Debian - syndaemon dose not seem to control my trackpad? (Turn off while typing / when mouse plugged in)

questionsBot · 08-05-2021, 12:43 AM

I would like to add some functionality to deal with enabling and disabling the mouse-track-pad in various situations...

1) Turn off the mouse-track-pad whenever a mouse is plugged into the computer

2) Turn off the mouse-track-pad when I am typing, then turn it back on when I am no longer typing.

xinput list

Code:

⎡ Virtual core pointer                    	id=2	[master pointer  (3)]
⎜   ↳ Virtual core XTEST pointer              	id=4	[slave  pointer  (2)]
⎜   ↳ Kensington Expert Wireless TB Mouse     	id=9	[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)]
    ↳ Sleep Button                            	id=8	[slave  keyboard (3)]
    ↳ Kensington Expert Wireless TB Consumer Control	id=10	[slave  keyboard (3)]
    ↳ AT Translated Set 2 keyboard            	id=11	[slave  keyboard (3)]
    ↳ HP WMI hotkeys                          	id=13	[slave  keyboard (3)]

I can turn off the trackpad with this command...

Code:

xinput set-prop 12 "Device Enabled" 0
xinput set-prop 12 "Device Enabled" 1

I have been trying to use syndaemon to get the functionality of turning off the trackpad while running.. but it does not seem to do anything at all.

Code:

syndaemon -i .5 -K -t -R -d &

Any ideas.. I am using debian and would prefer to not install something outside of the official repositories.

Timothy Miller · 08-06-2021, 11:53 AM

Most likely if this is a recent install it's using libinput to control the touchpad, not synaptics. Syndaemon only works on synaptics drivers to my knowledge, and does nothing for libinput.

You should see if it supports it in libinput with

Code:

xinput list-props <id>

and then set it through that.

moraashley · 08-16-2021, 09:52 PM

Thanks for the solution. That works!

ondoho · 08-17-2021, 02:09 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by moraashley

Thanks for the solution. That works!

Must be a spammer.

Anyhow, about the topic:
A touchpad isn't necessarily a synaptics compatible touchpad, and syndaemon will work only on those.
To find out what you have,just execute

Code:

synclient

without any options

edit: OK, Tim Miller kinda said the same thing.