Disable Mousepad on Dell Inspiron 1545 with Ubuntu 11.04

After upgraded to Ubuntu 11.04, I could not use the command 'sudo modprope psmouse -r' to disable. Executed that command cause my laptop hung.

This discussion "Ubuntu 11.04 with Gnome on Dell 6510: cannot disable touchpad" on UbuntuForums.org offered me a solution. Here, what I did on on my computer:

user@vn-software:~$ xinput list
⎡ Virtual core pointer id=2 [master pointer (3)]
⎜ ↳ Virtual core XTEST pointer id=4 [slave pointer (2)]
⎜ ↳ Logitech USB Receiver id=10 [slave pointer (2)]
⎜ ↳ Logitech USB Receiver id=11 [slave pointer (2)]
⎜ ↳ ImPS/2 ALPS GlidePoint id=13 [slave pointer (2)]
⎣ Virtual core keyboard id=3 [master keyboard (2)]
↳ Virtual core XTEST keyboard id=5 [slave keyboard (3)]
↳ Video Bus id=6 [slave keyboard (3)]
↳ Power Button id=7 [slave keyboard (3)]
↳ Sleep Button id=8 [slave keyboard (3)]
↳ AT Translated Set 2 keyboard id=12 [slave keyboard (3)]
↳ Dell WMI hotkeys id=14 [slave keyboard (3)]
↳ Integrated Webcam id=9 [slave keyboard (3)]

Device ID for my mousepad is 13. Let find out what properties on device 13 are:

user@vn-software:~$ xinput --list-props 13
Device 'ImPS/2 ALPS GlidePoint':
Device Enabled (127): 1
Coordinate Transformation Matrix (129): 1.000000, 0.000000, 0.000000, 0.000000, 1.000000, 0.000000, 0.000000, 0.000000, 1.000000
Device Accel Profile (250): 0
Device Accel Constant Deceleration (251): 1.000000
Device Accel Adaptive Deceleration (252): 1.000000
Device Accel Velocity Scaling (253): 10.000000
Evdev Axis Inversion (254): 0, 0
Evdev Axes Swap (256): 0
Axis Labels (257): "Rel X" (137), "Rel Y" (138)
Button Labels (258): "Button Left" (130), "Button Middle" (131), "Button Right" (132), "Button Wheel Up" (133), "Button Wheel Down" (134), "Button Horiz Wheel Left" (135), "Button Horiz Wheel Right" (136)
Evdev Middle Button Emulation (259): 0
Evdev Middle Button Timeout (260): 50
Evdev Wheel Emulation (261): 0
Evdev Wheel Emulation Axes (262): 0, 0, 4, 5
Evdev Wheel Emulation Inertia (263): 10
Evdev Wheel Emulation Timeout (264): 200
Evdev Wheel Emulation Button (265): 4
Evdev Drag Lock Buttons (266): 0

The Device Enabled property for device #13 (Touchpad) is 127 and it set to 1. Let turned it off.

user@vn-software:~$ xinput set-prop 13 127 0

It worked! I loved it.

So, to enable the touchpad, I will using this command "xinput set-prop 13 127 1" on my computer. Please note: The device ID and device enabled property for the touchpad on your computer may not same as mine. You need to find out yours by using commands 'xinput list' and 'xinput --list-props' as describe above.

Updated Aug. 13, 2011: Make sure you check device number by using command "xinput list" before disable your touchpad. Otherwise, you may disable the wrong device.