Disable touchpad hardware buttons

Question

I'd like to disable hardware buttons on the synaptic touchpad, but still be able to use the touchpad and "tap"-click on its surface. I don't find the related options in the output of synclient -l.

Note that I don't want to disable the touchpad completely. Only to make it ignore the hardware buttons, but still respond to taps.

My question is not how to disable it completely, only how to disable its hardware buttons. — sastanin, Dec 07 '10 at 23:07
This should be retagged with synaptics; synaptic (without the final s) is the graphical package manager that comes with Ubuntu, while Synaptics is a type of touchpad. — dgw, Dec 16 '10 at 01:58
There was a big thread on here recently where someone was trying to disable the touchpad while still being able to use the trackstick. If that's not possible then I doubt this is either; good luck though! — Roddie, Dec 17 '10 at 16:27
@jgbelacqua I learned not to press the broken button, but I didn't find if it is possible to disable hardware buttons in software. — sastanin, Apr 13 '11 at 17:16

score 2 · Accepted Answer · answered Jun 06 '11 at 10:11

2

Filed a bug against gpointing-device-settings #793440. It seems impossible to do what I want with the current version of the software. Question closed.

answered Jun 06 '11 at 10:11

sastanin

334

score 1 · Answer 2 · edited Mar 12 '17 at 21:18

1

Disabling Touchpad:

Press Alt+F2 and type gconf-editor and click Run.

alt text

Navigate to desktop>gnome>peripherals>touchpad,in the right panel uncheck the entry touchpad_enabled.

alt text

Now your touchpad will be disabled.

To turn off touchpad completely install gpointing-device-settings . After installation you can access it under System > Preferences > Touchpad

UPDATE:

If you want to use synclient then you have to edit your xorg.conf file.
```
sudo -H gedit /etc/X11/xorg.conf`          
```
See these instructions to edit xorg.conf
Also See this tutorial on disabling touchpad.
How to disable/enable touchpad in Ubuntu

edited Mar 12 '17 at 21:18

Zanna

70,465

answered Dec 07 '10 at 10:28

karthick87

81,947

2

Thank you, but I'd like not to disable the touchpad completely. Only to make it ignore the hardware buttons, but still respond to taps. – sastanin Dec 07 '10 at 11:23
1

I suggest you file against gpointing-device-settings; this doesn't seem to be currently possible. – poolie Apr 20 '11 at 00:35
Thank you, @poolie, I filed this as https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/gpointing-device-settings/+bug/793440. I you wrote this as an answer, I'd be able to accept it. – sastanin Jun 06 '11 at 10:11

desgua · Answer 3 · 2011-04-20T10:02:27.237

1

This will disable the hardware buttons and the "tap" feature, but you will be able to move the pointer:

1) Create this file:

gedit ~/.Xmodmap

2) Paste this into it:

pointer = 0 0 0

3) Logout and log back in, or reboot, or run this:

xmodmap ~/.Xmodmap

To get it back to normal:

1) Edit the file:

gedit ~/.Xmodmap

2) And change to:

pointer = default

3) Logout and log back in, or reboot, or run this:

xmodmap ~/.Xmodmap

4) If this file doesn't have anything else, then you can delete it after step "3":

rm ~/.Xmodmap

edited Apr 20 '11 at 10:02

answered Apr 13 '11 at 23:11

desgua

32,917

1

Won't this disable mouse clicks altogether, regardless of origin? – poolie Apr 14 '11 at 02:03
:-/ You probably right, I will check that when I get to my computer (I'm on mobile now). – desgua Apr 14 '11 at 10:35
Were you able to check whether this worked? – belacqua Apr 17 '11 at 01:35
Sorry. It disables the hardware buttons AND the touchpad tap. I am searching for a better solution. – desgua Apr 17 '11 at 01:54

Disable touchpad hardware buttons

3 Answers3

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