Deactivate touchpad on laptop when a mouse is plugged

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Pascale

Deactivate touchpad on laptop when a mouse is plugged

Post by Pascale »

Hello,

I carefully read this topic but without success.

I copied-pasted
gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.peripherals.touchpad send-events disabled-on-external-mouse

and get this:
gsettings get org.gnome.desktop.peripherals.touchpad send-events
'disabled-on-external-mouse'
but the damned touchpad is still activated...

My mouse is an ordinary wired one.

I also tried the other way indicated:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:atareao/atareao
sudo apt update
sudo apt install touchpad-indicator

I can't see where the little icon is.
Last edited by LockBot on Wed Dec 28, 2022 7:16 am, edited 1 time in total.
Reason: Topic automatically closed 6 months after creation. New replies are no longer allowed.
redlined

Re: Deactivate touchpad on laptop when a mouse is plugged

Post by redlined »

hi Pascale,

I too tried touchpad indicator (and do recall not seeing it until clicked open from menu) but found just disable touchpad in settings worked easiest (I use a USB wired mouse, as preference)

I see your sig mentions LM19 Cinnamon, the post you referred to was for Mate DE (not sure if that matters though).

From Mint menu> Mouse and Touchpad> Touchpad tab> toggle Enable Touchpad on/off works just fine and I removed indicator as I have no desire to easily reenable touchpad. Hope this helps!
Pascale

[SOLVED] Re: Deactivate touchpad on laptop when a mouse is plugged

Post by Pascale »

Hi redlined,

Thank you for your help! I thought that deactivating the touchpad would deactivate it all the time, but it doesn't! If I remove my mouse, the touchpad works again: this is exactly what I need.

Have a nice day!
Pascale

Re: Deactivate touchpad on laptop when a mouse is plugged

Post by Pascale »

Well, I removed the solved label in the title because a problem remains: sometimes, I unplug the mouse and all wires on my laptop if I need to move it. I use temporarily the touchpad. But when I re-plug the mouse, the touchpad remains active and I have to turn it off again.
redlined

Re: Deactivate touchpad on laptop when a mouse is plugged

Post by redlined »

ahh, very good.

Try look for touchpad-indicator (you installed from ppa) in Mint menu and click to start it there, see if it shows up on your panel. I didn't mess with it long enough to see if it automagically toggles touchpad state based on add/remove external plugged in mouse, but even if it doesn't it may prove to be an easier to access quickly means of toggling it on/off. I do recall it has a shortcut setup. then If it does work nicely, or is more convenient way to toggle, then consider adding it to Startup applications list (also found in Mint menu) to get it running on system start.

Otherwise I'd consider installing dconf-editor (it can wreck your system, so be mindful of what you tinker with in there), it allows some real good fine-tuning and tweaking of system internals.

edit to add: disregard the dconf suggest (for this issue anyways) what you want is that touchpad-indicator from atareao, for sure (I just reinstalled it and the setting in it describe everything you want, including mouse state detection/auto touchpad changes. try run in terminal: touchpad-indicator --show-icon and see if that helps show it. I did not see much else that might help from issues listed at dev page:
https://github.com/atareao/Touchpad-Indicator
Pascale

Re: Deactivate touchpad on laptop when a mouse is plugged

Post by Pascale »

Hello redlined,

The touchpad indicator is still invisible.
I tried again to install it:
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:atareao/atareao
sudo apt update
sudo apt install touchpad-indicator


But all I get is that:
Vous êtes sur le point d'ajouter le PPA suivant :
Applications from atareao
Plus d'informations : https://launchpad.net/~atareao/+archive/ubuntu/atareao
Appuyez sur Entrée pour continuer ou Ctrl+C pour annuler

Executing: /tmp/apt-key-gpghome.Y68rXbou0h/gpg.1.sh --keyserver keyserver.ubuntu.com --recv-keys A3D8A366869FE2DC5FFD79C36A9653F936FD5529
gpg: clef 6A9653F936FD5529 : « Launchpad PPA for atareao » n'est pas modifiée
gpg: Quantité totale traitée : 1
gpg: non modifiées : 1

It says that Launchpad PPA for atareo is not modified.

If I try
touchpad-indicator --show-icon

I get
touchpad-indicator : commande introuvable
(the command can't be found).

