktivieren & Antippen und Scrollen auf einem Synaptics-Touchpad deaktivieren ), aber ich erhalte nicht das […]
[…] have tried using some instructions I found (Disable Synaptics Touchpad & Disable tapping and scrolling on a Synaptics touchpad) from the other question, but I […]