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mustu
Asked: 2011-12-05 03:07:22 +0800 CST

How to lock touchpad while typing

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I'm using Ubuntu 11.10 on Dell Inspiron N5110. As the touch pad is a bit large in this model it’s frequently getting in my way while typing. Although I try my best to not touch it, the cursor still gets moved and ruins what I am typing.

I remember an option in the "Mouse and Touchpad" utility which let us lock the touchpad while we are typing but I couldn't find that option in this utility now.

Any clue?

synaptics

5 Answers

  1. Use syndaemon to disable while typing. Syntax is syndaemon [-i idle-time] [-d]
    So something like syndaemon -i 4 -d Or, you could disable it completely with this command synclient TouchpadOff=1
    Add them to your startup applications

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  2. I could fix this using dconf-editor, under org > gnome > settings daemon > peripherals > touchpad. There's an option to disable the touchpad while typing.

    enter image description here

    I also don't have the "touchpad" tab in system settings. Let me know if works for you.

    UPDATE: I've just upgraded to Ubuntu 12.04 LTS, and the "touchpad tab" issue is fixed. At least with my laptop.

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  3. Open System Settings.

    Go to "Mouse and Touchpad"

    Click on the Touchpad tab.

    mark "Disable touchpad while typing."

    enter image description here

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  4. I personally find that the mouse an touchpad settings that come with Ubuntu don't quite do the job and my mouse is always moving around. I use the following program to manually turn off the touchpad when I want. Not quite as elegant as turning off when typing, but for me much more effective.

    sudo apt-get install gpointing-device-settings
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  5. All above suggestions did not work for me on Ubuntu 18.04. I have some touchpad settings in the Settings application, but not a checkbox to disable the touchpad while typing. I did found it with dconf-editor, but it was already enabled, making no difference.

    I opened Startup Applications and added syndaemon -i .5 -K -t -R -d to turn off the touchpad 500 milliseconds (.5) after every keystroke:

    enter image description here

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