How to disable Synaptics Touchpad on Toshiba Satellite?
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How to disable Synaptics Touchpad on Toshiba Satellite?
Hiya people,
I have a Toshiba Satellite P200 1A4 laptop with a Synaptics touchpad.
The distro in question is Slackware 12.1 with the generic-SMP kernel, in case it matters.
However, I don't like touchpads at all and prefer a normal mouse. So I'd like to know how I can disable it. I don't mean to disable it on the console or disable it in X, I wish to disable it alltogether.
Any help will be appreciated,
Alphons
Last edited by skysmurf; 07-12-2008 at 08:37 AM.
Reason: Spelling typo fixed
If there is nothing in the BIOS to do this, you have 2 options: open up the case and find the touch pad connectors and disconnect them or, alternatively, tape a piece of card over the touch pad so you can't use it (and I have seen people do this!)
Then restart X with <CTRL><ALT><BACKSPACE>
That should disable the tapping (probably the most annoying thing)
Perhaps if you set Option "SendCoreEvents" "false"
It will not do anything at all?
I just set my /etc/X11/xorg.conf like this (as I suggested above) and the touchpad is completely disabled when X is restarted.
Who says I'm running X?
Who says I even have X installed in the first place?
I appreciate your suggestion, but I specifically mentioned that I prefer a solution that doesn't depend on either X being there or the console being used.
It is possible that there's a setting in your kernel, but disabling it may disable your mouse support altogether. No reason you can't do some experimenting though - assuming you have the available time to compile and recompile your kernel.......
It is possible that there's a setting in your kernel, but disabling it may disable your mouse support altogether. No reason you can't do some experimenting though - assuming you have the available time to compile and recompile your kernel.......
If I can't disable the touchpad in the BIOS I'll give it a whack. Should I report back if I find something?
Who says I'm running X?
Who says I even have X installed in the first place? [snip]
I prefer a solution that doesn't depend on either X being there or the console being used..[snip]
(Linux can actually run without X...)
Sorry: I mis-read your question. So my replies will not have helped you.
So, if you are not running X, or a console then what is it that the touchpad is doing that is so annoying you?
If you are in the CLI and do not need a mouse, you should uninstall gpm
Actually, I do (occasionally) need a mouse. I just don't like touchpads, so I use a "normal" wired USB mouse.
Anyway, I think I may have found something while tinkering with the kernel config. As soon as I've verified that it really works, I'll report back with the results.
How to disable Synaptics Touchpad on Toshiba Satellite? - SOLVED
The reason for wanting to disable the touchpad is that I keep accidentally touching it while typing - very annoying, particularly when I'm in vim's insert mode. I also simply don't like the way those thingies feel/handle.
Anyway, the solution turned out to be very simple: because the touchpad is identified as a PS/2 device (as an examination of dmesg revealed) I can simply remove PS/2 mouse support from the kernel (Device drivers -> Input device support -> Mice). In fact, even if I remove the "Mice" section alltogether, a USB mouse will still work - provided that USB support is still compiled in, of course.
Thanks again for the suggestions, I'm a little happier now
Alphons
Last edited by skysmurf; 07-16-2008 at 04:00 PM.
Reason: Forgot something
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