I have had difficulties trying to get the touchpad to automatically turn off when a USB mouse is connected and enable when it is disconnected.
I haven't had success with touchpad-indicator.
I have found a method that seems to work so far. I am posting it here as an answer in case anyone else finds it useful. I would also appreciate suggestions for alternatives or corrections.
Jay
Edit - This works in Freya NOT Loki
Here is my solution for disabling the touchpad in elementary OS when attaching a USB mouse.
I created these instructions based on the following websites: https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=188918
https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=170396
As well as the arch wiki on Synaptics touchpad, but I'm only allowed to paste 2 links.
Open a terminal by pressing the key combination: Super + T or by opening it from the Applications menu
Enter the following at the prompt to open Scratch as root:
sudo scratch-text-editor
Enter your password when asked.
Create a new file.
Paste the following into the new file:
SUBSYSTEM=="input", KERNEL=="mouse[0-9]*", ACTION=="add", ENV{DISPLAY}=":0", ENV{XAUTHORITY}="/home/$USERNAME$/.Xauthority", RUN+="/bin/sh -c '/usr/bin/synclient TouchpadOff=1; sleep 5; /usr/bin/killall -q syndaemon'"
SUBSYSTEM=="input", KERNEL=="mouse[0-9]*", ACTION=="remove", ENV{DISPLAY}=":0", ENV{XAUTHORITY}="/home/$USERNAME$/.Xauthority", RUN+="/bin/sh -c '/usr/bin/synclient TouchpadOff=0'"
* Replace $USERNAME$ in these 2 lines with your actual username. *
Click the save button Click “Computer” in the left hand column of the dialogue box. Navigate to the /etc/udev/rules.d folder Type the name “01-touchpad.rules” as the name of the file and click Save Close the file
This alone should enable and disable the touchpad when attaching or detaching a USB mouse. This will not disable the touchpad at system startup if a USB mouse is attached. To do this you can do the following:
Open a terminal Enter the following at the prompt to open Scratch as root:
sudo scratch-text-editor
Enter your password when asked.
Create a new file and paste the following into it:
#!/bin/bash
lista=`xinput list | grep -i 'mouse'`
listb=`xinput list | grep -i 'transceiver' | grep -i 'pointer'`
listc=`xinput list | grep -i 'receiver' | grep -i 'pointer'`
if [ ${#lista} -eq 0 ] && [ ${#listb} -eq 0 ] && [ ${#listc} -eq 0 ]; then
exec `synclient TouchpadOff=0`
notify-send "No USB Mouse Detected" "Your Touchpad is Active"
else
exec `synclient TouchpadOff=1`
notify-send "USB Mouse Detected" "Your Touchpad is Disabled"
sleep 5
killall -q syndaemon
fi
Click the Save button Click "Computer" in the left column then navigate to /usr/local/bin Type the name "mouse_detect.sh" for the filename and click Save
Open the "Files" application as an Administrator If it is on your Plank, right click to find this option. If it is not, then open "Files" from the application menu and right-click the icon on Plank when it opens to find the option. Enter your password when asked.
Click "File System" in the left column and navigate to /usr/local/bin. Your file "mouse_detect.sh" should be present. Right click on this file and select "Properties" Click on the "More" button and then click on each of the "Execute" buttons to ensure they are all highlighted. Close Files
Now we need to create an autostart entry Open "System Settings" and click "Applications" Click "Startup" and click the "+" button in the lower left hand corner. When the box opens up type "/usr/local/bin/mouse_detect.sh" in the lower box where it asks you to type a custom command.
Open "Files" and press CTRL-H to display hidden files and press Home in the left hand column Navigate to the ~/.config/autostart
You should see a file like "custom-command0.desktop", open this in "Scratch" by right clicking and selecting Open With. (select Other Application if necessary) You should see a line that says Exec=/usr/local/bin/mouse_detect.sh if you are in the right file Add the following line line to the file:
X-GNOME-Autostart-Delay=8
You can also enter a custom name for the desktop file in the "Name" field and a custom comment in the "Comment" field.
Note: I had to remove the [en_CA] from my Name[en_CA] field for the name change to be visible in "Files". You might have to do the same if you live outside the US.
If you go back to your startup applications, your custom Name and Comment should be visible and you can enable or disable the autorun of this script on startup by clicking on the toggle to the right of it.
That should do it. If the startup script detects other wireless devices as a mouse and disables your touchpad when it shouldn't you can try changing the contents of the mouse_detect.sh file to:
#!/bin/bash
lista=`xinput list | grep -i 'mouse'`
if [ ${#lista} -eq 0 ]; then
exec `synclient TouchpadOff=0`
notify-send "No USB Mouse Detected" "Your Touchpad is Active"
else
exec `synclient TouchpadOff=1`
notify-send "USB Mouse Detected" "Your Touchpad is Disabled"
sleep 5
killall -q syndaemon
fi
This has less chance of detecting wireless mice though, so only use it if the first one does not work for you.
Jay