Disable Dell touchpad on external mouse plug in

English Hardware
1

KDE has the great option of disabling the touchpad when an external mouse has been plugged in, but unfortunately it’s not working for me.

Upon plugging in a USB mouse, I get the message “Touchpad was disabled because a mouse was plugged in.”. However, touchpad is still alive.
Watching journalctl, I see this:

Dec 28 15:17:21 linux-0xh4.site kernel: usb 1-1.3: USB disconnect, device number 10
Dec 28 15:17:49 linux-0xh4.site kernel: usb 1-1.3: new full-speed USB device number 11 using ehci-pci
Dec 28 15:17:49 linux-0xh4.site kernel: usb 1-1.3: New USB device found, idVendor=062a, idProduct=4101
Dec 28 15:17:49 linux-0xh4.site kernel: usb 1-1.3: New USB device strings: Mfr=1, Product=2, SerialNumber=0
Dec 28 15:17:49 linux-0xh4.site kernel: usb 1-1.3: Product: 2.4G Keyboard Mouse
Dec 28 15:17:49 linux-0xh4.site kernel: usb 1-1.3: Manufacturer: MOSART Semi.
Dec 28 15:17:49 linux-0xh4.site kernel: input: MOSART Semi. 2.4G Keyboard Mouse as /devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:1d.0/usb1/1-1/1-1.3/1-1.3:1.0/0003:062A:4101.0016/input/input39
Dec 28 15:17:49 linux-0xh4.site kernel: hid-generic 0003:062A:4101.0016: input,hidraw2: USB HID v1.10 Keyboard [MOSART Semi. 2.4G Keyboard Mouse] on usb-0000:00:1d.0-1.3/input0
Dec 28 15:17:49 linux-0xh4.site kernel: input: MOSART Semi. 2.4G Keyboard Mouse as /devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:1d.0/usb1/1-1/1-1.3/1-1.3:1.1/0003:062A:4101.0017/input/input40
Dec 28 15:17:49 linux-0xh4.site mtp-probe[20316]: checking bus 1, device 11: "/sys/devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:1d.0/usb1/1-1/1-1.3"
Dec 28 15:17:49 linux-0xh4.site mtp-probe[20316]: bus: 1, device: 11 was not an MTP device
Dec 28 15:17:49 linux-0xh4.site kernel: hid-generic 0003:062A:4101.0017: input,hiddev0,hidraw3: USB HID v1.10 Mouse [MOSART Semi. 2.4G Keyboard Mouse] on usb-0000:00:1d.0-1.3/input1

Nothing weird there, I think.

Here’s the output of /usr/sbin/hwinfo --mouse with the USB mouse plugged in.

23: USB 00.1: 10503 USB Mouse
  [Created at usb.122]
  Unique ID: 46Ud.yU9HUHQRHVA
  Parent ID: ADDn.Wkj53szWOaA
  SysFS ID: /devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:1d.0/usb1/1-1/1-1.3/1-1.3:1.1
  SysFS BusID: 1-1.3:1.1
  Hardware Class: mouse
  Model: "Creative Wireless Keyboard/Mouse"
  Hotplug: USB
  Vendor: usb 0x062a "Creative Labs"
  Device: usb 0x4101 "Wireless Keyboard/Mouse"
  Revision: "3.12"
  Compatible to: int 0x0200 0x0001 "Generic USB Mouse"
  Driver: "usbhid"
  Driver Modules: "usbhid"
  Speed: 12 Mbps
  Module Alias: "usb:v062Ap4101d0312dc00dsc00dp00ic03isc01ip02in01"
  Driver Info #0:
    XFree86 Protocol: explorerps/2
    GPM Protocol: exps2
  Config Status: cfg=new, avail=yes, need=no, active=unknown
  Attached to: #26 (Hub)

35: PS/2 00.0: 10500 PS/2 Mouse
  [Created at input.249]
  Unique ID: AH6Q.aaw02jN0uv2
  Hardware Class: mouse
  Model: "SynPS/2 Synaptics TouchPad"
  Vendor: 0x0002 
  Device: 0x0007 "SynPS/2 Synaptics TouchPad"
  Compatible to: int 0x0210 0x0003
  Device File: /dev/input/mice (/dev/input/mouse0)
  Device Files: /dev/input/mice, /dev/input/mouse0, /dev/input/event1, /dev/input/by-path/platform-i8042-serio-1-event-mouse, /dev/input/by-path/platform-i8042-serio-1-mouse
  Device Number: char 13:63 (char 13:32)
  Driver Info #0:
    Buttons: 3
    Wheels: 0
    XFree86 Protocol: explorerps/2
    GPM Protocol: exps2
  Config Status: cfg=new, avail=yes, need=no, active=unknown

36: PS/2 00.0: 10500 PS/2 Mouse
  [Created at input.249]
  Unique ID: AH6Q.ozk4ksxssA6
  Hardware Class: mouse
  Model: "DLL0674:00 06CB:75DB UNKNOWN"
  Vendor: 0x06cb 
  Device: 0x75db "DLL0674:00 06CB:75DB UNKNOWN"
  Compatible to: int 0x0210 0x0001
  Device File: /dev/input/mice (/dev/input/mouse3)
  Device Files: /dev/input/mice, /dev/input/mouse3, /dev/input/event11, /dev/input/by-path/platform-INT33C3:00-event-mouse, /dev/input/by-path/platform-INT33C3:00-mouse
  Device Number: char 13:63 (char 13:35)
  Driver Info #0:
    Buttons: 1
    Wheels: 0
    XFree86 Protocol: explorerps/2
    GPM Protocol: exps2
  Config Status: cfg=new, avail=yes, need=no, active=unknown

Don’t ask me why there is three mice there. Maybe that’s the issue?

2

Do you not have a function key available to disable the touchpad?

Does the following manual method work?

synclient TouchpadOff=1
3

No fn key combination for that (stupid Dell…) and that command does nothing.

4

That command should have an instant effect with a synaptics pointing device. I’d suggest a bug report is required.

5

Done. Thanks for the input.

Meanwhile, I figured that the third mouse is actually the touchscreen.

6

I found this when I was doing the same for my wife’s dell.
Name the file as shown in the comment line and, of course, change “username” to actual username. That works for her.

#/etc/udev/rules.d/01-touchpad.rules

SUBSYSTEM=="input", KERNEL=="mouse[0-9]*", ACTION=="add", ENV{DISPLAY}=":0", ENV{XAUTHORITY}="/home/username/.Xauthority", RUN+="/usr/bin/synclient TouchpadOff=1"
SUBSYSTEM=="input", KERNEL=="mouse[0-9]*", ACTION=="remove", ENV{DISPLAY}=":0", ENV{XAUTHORITY}="/home/username/.Xauthority", RUN+="/usr/bin/synclient TouchpadOff=0"

I should add, that’s in 13.2. I haven’t tried it in any other versions and I can’t remember where I found it (probably google).

7

Pete, that did it.
Not sure why the KDE settings can’t control this and why synclient is useless ran as a regular user.

This also means I can’t use the option to turn off the touchpad while typing. Still, this is super helpful. Thanks!

8

Good to know that the udev rule helped here, but running the same synclient command manually (as regular user) should have had the same effect. It’s not clear to me why it did not work. If you can clearly demonstrate that, a bug report should be submitted.

9

Yeppers. Done.

10

Very good. :slight_smile:

11

Update: Even the udev rule doesn’t seem to work after the computer has been asleep. Reinserting the external mouse disables nothing.