I think that I'm not smart enough to fiddle with dconf...
redlined

Re: Deactivate touchpad on laptop when a mouse is plugged

Post by redlined »

dconf can be fun, just be mindful of what is looked at is all :mrgreen:

ok, this is messing with my head lol

maybe indicator support is off (I think it's off by default:/

Check:
Mint menu> System settings> Preferences> General> Misc Options (at the bottom) and make sure Enable support for indicators is [ON] (restart Cinnamon if you toggle this setting, can use Ctrl+Alt+esc to restart Cinnamon)

Hopefully this will show touchpad-indicator when Cinnamon reloads. If not I'd give it one more go by apt purge touchpad-indicator apt update and apt install touchpad-indicator

(in dconf-editor the address to that same setting would be org.cinnamon enable-indicators true but if not comfortable with such, then no bother. it is a very handy tool for searching and finding otherwise hard to find and completely hidden settings for entire OS)
Pascale

Re: Deactivate touchpad on laptop when a mouse is plugged

Post by Pascale »

Hi redlined !

Aaaargh! Tired of searching for this damned touchpad indicator everywhere, I discovered that I could add some applets in the tool (or task?) bar. What? Different workspaces? Well that could be interesting, especially because I use my computer both for home and for work. Let's forget the problem of the touchpad for now and try this.... Probably I did something stupid, since Mint kept on crashing again and again in spite of restorations. Finally, I could remove the Workspaces applet and everything seems to be normal now. I don't feel like trying new experiments tonight... :mrgreen:
If there is a Price of the Most Unskilled Newbie, I guess that I'm at least nominated...
redlined

Re: Deactivate touchpad on laptop when a mouse is plugged

Post by redlined »

Pascale wrote: Fri Feb 15, 2019 6:44 pm If there is a Price of the Most Unskilled Newbie, I guess that I'm at least nominated...
I think it's available since I just nominated my self for slightly less dangerous newbie award after getting LM19.1 installed UEFI mode (which i've always avoided, preferring legacy/bios method :lol:

I understand your frustration on this, I had similar issues with ip-indicator (from bovendar ppa) not showing address on the panel (tool/taskbar), drove me bonkers as all it would show was a blank space, like a placeholder but nothing unless left click on that empty space to show local and public IP in drop down.. I ended up forgetting about it till one day I saw my public IP address on panel, it fixed itself I guess lmao

If you are LM19.1 (I see 19 in your sig) then you might find switch between modern and traditional panel modes to be useful. Use Mint Welcome Screen to do that easily and it is weird to explain but getting into that panel edit mode and adding applets and such can really set things up nicely- especially if you use same box for work and play (workspaces/switcher really become a nice must have)

We can resume this whenever you desire, if ever. There are other tricks to use, like looking glass, and see if we can sort what is going on with any problematic applet, indicator, etc. I'm not smart enough to get much from the info, nor to drill down logs for good useful clues, but we do have a lot of good linux brains here and things will get sorted when attentions are captured.
meistertek
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Re: Deactivate touchpad on laptop when a mouse is plugged

Post by meistertek »

I recently found out there is a way to tune off the touch pad in Linux Mint 19.3 Cinnamon. Type in "Mouse and Touchpad" in the search located in the LM menu, hit enter. Then go to the Touchpad Tab, next turn on "Disable touchpad when a mouse is attached"
Disable touchpad when a mouse is attached.png
mconnell

Re: Deactivate touchpad on laptop when a mouse is plugged

Post by mconnell »

I have used Linux Mint 14, 16, 17, 18.4 & now 19.1. In between 18.4 and 19,1 Linux I switched over to Ubuntu 18.4 for about 9 months, All of the Linux Mints and Ubuntu versions you could turn off the touchpad by going into settings and turning it off. The problem with 19.1 is if the machine goes to sleep mode or it is turned off the machine goes back into touchpad is on. I tried using the synaptic touchpadoff = 1 and it does turn it off until the screen either goes to sleep or the machine is turned off. I have read that 19.1 is based on Ubuntu 18.4, so why is Linux Mint 19.1 or 18.4 different from Ubuntu 18.4. 19.1 touchpad settings doesn't have the turn touchpad off if mouse is plugged in like 19.2. So what is the fix for this issue.... I could live with this problem if the touchpad only turned on when the laptop is rebooted, but the reset when the laptop goes to sleep, is a real pain. Tell me what you need to know....
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