Is there a way to disable mousepad while mouse is attached? (XFCE)

Stumbled-Upon

Disabling the mousepad/keypad while an external mouse is attached is desired due to personal issues.
Is it possible? Any advice?

Noting I do love the XFCE DE and yet wanting (as a novice user) to make it better for all and for me.

WetGeek

Stumbled-Upon Is it possible? Any advice?

Some distributions have a setting that enables such a change to happen automatically. Or to disable the touchpad when you start typing. I haven't noticed any options like that for Xfce, but then, I always use a mouse unless the situation is very unusual (e.g., during an OS installation, etc).

However, the setting change to disable/enable the touchpad is a quick and easy one. Are you aware of where that is? If not, look in the settings, here ...

This is where you'll see your mouse and touchpad listed in the Device drop-down. Just select the touchpad, as shown here, and click the switch to turn it off.

If you're constantly switching back and forth, an automatic switch that detects when there's a mouse connected would be nice, but I haven't found that in Xfce yet.

EDIT: The only thing to watch out for is turning off the touch pad, and then using the computer somewhere where you have no mouse. You won't be able to turn the touchpad back on. So if you think you might need the touchpad soon, just leave it turned on, and try to avoid touching it. Otherwise that could be an issue.

Sebastian

WetGeek If my above posted instructions work, can you confirm that on a fresh Solus XFCE install (I am sure you have some VM's around here) touchpad Disable While Typing is not enabled by default.
In that case I open an issue on dev tracker and request this to be set as default.

Stumbled-Upon

Thank you 🙂
I am aware, however it's not ideal due to 2 reasons: 1. I rarely but not very rarely give my comp for other to use, and that other doesn't use mouse. 2. Sometimes there is a sudden error on the mouse. I used to (sometimes) disable the mousepad when there wasn't such a settings as desired, along with enabling mousekeys just in case (mainly for being able to "fix" it in "emergencies"), but it's encoumbered.

Since now I am using a non wireless mouse I probably can take the chance regarding the second issue. As for the 1st issue maybe it's non critical since in such case there is usually a restart anyway or a work in place while mouse is there, so it can be OK that way.

I'd prefer another option but it's OK if there isn't now for me.

P.S.
Disable while typing could help much. This is the main issue.

elfprince

Stumbled-Upon Can also look in BIOS settings. I used it for my ThinkPad successfully. Can't stand touchpad on laptops. 😄

Sebastian

Stumbled-Upon Disable while typing could help much. This is the main issue.

It might be fairly easy to disable mousepad while typing via 3 easy terminal commands.
I found these instructions Enable Touchpad While Typing In Manjaro Xfce and was able to turn disable touchpad while typing on and off.

First, you need to make sure that xinput is installed with sudo eopkg install xinput in terminal.

Then you stay in that terminal and enter:
xinput

The output looks in my case like this:
⎡ Virtual core pointer id=2 [master pointer (3)] ⎜ ↳ Virtual core XTEST pointer id=4 [slave pointer (2)] ⎜ ↳ PixArt USB Optical Mouse id=9 [slave pointer (2)] ⎜ ↳ SynPS/2 Synaptics TouchPad id=11 [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)] ↳ AT Translated Set 2 keyboard id=10 [slave keyboard (3)] ↳ HP WMI hotkeys id=12 [slave keyboard (3)]

You can see that my touchpad has the ID 11

Then you enter xinput list-props ID where you replace ID with the ID you found out in the step before.
So, in my case xinput list-props 11

Then, in output you look for the line containing libinput Disable While Typing Enabled
In my case it is:
libinput Disable While Typing Enabled (312): 1
The 312 is important here. The 1 at the end indicates that Disable While Typing is enabled.
So, basically in your case, if disabled, there should be a 0 instead of a 1.

Then, to enable Disable While Typing you enter:
xinput set-prop 11 312 1
Where 11 is the Touchpad ID we found out in first step. 312 Is what we found out in second step and 1 is for enabling.
You might find out other values than 11 and 312 and have to adjust accordingly.

This procedure worked for me (at the moment at a Fedora Cinnamon workstation though, but should work for you too.)
(This works on X11 only, not wayland.)

Sebastian

Stumbled-Upon Disable while typing could help much. This is the main issue.

I further found out that you actually can configure disable touchpad while typing in XFCE mouse and touchpad settings.
Though, only Synaptics Touchpad seem to be supported, and only if the right driver is installed.
So, if you too have a Synaptic Touchpad, after installing xorg-driver-input-synaptics via software center or terminal and then rebooting, you'll find the corresponding setting in XFCE mouse and touchpad settings:

Stumbled-Upon

elfprince

It's very annoying for me too on the laptop. Managed to shut it off though, so I don't need to change anything on the bios for it. (it has limitations as said, though, when a mouse gets suddenly malfunctioning or when the laptop is (even rarely) shared with other who doesn't like using the mouse.)

I thought it's only me and my bad coordination etc, it turns out to be more common 🙂

WetGeek

Sebastian In that case I open an issue on dev tracker and request this to be set as default.

Thanks for finding that solution. In my case, I use Wayland, but I also use a mouse 100% of the time, so it's not something I need, but it might help the OP. I'm sure he'll see it here.

I can't think of any reason why it shouldn't be a default. It seems like nobody would need the touchpad while they're actively typing something. Thanks again for your help.

Sebastian

WetGeek I can't think of any reason why it shouldn't be a default. It seems like nobody would need the touchpad while they're actively typing something

Right, that's what I am thinking, too.
I wasn't aware Wayland is available on XFCE currently. I thought it was X11 only at the moment. Well, what do I know.

WetGeek

Sebastian I wasn't aware Wayland is available on XFCE currently.

Actually, you're right. I'm really a Plasma user (for many years), so when I talk about my own experience, it's mostly not Xfce. My spare laptop and one of my VMs are on Xfce, though, because I'm a crew member and I've been testing Xfce ever since it was a DE added to a Budgie installation.

So Wayland may not appy to Xfce - yet - but it (or something like XWayoand) will be soon enough. It'll apply to everything soon. And good riddance to X11. 🙂