How do I disable the trackpad in ubuntu 10.04?

Question

I have an usb radio mouse, so I would like to disable the trackpad to while i have the mouse plugged in. Is there a nice and easy way to do this ?

Answer 1

If you have a Synaptics touchpad (very common in laptops), you can disable the trackpad using the synclient command. See http://embraceubuntu.com/2006/03/24/disable-synaptics-touchpad/ for a thorough explanation.

You could either bind that command to a key, or have it executed automatically when the USB mouse is (un)plugged by putting an appropriate script into udev. The latter might be a bit tricky though.

If you are just annoyed that you brush the touchpad while typing, there's a daemon to disable the touchpad while typing: http://embraceubuntu.com/2006/09/20/disable-touchpad-temporarily-when-typing/

Answer 2

Even though this question already has an accepted answer I would like to add one more. The reason is that many laptops have a hardware switch (possibly reached with the Fn modifier key) that allows you toggling the touchpad on/off. So, instead of spending a lot of time on finding a way to disable/enable the touchpad through configuration, the solution might be as simple as pressing a button.

Answer 3

xinput_shortcuts

It's a very tiny code which allows you to disable/enable the touchpad from terminal.

Simply follow the Instructions below:

1. Download
2. Unpack it somewhere.
3. Open terminal and go to the directory where you have unpacked it.
4. chmod +x install.sh
5. ./install.sh

Now you can disable/enable touchpad by typing "disable_touchpad" or "enable_touchpad" commands in your terminal.