Re: can't disable Thinkpad touchpad
Quoting Haines Brown (haines@histomat.net):
> On Fri, Jul 10, 2015 at 03:35:30PM +0100, Darac Marjal wrote:
> > On Fri, Jul 10, 2015 at 10:07:13AM -0400, Haines Brown wrote:
> > > On a new Thinkpad x250, I've installed Sid. The touchpad causes
> > > problems, and so I want to disable it. The easy way is Fn+F8, but that
> > > key combination does nothing. Is this because Windows is not installed?
> > > What should be a sure fire way is to disable it in BIOS. I do that, but
> > > it has no effect.
> > >
> > > How do I get rid of it?
> >
> > According to
> > http://www.thinkwiki.org/wiki/Synaptics_TouchPad_driver_for_X, you can
> > either:
> >
> > * Execute `xinput set-int-prop "SynPS/2 Synaptics TouchPad" "Synaptics \
> > Off" 8 1` at a command prompt (or bind that to a hotkey)
> > * Create a file /etc/X11/xorg.d/*.conf with the contents:
> >
> > Section "InputDevice"
> > Identifier "Synaptics Touchpad"
> > Driver "synaptics"
> > Option "TouchpadOff" "1"
> > EndSection
>
> Thanks. The second approach appealed to me, but trying it was a
> disaster. First, I took "*.conf" literally (with wild card). When I
> killed X server, it caused the display to loose all sync. I could only
> reboot at that point. I believe I should elaborate my prior problems
> with touchpad.
Always a good idea.
> When X started, the desktop is stable (I'm using .fluxbox without a
> desktop environment).
So we can assume that the pad works perfectly before you start X,
and that in X you can click in the root window to get the various
menus?
> But when I start an X application such as xterm or
> emacs, the slightest brush of my hand on the trackpad caused X
> applications to crash. When I closed X server (using CAD), it led to
> syncronization instability, which I could deal with with C-d or such.
>
> After introducing the xorg.d/*.conf stanza and killing X server, I
> couldn't get a stable command prompt to recover except another CAD to
> reboot.
>
> So I tried the first approach by installing xinput and while root is in
> X session issuing the command.
I can't parse "while root is in X session". root is best left out of X
except for running Xorg -configure to get a model xorg.conf file.
> This indeed killed the touchpad and left
> Trackpoint working. But when I shut down the X server (I'm not in habit
> of doing pkill X), I loose syncronization and am left with black screen
> without prompt.
>
> When I reboot and log in as user, I cannot run the command from a user
> prompt because user can't access X server,
I think this is a result of where you are rather than who you are.
If I run xinput while in a VC (X running on VC1), I can't connect to
the Xserver. There's no problem running it in an ordinary xterm, even
if I've meanwhile ssh'd to another host and run it there. I still get
the info about X on this host.
> but when I do su for root to run it, I get
> Fatal server error: Server already active for display 0.
That's looks as if it's trying to start another Xserver.
You *are* typing "xinput" and not "xinit"?
> Strange: I didn't get this error when logged in as root.
>
> This suggests a fluxbox hotkey won't work. I don't think I can put the
> xinit command in ~/.fluxbox/startup because those also are commands
xinput
> issued by user. Likewise for ~/.profile.
>
> So maybe I should put the command in /etc/X11/Xsession.
Do you not have an .xsession file to put it in? I've just put
xinput list-props "AlpsPS/2 ALPS DualPoint TouchPad"
at the end and the results appear in the .xsession-errors file.
.profile wouldn't work as it runs long before you start X.
I don't know anything about ~/.fluxbox/startup and how/when it runs.
Cheers,
David.
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