How do I disable the touchpad and keep the "real" mouse?

[GrannyGeek]

Running VL 5.8 Standard on my new laptop, I have both the touchpad and a USB mouse working. The touchpad is driving me crazy. If I hover over it, the cursor is likely to move. I want to disable the touchpad and use just the USB mouse.

I ran into the same situation when I first installed VL 5.8 Standard on my now fatally ill old laptop and someone posted a solution (Joe1962, I think). I couldn't find that message--it was probably lost in the forum changes.

Please tell me how to make the USB mouse the only pointing device.
--GrannyGeek

[Joe1962]

someone posted a solution (Joe1962, I think).

Yes, I have a vague recollection of that...

I couldn't find that message--it was probably lost in the forum changes.

I'd say that's pretty certain...

Please tell me how to make the USB mouse the only pointing device.

A quick, off the cuff idea is that AFAIK, touchpads are PS2 devices, so blacklisting the PS2 module might work. Sorry I don't have my VL setup working yet, so I can't be more specific, nor even test it.

[stoichyu]

I think it had something to do with xorg.conf, how many mice are specified there?

[retired1af]

Granny, this may be your ticket. http://www.compass.com/synaptics/

tpconfig supposedly will allow you to disable the touchpad at startup.

[lagagnon]

GrannyGeek: some laptops have a small button above the touchpad so you can turn it off in hardware - perhaps not on your machine?

[GrannyGeek]

There is no hardware switch or function key combination for turning off the touchpad. Stoichyu is right--there was some edit in xorg.conf and I think something in /dev. Currently, the mouse lines in xorg.conf are:
Section "InputDevice"
    Identifier     "Mouse0"
    Driver         "mouse"
    Option         "Protocol" "auto"
    Option         "Device" "/dev/mouse"
    Option         "ZAxisMapping" "4 5"
EndSection

Mouse0 is the USB mouse. /dev/mouse is a symlink to /dev/input/mice. That contains event0, event1, event2, event3, mice, mouse0, mouse1. The touchpad is mouse1.

I think the old solution involved a symlink to something and maybe a change from "Protocol" "auto" to something else. Does this ring any bells? I'd like to avoid tpconfig if possible.

I read quite a few messages in this that were turned up in a Google search, but none of the suggested solutions matched what I have in xorg.conf.

I hope in the future we can have a failsafe way to back up the entire message board. We've lost some crucial information every time some evil has befallen the board.
--GrannyGeek

[stoichyu]

Have you tried changing Device to /dev/input/mouse0? You could also try IMPS/2 for the protocol.

[GrannyGeek]

Have you tried changing Device to /dev/input/mouse0? You could also try IMPS/2 for the protocol.

Thank you, thank you! That did it. Now I have the mouse and no touchpad. Life is good!
--GrannyGeek

[nightflier]

I remembered this thread when I came across this little howto:
http://www.lockergnome.com/nexus/linux/2007/09/20/disable-your-notebook-touchpad-the-easy-way

- Just in case it can be of help to others down the road -

[stoichyu]

That certainly provides a nice solution to the touchpad problem. And it'd work on any touchpad too. I tried "rmmod psmouse" and the touchpad stopped. However, when I re-enabled it with "modprobe psmouse", I had the touchpad back, but my scrolling was lost. But if you just want to disable the touchpad permanently, I guess it's not a problem.