How to disable the touchpad?

Run the following command in a terminal:

xinput list

You will get an output that looks like this:

⎡ 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                          id=13   [slave  keyboard (3)]

It displays all the input devices connected. Note that they all have an id. Since 12 is the id for my touchpad, running the following command will disable it.

xinput set-prop 12 "Device Enabled" 0

In Ubuntu versions >12.04 you can also directly disable via

xinput --disable 12

(and enable via a similar command)

1. Search for mouse
2. Click on Mouse and Touchpad
3. Click off/on button to the right of touchpad settings.

check this link out: How to disable-enable touchpad in ubuntu 11.10

The answer found there is really neat:

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

After this you will get a switch in your notification area.

The only thing I would wish is to be able to set the switch key to Fn+F8 (which is a touchpad key switch on my keyboard...

Based on answer given by @Peng Wu I created a bash script that can be used...

#!/bin/bash

declare -i ID
ID=`xinput list | grep -Eo 'TouchPad\s*id\=[0-9]{1,2}' | grep -Eo '[0-9]{1,2}'`

xinput set-prop $ID "Device Enabled" 0

echo 'Touchpad has been disabled.'

You can manually run it or run it on start. Then you can make the script run at boot.

Another bash script to toggle touchpad:

#!/bin/bash

declare -i ID
ID=`xinput list | grep -Eo 'TouchPad\s*id\=[0-9]{1,2}' | grep -Eo '[0-9]{1,2}'`
declare -i STATE
STATE=`xinput list-props $ID|grep 'Device Enabled'|awk '{print $4}'`
if [ $STATE -eq 1 ]
then
    xinput disable $ID
    echo "Touchpad disabled."
else
    xinput enable $ID
    echo "Touchpad enabled."
fi

Simply, in a terminal:

synclient TouchpadOff=1

However, the above seems to not work anymore in Ubuntu 16.04. In this case, then xinput still works:

xinput set-prop `xinput --list | awk '/[Tt]ouch[Pp]ad.*pointer/ {print $7}' | sed 's/id=\(.*\)/\1/'` "Device Enabled" 0

UPDATED SOLUTION:

Instead of xinput, with id variables that can change, better use synclient as indicated in other answers, like this.

sudo apt install xserver-xorg-input-synaptics

To turn off touchpad:

synclient TouchpadOff=1

To turn on:

synclient TouchpadOff=0

To be used with launchers or shortcuts as said below.

This is just the application of the commands in this answer under the present question. The solution below is limited to Xfce/Xubuntu, but although I made it by chance, I find it too elegant not too share it here. So, I created a separate question initially, just for Xubuntu. That question cannot but be a duplicate of this one and may be closed for this reason, that's why I dare to re-post that answer here.

It is about these two commands:

Disable:

xinput set-prop 15 "Device Enabled" 0

Enable:

xinput set-prop 15 "Device Enabled" 1

The id number will be found by running

xinput list

This is how to disable your touchpad automatically on startup This method will disable the pad more safely by name rather than by id. Here is how to get the name of your touchpad:

$ xinput list --name-only | grep -i Touchpad
ETPS/2 Elantech Touchpad

Create a bash script file. I added the file to ubuntu Startup Applications so it runs on every restart. Remember to make the file executable. Here are the contents:

#!/bin/bash
$ xinput disable 'ETPS/2 Elantech Touchpad'

I use the following script to enable/disable touchpad. I also assigned it to the keyboard shortcut.

Usage: toggle_touchpad.sh [on|off]

if you run without arguments then it will simply invert the current state of he touchpad.

#!/bin/bash
# toggle_touchpad.sh

is_off=`synclient | grep -Pio "TouchpadOff.*?(\d)" | grep -Eo "[01]"`

if [ -z "$1" ]; then
    echo "Inverting touchpad state"

    if [ "$is_off" -eq '0' ];then
        synclient TouchpadOff=1
        notify-send "Touchpad Disabled"
    else
        synclient TouchpadOff=0
        notify-send "Touchpad Enabled"
    fi

else

    if [ "$1" == "on" ]; then
        echo "Turning on touchpad"
        synclient TouchpadOff=0
        notify-send "Touchpad Enabled"
    elif [ "$1" == "off" ]; then
        echo "Turning off touchpad"
        synclient TouchpadOff=1
        notify-send "Touchpad Disabled"
    else
        echo "Unknown arg! Pass no args or on/off !"
    fi

fi

Define keyboard shortcuts

^{(this answer was copied from an invalid edit)}

Instead of remembering that command every time you wish to enable/disable the touchpad, you can instead add it as a keyboard combination shortcut.

Under preferences in Keyboard Shortcuts click add. Give a name to the shortcut like "Disable Touchpad" or something and add the command you discovered above

xinput set-prop <id> "Device Enabled" 0

and click apply. Then add another shortcut called "Enable Touchpad" or something similar to the first and change the previous command to a 1 at the end

xinput set-prop <id> "Device Enabled" 1

those are the off/on respectivly.

Now that those are added, click on Enable Touchpad's Shortcut column (should say 'disabled') and type the keyboard shortcut you want it to be, I chose Win+1 (Hold Windows Key and press the number 1). Do the same for Disable Touchpad, I chose Win+2.

Now Win+1 enables my touchpad and Win+2 disables it.

This worked for me in 11.10 :

⎡ 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                          id=13   [slave  keyboard (3)]

It displays all the input devices connected. Note that they all have an id. Since 12 is the id for my touchpad, running the following command will disable it.

xinput set-prop 12 "Device Enabled" 0

and I would put it in .bashrc or whatever except that I'm not sure that device 12 (actually 11 for me) is always the touchpad.

Now if I could just get the up-arrow in nautilius to work and see the .dirs