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I need a way to automaticallay turn the touchpad off when an external pointing device is in use. I tried setting "turn off touchpad while typing" in System Settings, but that didn't work.

A slight caveat is that I use both bluetooth and USB pointing devices, so perferably a solution would be able to detect both of these.

I really don't want to have to use commands or a script to accomplish this.

I have tried the two touchpad apps in the software center, but neither of these had a setting for this.

Thanks in advance.

Well... I had mentioned in my original post that I tried the app called "synaptiks" which I found on the Ubuntu Software Center, but apparently someone re-wrote my whole original post and left out that (and other) important details... I installed the "synaptiks" app, and it did work, but I discovered that a bunch of other apps had been installed without my knowledge or consent when I installed synaptiks. I felt that this was wrong and seemed like a potential security breech on my machine so I tried to remove these other apps individually and found that trying to remove one ended up removing them all, including the touch pad app... seems really suspicious to me so I made sure all of it was removed... at least I hope... no telling what else it could have installed on my laptop without my knowledge. And to the asshat who deleted half of my original post... thanks for making me have to waste my time to retype all of this to explain it all over again... and for wasting the time of the person who replied telling me to use the synaptiks app... if you had not edited my original post it would have saved us all the trouble.

Seth
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Jason
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4 Answers4

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Yes, don't worry, these are safe packages, they are part of the KDE desktop and required by KDE apps, you might as well install them because in the future if you need to use another KDE app (there are many good ones like KDEnlive, Okular, Digicam, etc) you'll have them already there and won't have to install them again. Waste a bit of HD space but no security risk.

Mudito
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There used to be an app called Synaptic (the mouse app, not package manager) that was supposed to be able to do that (but I couldn't find it in the Software Center anymore), other suggestion is installing Cuttlefish, it can detect when a bluetooth or USB device is plugged and fire an action in response, maybe you can work something out with that. Good luck.

Mudito
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I don't know if there is an option as a stand-alone package; but if you decide to use gnome-shell in the future, you can try this gnome extension.

Hilmi Erdem KEREN
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correct name of this application is synaptiks and you ca find it in Ubuntu Software Center, there is option automatically switched off tuchpad if mouse is plugged, hope it will help

Saak
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