How to set the automatic disable touch pad after plugging in the external mouse
Hi @ranaground, and welcome!
After some googling I found this reddit question stating:
You need to make sure you install libinput. Then it’ll be under Pointing Devices, rather than touchpad settings
So, I’m guessing it has to do with that. And libinput is in the extra repositories:
$ pamac search libinput
[...]
libinput [Installed] 1.19.3-1 extra
Input device management and event handling library
So, in theory it can be installed with:
pamac install libinput
However, I see many libinput- packages there, and it might easily be one of/none of them and I wouldn’t know, nor would anyone else without additional information.
First maybe you could check if something like the following works:
xinput disable $(xinput list | grep -i touchpad | awk -F'[^0-9]*' '{print $7}')
xinput enable $(xinput list | grep -i touchpad | awk -F'[^0-9]*' '{print $7}')
Then I say
Maybe a script and/or env var and udev rule?
example:
/etc/environment
tch=$(xinput list | grep -i touchpad | awk -F'[^0-9]*' '{print $7}')
/etc/udev/rules.d/66-touchpadoff.rules
KERNEL=="mouse*", ATTRS{phys}=="usb*", ACTION=="add", \
RUN+="/usr/bin/xinput disable "$tch""
KERNEL=="mouse*", ATTRS{phys}=="usb*", ACTION=="remove", \
RUN+="/usr/bin/xinput enable "$tch""
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@cscs xorg-xinput should be installed to carry out this command
@ranaground also see this thread
A terminal prompt
zsh: correct ‘xinput’ to ‘_xinput’ [nyae]?
Need to install additional packages?
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sudo xinput disable $(xinput list | grep -i touchpad | awk -F’[^0-9]*’ ‘{print $7}’)
X Error of failed request: BadAccess (attempt to access private resource denied)
Major opcode of failed request: 131 (XInputExtension)
Minor opcode of failed request: 57 ()
Serial number of failed request: 21
Current serial number in output stream: 22
Seems to have encountered an error
What is the output of xinput list
⎡ Virtual core pointer id=2 [master pointer (3)]
⎜ ↳ Virtual core XTEST pointer id=4 [slave pointer (2)]
⎜ ↳ ALP001A:00 044E:121B Mouse id=13 [slave pointer (2)]
⎜ ↳ ALP001A:00 044E:121B Touchpad id=14 [slave pointer (2)]
⎜ ↳ PS/2 Generic Mouse id=17 [slave pointer (2)]
⎜ ↳ RAPOO Rapoo 2.4G Wireless Device Consumer Control id=12 [slave pointer (2)]
⎜ ↳ RAPOO Rapoo 2.4G Wireless Device Mouse id=11 [slave pointer (2)]
⎜ ↳ AlpsPS/2 ALPS GlidePoint id=21 [slave pointer (2)]
⎣ Virtual core keyboard id=3 [master keyboard (2)]
↳ Virtual core XTEST keyboard id=5 [slave keyboard (3)]
↳ Power Button id=6 [slave keyboard (3)]
↳ Video Bus id=7 [slave keyboard (3)]
↳ Power Button id=8 [slave keyboard (3)]
↳ Sleep Button id=9 [slave keyboard (3)]
↳ ALP001A:00 044E:121B UNKNOWN id=15 [slave keyboard (3)]
↳ AT Translated Set 2 keyboard id=16 [slave keyboard (3)]
↳ HP WMI hotkeys id=18 [slave keyboard (3)]
↳ Wireless hotkeys id=19 [slave keyboard (3)]
↳ RAPOO Rapoo 2.4G Wireless Device id=10 [slave keyboard (3)]
↳ RAPOO Rapoo 2.4G Wireless Device Consumer Control id=20 [slave keyboard (3)]
Mk… So how does this go:
xinput disable 'ALP001A:00 044E:121B Touchpad'
xinput enable 'ALP001A:00 044E:121B Touchpad'
(I noticed above you added ‘sudo’ - do not, it is not required)
If it works … you can use the udev rule:
/etc/udev/rules.d/66-touchpadoff.rules
KERNEL=="mouse*", ATTRS{phys}=="usb*", ACTION=="add", \
RUN+="/usr/bin/xinput disable 'ALP001A:00 044E:121B Touchpad'"
KERNEL=="mouse*", ATTRS{phys}=="usb*", ACTION=="remove", \
RUN+="/usr/bin/xinput enable 'ALP001A:00 044E:121B Touchpad'"
Considering the touchpad had ID 14:
I think a shorter, and less error-prone command would be:
- To disable the touchpad:
xinput --disable 14
- To enable the touchpad:
xinput --enable 14
Or, well, perhaps not.
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Yes, But I dont want that to change because of some configuration, update, hardware difference.
(thats what I was doing with awk above … just, dynamically)
So the name, since we were given the data, is more reliable.
True, I get it now.
Nothing is printed when the above command is executed.
It looks like it worked.
I’m going to write this information to ‘66-touchpadoff.rules’?
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Nothing should. But the touchpad should not work after disable, then work again after enable.
Yes … well, to be clear, the full path: /etc/udev/rules.d/66-touchpadoff.rules
ex:
sudo nano /etc/udev/rules.d/66-touchpadoff.rules
@cscs Do I need to reboot my computer to take effect
sudo udevadm control --reload
Also unplug/plug your usb again.
Otherwise, sure, reboot 
I’m a Bluetooth device sorry
Whether it needs to be changed
WOW. I can’t believe how far technology has come!
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