[SOLVED] Mouse VS Touchpad change - not good

[GreyGeek]

In previous versions of Plasma one could make the setting that if the USB mouse was plugged in the touchpad would be automatically disabled. If the USB mouse was unplugged the touch pad became automatically enabled. For several versions of Plasma, since 14.04 (or earlier, but I'm not sure) that method has worked perfectly (at least for me).

Now, there is a touch pad toggle radio button to enable or disable the touch pad. IF the mouse becomes disabled or unplugged then the user is faced with using hot keys to navigate to Settings-->Input-->Touch Pad and then tab to the radio button to enable the touch pad. Personally, I don't use many hot keys, mainly because I can't remember which keys do what. I am a point & click person. When I forget how to use the mouse I will also probably not remember how to turn on the computer, and by then I won't care. Until then, it would be nice if the Plasma dev crew reverted the mouse -- touch pad key to it former relationship.

[Snowhog]

Is this a recent, i.e. 'today', issue? I don't have this issue (that I'm aware of) on my laptop running 20.04. I'll check later today to verify.

[GreyGeek]

Is this a recent, i.e. 'today', issue? I don't have this issue (that I'm aware of) on my laptop running 20.04. I'll check later today to verify.

While I did have about a 250 +- a few packaged updated yesterday, and 80 or so the day before (I don't remember exactly how many but it was a lot), I don't regularly check my touch pad. I noticed it this morning when I began typing and saw my mouse pointer move when my thumb joint touched the pad. There is a feature that is supposed to turn off the touch pad when one is typing, but obviously it doesn't work well.

[Snowhog]

Verify that you have package xserver-xorg-input-synaptics installed.

Description-en: Synaptics TouchPad driver for X.Org server
This package provides an input driver for the X.Org X server to enable
advanced features of the Synaptics Touchpad including:
.
* Movement with adjustable, non-linear acceleration and speed
* Button events through short touching of the touchpad
* Double-Button events through double short touching of the touchpad
* Dragging through short touching and holding down the finger on the touchpad
* Middle and right button events on the upper and lower corner of the touchpad
* Vertical scrolling (button four and five events) through moving the finger
on the right side of the touchpad
* The up/down button sends button four/five events
* Horizontal scrolling (button six and seven events) through moving the finger
on the lower side of the touchpad
* The multi-buttons send button four/five events, and six/seven events for
horizontal scrolling
* Adjustable finger detection
* Multifinger taps: two finger for middle button and three finger for right
button events. (Needs hardware support. Not all models implement this
feature.)
* Run-time configuration using shared memory. This means you can change
parameter settings without restarting the X server (see synclient(1)).
* It also provides a daemon to disable touchpad while typing at the keyboard
and thus avoid unwanted mouse movements (see syndaemon(1)).
Description-md5: 6f7a84d9a52f4dc44fd0ad7cc265853b
Task: xubuntu-core, xubuntu-desktop

[GreyGeek]

Yes, it is installed. The option you highlighted in black is the option that failed. My settings currently are "enable touch pad" & "disable while typing". I can easily move the cursor using the touch pad while I am typing by merely sliding my thump over the touch pad while typing. Ergo, to prevent unwanted motions of the cursor while typing I disable the touch pad. Now, if my mouse fails, I have to hot key to the Touch Pad settings and enable the touch pad. I have finger and hand tremors which I can effectively control using a mouse because most of the movement is in the wrists. On a touch pad the fingers do the walking and my fingers shake involuntarily while attempting to move the cursor to a specific spot. Also, hitting the left and right touch bars at the bottom of the touch pad often result in a miss -- striking the edge of the touch pad and moving the cursor, or hitting the wrong bar. The previous touch pad setup, which worked on sensing the mouse being plugged in, worked beautifully.

[Snowhog]

System Settings > Hardware > Touchpad > Enable/Disable Touchpad and ensure that Disable touchpad when mouse is plugged in is checked.

[GreyGeek]

System Settings > Hardware > Touchpad > Enable/Disable Touchpad and ensure that Disable touchpad when mouse is plugged in is checked.

I am running Plasma 5.18.3 fully updated and "Disable touchpad when mouse is plugged in" is NOT an option on my Touchpad setting panel.

[Snowhog]

I'm running Plasma 5.18.3 on my 20.04, and that option is there.

[GreyGeek]

I'm running Plasma 5.18.3 on my 20.04, and that option is there.

Here is a screen capture of my Touchpad panel

[Snowhog]

From your image, it appears that the vertical scroll bar indicates that there is 'more' below the last entry shown?

[Snowhog]

My settings widow.

[Teunis]

Thanks Snowhog!

This xserver-xorg-input-synaptics was what I needed to disable the Touchpad via a hotkey.

I wonder why this is no longer part of the default installation...

[Snowhog]

Back in the KDE4 days, the package that performed this was synaptiks. When it went away, I found it's replacement, xserver-xorg-input-synaptics. Every new Kubuntu install to my laptop is followed by installing that package.

[GreyGeek]

From your image, it appears that the vertical scroll bar indicates that there is 'more' below the last entry shown?

True. What is not shown is the radio button "Press bottom left and bottom right" to simulate a middle click.

What you have is what I USED to have.

[Snowhog]

What Global Theme (System Settings > Global Theme) are you using? Of the default three available, I'm using Kubuntu. Different Themes can present (or hide) some options.