Somewhere I found a way to write a key binding to turn my touchpad on and off, and now I can't find it. (I have two machines, both with Bodhi, and have it fixed on one but can't repeat the fix.) Can anyone help with this? I found the key bindings but no setting for touchpad.

i use the synaptic drivers for my touchpad. those include a command line program that can be used to turn the touchpad on and off. i have never done so by key binding, but you could probably use a script. xinput would probably also be an option.

I use a app called touchpad-indicator... it places a small icon on the systemtray (though I run it hidden). You can make it do a ton of things.. like making a hotkey to turn on and off the touchpad, auto disable when typing and auto disable when you plug a mouse into it.

Just run these two commands to add the ppa to BodHi and then install the app. You will need to add the app to the "startup applications" section of the settings to make it load each boot. I run it without the icon in view, (right-click the system tray icon and select hide)... but you can run with it visible as well. If you edit the .desktop file you can change the icon as well.

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This.
And it does it automagically.
It's called syndaemon.

OK, how do you use it? I opened a terminal and typed "sudo syndaemon", hit Enter and entered my password... and the cursor just blinks and blinks, nothing appears to happen.

This appears to work, thank you, even though it does not answer my original question, which was how to make a key binding to do this. I will be happy for the solution you provided.

Why do you think you need sudo for this?
Anyhow, read 'man syndaemon'. No hotkeys, it does it automagically.
Only works if you use the synaptics driver anyhow.
Enter 'synclient' to find out.
BTW many touchpads have a "PalmDetect" setting that does roughly the same. More reading: https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php...palm_detection

checking with synclient is a good way to find out if you are using the synaptics driver first.

i use the syndaemon -i 0.5 -t -K -R -d (man syndaemon, as suggested, will describe the options) because it detects when i am typing and temporarily disables tapping and scrolling. it's not always perfect, but works well enough to soften most of the rough edges.

since you specifically want to be able to set a key binding, you might be able to (if you are using the synaptics driver) use something like synclient TouchpadOff=1 to disable and synclient TouchpadOff=0 (man synaptics or here to check out available options) to enable it.

OK, I typed syndaemon WITHOUT sudo, and the same thing happened: new line with the cursor blinking, and nothing else. And yes, I ran synclient and it is running synaptics.

Syndaemon, according to your beloved man page which you would rather send people to than talk to them, only controls touchpad use WHILE TYPING. I would like the pad disabled. Period. That does not appear to be possible with this daemon.

questionsBot provided a workable answer. Thank you. It was not the answer I found before, but that is not being found.

i have added two previous posts trying to help so i'm not sure why you seem to have taken exception the most recent.

mind you, i'm not the one who commented about sudo (though it is true) and didn't copy and paste from the man page because it appeared to me that syndaemon was not what you were after. you had asked how it worked in a previous post

so i was sharing my experience in case it might be helpful.

i added the part about synclient (related to syndaemon, but a different command entirely) because (on my system at least) it can absolutely disable the touchpad.

i included the part about the man page there and a link to same because touchpadoff has three options, but those two seemed like the ones you were looking for

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