Too often on my RHEL system I hit the mousepad when writing or doing something else, with the result of typing in the wrong part of the document.
This is even more annoying when I am sitting at my desk, with my mouse plugged.
I know that there is a setting to disable the mousepad when typing but I wanted something more robust.
For this reason here is a little guide about how I managed to automatically disable the mousepad when I plug in a usb mouse and how to enable it back when I unplug it.
You need some utility to query your mice.
sudo yum install xorg-x11-apps
Now we can have a list of the recognized plugged input devices on your system:
$ xinput list
⎡ Virtual core pointer id=2 [master pointer (3)]
⎜ ↳ Virtual core XTEST pointer id=4 [slave pointer (2)]
⎜ ↳ TPPS/2 IBM TrackPoint id=13 [slave pointer (2)]
⎜ ↳ Macintosh mouse button emulation id=14 [slave pointer (2)]
⎜ ↳ Logitech USB Laser Mouse id=16 [slave pointer (2)]
⎜ ↳ SynPS/2 Synaptics TouchPad id=15 [slave pointer (2)]
⎣ Virtual core keyboard id=3 [master keyboard (2)]
↳ Virtual core XTEST keyboard id=5 [slave keyboard (3)]
↳ ThinkPad Extra Buttons id=6 [slave keyboard (3)]
↳ AT Translated Set 2 keyboard id=7 [slave keyboard (3)]
↳ Lid Switch id=8 [slave keyboard (3)]
↳ Integrated Camera id=9 [slave keyboard (3)]
↳ Sleep Button id=10 [slave keyboard (3)]
↳ Video Bus id=11 [slave keyboard (3)]
↳ Power Button id=12 [slave keyboard (3)]
My laptop has a touchpad(id=15) and a trackpoint(id=13).
And you can see an entry for my usb mouse (id=16)
If you just want to disable manually the mousepad or any other device it is quite easy.
It is just a matter of:
xinput --set-prop "SynPS/2 Synaptics TouchPad" "Device Enabled" 1 # to enable
xinput --set-prop "SynPS/2 Synaptics TouchPad" "Device Enabled" 0 # to disable
Now if we want to automatically execute this commands when the mouse is plugged/unplugged we need to use
udev.
sudo yum install udev
We create a new rules file in udev configuration folder:
sudo gedit /etc/udev/rules.d/61-touchpad.rules
And add this code:
# 61-touchpad.rules
#
# this rules file must be named 61* or later because it won't work
# unless it runs after '/lib/udev/rules.d/60-persistent-input.rules'
#
# NOTE: will only affect DISPLAY :0
#
# run:
# udevadm test --action=add /sys/devices/platform/i8042/serio1/input/input6/mouse1
# or similar to test the following rules
#
ACTION=="add", SUBSYSTEM=="input", ENV{DISPLAY}=":0.0", DEVPATH=="*/mouse?", RUN+="/usr/bin/xinput --set-prop 'SynPS/2 Synaptics TouchPad' 'Device Enabled' 0"
ACTION=="remove", SUBSYSTEM=="input", ENV{DISPLAY}=":0.0", DEVPATH=="*/mouse?", RUN+="/usr/bin/xinput --set-prop 'SynPS/2 Synaptics TouchPad' 'Device Enabled' 1"
And we have done!
Try to plug/unplug if it is behaving like expected!
In case of problems there is a way to debug udev events, in case the rules we defined do not apply exactly to your hardware configuration:
sudo killall udevd
sudo udevd --debug-trace --debug
To restart udevd when you have finished the debug:
/sbin/start_udev
Useful link:
https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Touchpad_Synaptics#Disable_touchpad_upon_external_mouse_detection
