Script to turn off laptop touchpad

[Pepi]

Hi all! Not good at doing any writing code an was hoping someone could help me with this. If I want to turn off my laptop touchpad I do this at the terminal.

xinput --list | grep GlidePoint (To get the ID number of my touchpad)

⎜ ↳ AlpsPS/2 ALPS GlidePoint id=13 [slave pointer (2)]


export DISPLAY=:0
xinput set-int-prop 14 "Device Enabled" 8 0

(I have to edit the ID number because it will change on a shutdown/startup)

How can a script be done to find the correct ID of my touchpad and run this from a command file?

Thanks

[xenopeek]

Create a file as follows (you can just use gedit / Text Editor from the menu):

Code: Select all

#!/bin/bash

# Check if GlidePoint can be found
MATCHES=$(xinput --list | grep GlidePoint | wc -l)

# Check exactly one match was found
if [[ $MATCHES != 1 ]]; then
   zenity --error --text="xinput lists no GlidePoint" --title=${0}
   exit 1
fi

# Get the ID of the GlidePoint
ID=$(xinput --list | grep GlidePoint | sed 's/^.*id=//g' | sed 's/ .*$//g')

# Check the match is not zero length
if [[ ${#ID[0]} = 0 ]]; then
   zenity --error --text="couldn't find id of GlidePoint" --title=${0}
   exit 1
fi

# Disable the GlidePoint
export DISPLAY=:0
xinput set-int-prop $ID "Device Enabled" 8 0

# Check if xinput had an error
if [[ $? != 0 ]]; then
   zenity --error --text="xinput failed disabling GlidePoint" --title=${0}
   exit 1
fi

For example, call it "Disable-GlidePoint" or something. Then right-click it, properties, permissions, and set to allow it for executing.

[Pepi]

Thanks Vincent! I can't get the code to run. It bombs out at ...

bill@bill-TOSHIBA-NB205 ~ $ xinput set-int-prop $ID "Device Enabled" 8 0
Invalid format 0


All the rest of the code seems to run without any errors,

[xenopeek]

Well, I had to take a few guesses from the output you shared Somehow the ID is not getting grepped correctly.

Please do the following:

Code: Select all

xinput --list | grep GlidePoint >> ~/Desktop/output
xinput --list | grep GlidePoint | sed 's/^.*id=//g' | sed 's/ .*$//g' >> ~/Desktop/output

And then open the file "output" on your desktop, and share the contents here in a Code block (use the Code button located at the top right of the text field when you reply, and paste the contents of the output file between the code tags).

[Pepi]

Code: Select all

⎜   ↳ AlpsPS/2 ALPS GlidePoint                   id=13   [slave  pointer  (2)]
13   [slave

[xenopeek]

Okay, then this should fix it. Replace the line:

Code: Select all

ID=$(xinput --list | grep GlidePoint | sed 's/^.*id=//g' | sed 's/ .*$//g')

With:

Code: Select all

ID=$(xinput --list | grep GlidePoint | sed 's/^.*id=//g' | cut -f1)

Only the last bit is changed. Without the Code block around it, in your first post the tab character in that line you shared had collapsed to a single space. Should work with this change.

So the entire script becomes:

Code: Select all

#!/bin/bash

# Check if GlidePoint can be found
MATCHES=$(xinput --list | grep GlidePoint | wc -l)

# Check exactly one match was found
if [[ $MATCHES != 1 ]]; then
   zenity --error --text="xinput lists no GlidePoint" --title=${0}
   exit 1
fi

# Get the ID of the GlidePoint
ID=$(xinput --list | grep GlidePoint | sed 's/^.*id=//g' | cut -f1)

# Check the match is not zero length
if [[ ${#ID[0]} = 0 ]]; then
   zenity --error --text="couldn't find id of GlidePoint" --title=${0}
   exit 1
fi

# Disable the GlidePoint
export DISPLAY=:0
xinput set-int-prop $ID "Device Enabled" 8 0

# Check if xinput had an error
if [[ $? != 0 ]]; then
   zenity --error --text="xinput failed disabling GlidePoint" --title=${0}
   exit 1
fi

[Pepi]

Thank you Vincent! Works like a charm. I hope this may help other out also. I sure wish I knew how to script like this I'm not the sharpest tool in the shed

[xenopeek]

Thank you Vincent! Works like a charm. I hope this may help other out also. I sure wish I knew how to script like this I'm not the sharpest tool in the shed

Ah well, I need to automate something from time to time I keep old scripts around, for later re-use. There are a few good books on shell scripting, but I picked up everything from examples from others & Google