While extreme sensitivity of the trackpad is not a huge deal while
clicking around on websites or other non-typing-related activities, I am
sure that many others are finding it as frustrating as I am to try and
type more than three words without the cursor relocating itself because
of an errant click.  When I am typing something of more than a few words
(such as this comment, for example), I usually disable the trackpad--it
is very easy to do from the command line.

First, do a "xinput" command to make sure that the pointer is showing up
as a "PS/2 Generic Mouse".  (You can see this output in comment #120.)
Assuming that is the name your trackpad shows up with, the command to
disable it is:

xinput set-int-prop 'PS/2 Generic Mouse' 'Device Enabled' 8 0

and to reenable, you just issue the following:

xinput set-int-prop 'PS/2 Generic Mouse' 'Device Enabled' 8 1

I have these commands in scripts called disabletrackpad.sh and
enabletrackpad.sh.  Until this gets fixed (and when will that be?) I can
use the scripts to disable and re-enable the trackpad so that I can type
for long periods without going batsh*t crazy.  I hope that helps others
with this issue.

Postscript: I see that Sam already put this info into comment
#95...Perhaps this repeat will help someone find it.  Perhaps having
another entry in this bug will spur someone to fix it. ;-)

And if I get around to writing a single script to toggle the enable
flag, send a message to libnotify, and map it to a shortcut key, I will
post all that here as well.

-- 
You received this bug notification because you are a member of Ubuntu
Bugs, which is subscribed to Ubuntu.
https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/606238

Title:
  synaptic touchpad not recognized on dell latitude e6510 and others

To manage notifications about this bug go to:
https://bugs.launchpad.net/linux/+bug/606238/+subscriptions

-- 
ubuntu-bugs mailing list
[email protected]
https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-bugs

Reply via email to