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how to disable touchpad click without use of xorg.conf?

Posted: Fri Jan 21, 2011 12:01 pm
by blm14
Just installed LMDE and loving it so far. Fast boot time, nice clean interface, yay!!

But the machine I've installed it on is a dell inspiron N5030 which has one of those lovely little trackpads and I cannot figure out how to disable the tap-to-click function, which means I am constantly creating false-positive mouse clicks (I did three just while typing this paragraph, argh!)

Doing some searching, most of the solutions to this problem involve customizing xorg.conf which I believe is completely deprecated now. So I can't use that!

A little info:

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uname -a
Linux maybeinnovations 2.6.32-5-amd64 #1 SMP Wed Jan 12 03:40:32 UTC 2011 x86_64 GNU/Linux

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xinput -list
⎡ Virtual core pointer                    	id=2	[master pointer  (3)]
⎜   ↳ Virtual core XTEST pointer              	id=4	[slave  pointer  (2)]
⎜   ↳ PS/2 Generic Mouse                      	id=12	[slave  pointer  (2)]
⎜   ↳ Macintosh mouse button emulation        	id=13	[slave  pointer  (2)]
⎣ Virtual core keyboard                   	id=3	[master keyboard (2)]
    ↳ Virtual core XTEST keyboard             	id=5	[slave  keyboard (3)]
    ↳ Video Bus                               	id=6	[slave  keyboard (3)]
    ↳ Video Bus                               	id=7	[slave  keyboard (3)]
    ↳ Power Button                            	id=8	[slave  keyboard (3)]
    ↳ Sleep Button                            	id=9	[slave  keyboard (3)]
    ↳ Laptop_Integrated_Webcam_0.3M           	id=10	[slave  keyboard (3)]
    ↳ AT Translated Set 2 keyboard            	id=11	[slave  keyboard (3)]
Now first of all I was a little worried that LMDE is not recognizing my mouse as a touchpad and is treating it as a generic PS/2 mouse and when I run gpointing-device-settings I see only "generic PS/2 mouse"

So, how can disable the annoying tap-to-click function without using xorg.conf? Will I need to first convice linux that i REALLY REALLY do have a touchpad and not some PS/2 mouse? If it thinks I have a generic PS/2 mouse then why is tapping working at all!? HALP!

TIA

Re: how to disable touchpad click without use of xorg.conf?

Posted: Fri Jan 21, 2011 12:28 pm
by blm14
Ugh

It's not a problem with LDME or even Debian. It's a kernel bug:

https://bugzilla.kernel.org/show_bug.cgi?id=23502

Anyone have a clue how long these things take to resolve? Will I be able to turn off tap clicking in a month? A year?

Yuck

Re: how to disable touchpad click without use of xorg.conf?

Posted: Sat Jan 22, 2011 8:55 am
by blm14
Bump. Is there a way to resurrect xorg.conf and use that solution?

Re: how to disable touchpad click without use of xorg.conf?

Posted: Sat Jan 22, 2011 10:21 am
by viking777
blm14 wrote:Bump. Is there a way to resurrect xorg.conf and use that solution?
Yes.
Open terminal:

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sudo telinit 1
type password again (it says root password but it means sudo password)

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X -configure

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mv /root/xorg.conf.new /etc/X11/xorg.conf
This will only work if there is no xorg.conf already in /etc/X11, if there is rename it first.

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init 5
To bring you back to the desktop again.

Of course what you do with the new xorg.conf is up to you, I don't know the solution you speak about.

Re: how to disable touchpad click without use of xorg.conf?

Posted: Sun Jan 23, 2011 12:49 pm
by mudpie
Does your laptop have a key-combination that disables the touchpad?

I have an Dell/Alienware laptop, and struggled with disabling the touchpad white running Ubuntu, and also ran down the confusing xorg path... then realized the controls are on the keyboard.

heh.

For me it's FN + F12 (function and F12). This quickly toggles the touchpad completely on or off for me.

Good luck, I hope you find a solution.

-Laura

Re: how to disable touchpad click without use of xorg.conf?

Posted: Sun Jan 23, 2011 1:17 pm
by Aging Technogeek
There is an applet available for installation that puts an icon on the panel which will toggle the touchpad on and off when clicked. Get it here:

http://www.webupd8.org/2010/11/touchpad ... ickly.html

Re: how to disable touchpad click without use of xorg.conf?

Posted: Sun Jan 23, 2011 2:25 pm
by sgosnell
On my system the mouse preferences has a touchpad tab which has a checkbox for that. Open the Mintmenu, and in the search box type mouse, and you should get the applet opened.