Ubuntu 18.04, can't disable laptop touchpad on Dell Latitude E5520

Question

Dell Latitude E5520.

Fn+F5 always shows a "disabled touchpad" symbol, but it remains active.

Answer 1

As a work-around you can use a gnome-shell extension:

1. Toggle Touchpad
2. Touchpad Indicator - that's the one I prefer

Answer 2

Use user Almas Dusal's bash script for toggling the touchpad device.

I had this problem with my Dell Inspiron. Fn+F3 used to work fine in 16.04 Xenial Xerus, but after dist-upgrading to 18.04, all I got was the popping "disabled touch-pad symbol" followed by no noticeable change in system behavior.

Above script worked like a charm.