How can I re-enable the Touchpad?

alkahest · 07-14-2013, 01:01 AM

Hello everyone,

I run Slackware 14 on a Dell Studio 17 notebook. I believe my touchpad is made by Synaptic, or similar.

Using BASH, I disabled my touchpad. First, I commanded 'xinput list', and found that my touchpad was given id=11. Then I commanded 'xinput set-prop 11 "Device Enabled" 0'. This disabled the touchpad. Thus, the cursor is frozen and I can't use the touchpad at all.

I want to re-enable the touchpad, but when I command 'xinput list', the touchpad is no longer listed. The id 11 has been reassigned to something called 'Speakup', which is a keyboard utility. The touchpad doesn't have an id number, so I can't re-enable it by setting "Device Enabled" to 1 (on).

How can I re-enable the touchpad?

Thanks!!!

onebuck · 07-14-2013, 06:53 AM

Hi,

This script should help you to toggle the touchpad;

Code:

#!/bin/bash

# touchpad.sh Written by Atanas S / Siteground Support Team

# First we need to get the device ID from the xinput
# if it does not work for you, you may need to set the cut -f option to another number
# I would suggest that you test the command in your terminal first to see the result
# It should output an integer usually between 8-15, at least on my lap top :D

getdev=`xinput list |grep pointer |grep PS |cut -f 2`
devid=${getdev/id=/}

#Second we need to get the device status, if it is enabled or not

# if it does not work for you, you may need to set the cut -f option to another number
# I would suggest that you test the command in your terminal first to see the result
# It should output 0 or 1

getstatus=`xinput list-props $devid |grep 'Device Enabled' |cut -f 3`

#once we get the device status depending on the status we set it the other way arround
        if [ "$getstatus" == "1" ]; then
        newstatus="0"
        else
        newstatus="1"
        fi
`xinput set-prop $devid "Device Enabled" $newstatus`

By running the script you will toggle the state of the TouchPad.
Hope this helps!

sundialsvcs · 07-14-2013, 11:37 PM

Following on to what onebuck just posted, you also need to be sure that your system is properly set-up to recognize another mouse-pointer device.

If everything's working as it should, either the touchpad or an external (USB?) mouse should "move the mouse pointer" equally. If this is indeed the case, then you know that X is aware of both devices and is accepting input from both. Now you can toggle the touchpad in the manner described. X should now ignore the touchpad but continue to accept input from the external mouse.

It's very important that you actually do what the script suggests: actually look at what the xinput list command is producing, then the two commands piped-together, then the three, finally all four. Determine which input-device is which. Be certain that the output (which winds up in the variable getdev) is picking-up (only...) the proper input device.

dive · 07-16-2013, 08:10 AM

If you use synclient instead of xinput life becomes easier:

synclient TouchpadOff=1 # off
synclient TouchpadOff=0 # on

TobiSGD · 07-16-2013, 04:52 PM

To add to what dive already pointed out, I use this script, bound to a keyboard combination, to toggle my touchpad on and off:

Code:

#!/bin/bash

synclient TouchpadOff=$(synclient -l|grep -c 'TouchpadOff.*=.*0')