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I am running Parted Magic doing some data recovery, that I am finding myself concurrently using for some other minor tasks also. Problem being, typing is a nightmare, as the trackpad is enabled (No hardware way of disabling it), and seemingly very sensitive.

Just wondering:

  1. Generally is there is any way to disable hardware in Linux, without restarting X, or the machine (i.e., Ad hoc)?
  2. Are their any options to address this specific problem, if not by disabling the device, perhaps redirecting it's output
user66001
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1 Answers1

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Do xinput --list to see your list of input devices, for example:

> xinput --list      
⎡ Virtual core pointer                      id=2    [master pointer  (3)]
⎜   ↳ Virtual core XTEST pointer                id=4    [slave  pointer  (2)]
⎜   ↳ Microsoft Microsoft® Nano Transceiver v1.0    id=9    [slave  pointer  (2)]
⎜   ↳ Microsoft Microsoft® Nano Transceiver v1.0    id=10   [slave  pointer  (2)]
⎜   ↳ Logitech Optical USB Mouse                id=11   [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)]
    ↳ Power Button                              id=7    [slave  keyboard (3)]
    ↳ Microsoft Microsoft® Nano Transceiver v1.0    id=8    [slave  keyboard (3)]
    ↳ AT Translated Set 2 keyboard              id=13   [slave  keyboard (3)]
    ↳ UVC Camera (046d:081b)                    id=12   [slave  keyboard (3)]

Find the id of the hardware you want to turn off. For example, if I wanted to turn off my USB mouse, I need to use id 11. I can then do

xinput --disable 11

to disable it and 

xinput --enable 11

to reenable it.

If you have a Synaptics trackpad, you can also use the synclient command for controlling the trackpad. I have the following in my openbox rc.xml in the <keyboard> section:

<keybind key="W-q">
  <action name="Execute">
    <command>sh -c "synclient -l | grep TouchpadOff | grep -q 1; synclient TouchpadOff=$?"
    </command>
  </action>
</keybind>

If you are lucky enough to have a Synaptics trackpad, this should work for you as well. Add it and run openbox --reconfigure to have it reread its config. If you just want to turn the trackpad off from the command line, synclient TouchpadOff=1 is enough.

wingedsubmariner
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  • Thanks wingedsubmariner - Could you perhaps elaborate on how one can tell if they have a Synaptics touchpad (I can't see any indications in `lspci -k` or `lsmod` output)? I did run the `synclient TouchpadOff=1` command though, and got `Can't access shared memory area. SHMConfig disabled?` – user66001 Oct 20 '13 at 19:46
  • @user66001 Do `xinput list`. If it doesn't show "Synaptics Touchpad` you don't have one. – wingedsubmariner Oct 20 '13 at 19:53
  • Unfortunately, as I have run into in the past, I don't have `xinput`. Is there any easyish way to get this ?installed?? – user66001 Oct 20 '13 at 20:02
  • @user66001 Probably. What distribution are you running? Look for a package like `xorg-xinput`. – wingedsubmariner Oct 20 '13 at 20:03
  • First paragraph of the question (No package manager, either) :) – user66001 Oct 20 '13 at 20:05
  • @user66001 Sorry, missed that. See the Parted Magic website section on [Adding Programs](https://partedmagic.com/2013-10-08-14-18-01/adding-programs) – wingedsubmariner Oct 20 '13 at 20:36
  • Other stated request: Ad-hoc. Had found ways of using the blacklist, but as I can't interrupt the recovery operation, was hoping to (a) find way(s) of doing this from the current session. – user66001 Oct 20 '13 at 21:18
  • @user66001 You could try copying the `xinput` binary from another machine and hope it works, or statically compile one on another machine, but it might not be worth the effort. – wingedsubmariner Oct 21 '13 at 02:35
  • Has this worked for you? – user66001 Oct 21 '13 at 05:16