External touchpad for Ubuntu?

[Owen Thomas]

On Tue., 22 Dec. 2020, 10:53 am Liam Proven, <lproven at gmail.com> wrote:

> On Mon, 21 Dec 2020 at 21:36, Owen Thomas <owen.paul.thomas at gmail.com>
> wrote:
> > Bum! Your advice renders my objective unreachable with an external
> touchpad. I did see your point made in other posts too, and hence it would
> be remiss of me not to acknowledge this.
>
> Yes, and AFAICR you didn't ask before now.


Indeed. I made an assumption that some astute reader picked up on. I have
been corrected.

You also never told us the
> model of your old laptop and you've not told us that about the new one
> -- so if for instance it does have a toggle control for the pointing
> device, we can't tell you.
>

As my question concerns an external touchpad and not a laptop computer, I
didn't find it necessary.


> > I'm sure the solution is completely effective and will give me precisely
> what I want.
>
> You say "you're sure", which implies to me that you haven't actually tried
> it.
>
> Have you tried it?
>

I have. I tried Colin's suggestion in a CLI window and found the command
worked as intended until of course I switched focus to another window. But
you know why this would be so, so I'm not going to say anything more.

> A couple of questions that come to mind about this solution are these:
> First, why do I have to implement this myself?
>
> It's Linux. It's an OS for people who fix things themselves and go
> digging for answers. You repeatedly asked for guidance, albeit not in
> a specific way -- see my comment about model numbers, or about asking
> for buying advice -- but ISTM that you've not actually acted on the
> advice.
>
> Am I wrong?
>

Yes, Liam, I would have to assert you are in error with this advice. Many
people use Ubuntu because it has no cost barrier. Many of these people have
lives that involve pursuits that do not include writing scripts or playing
with hotkey configurations. I'm one such person. I am so averse to fiddling
with configuration minutiae that I have done not much to correct a
situation that has persisted at least about five years. I can do this with
impunity.

The fact that you have not used a more specific term in the 3 years
> that you've been asking suggests to me that you haven't researched
> this yourself, but if it bothers you that much, honestly I find that a
> remarkable, hard-to-believe conclusion. Is it the case?
>

The exasperation you feel is due merely to my not living up to your
expectations. I am free not to live up to your expectations, and so the
only further advice I can give you in relation to your expectations is to
lower them and free yourself of this exasperation.

>  Second, some touchpad manufacturers had a disablement feature built into
> the touchpad itself - neither the BIOS nor the OS were involved when the
> user wanted to turn their touchpad off and back on. Why remove this feature?
>
> It does. This is a built-in Ubuntu feature and you have been told
> exactly where to find it and how to use it. Also, there could well
> _also_ be a firmware feature too. Have you looked? Have you tried
> refining your search terms and using other words?
>

I think I've investigated firmware and BIOS options; perhaps you can prove
me wrong and in so doing, show me something that will work. That would
help, and I would thank you.

Other than this, your above advice did not address the question I put. The
question concerned the fact that about ten years ago, I observed a touchpad
that had a feature built into the touchpad device; not the laptop to which
it was affixed. One could disable the touchpad simply by using this
feature. I wanted to know why this feature was removed.

Toggling touchpad sensitivity with these touchpads made ten years ago did
not involve any consideration with reference to firmware or to scripts or
hotkey assignments. To the user, it's benefit was obvious, and I'm sure
that its removal would have frustrated thousands of other similarly
observant users.

  Owen.
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