setup-touchpad

Configure the Touchpad

This guide explains how to enable and configure the *touchpad* in Trisquel GNU/Linux.

1. Check if the system detects the touchpad

Open a terminal and run:

sudo libinput list-devices | grep -i touchpad

If information about the device appears, the system recognizes it correctly. If nothing appears, check that it is not disabled in the BIOS or UEFI.

2. Install the necessary packages

Install the driver and management tools:

sudo apt install xserver-xorg-input-synaptics xinput

After the installation, restart your session.

3. Graphical configuration

If you use KDE Plasma, open:

* Menu → Preferences → Touchpad

From there you can enable or disable features such as:

• Tap to click
• Two-finger scrolling
• Disable touchpad while typing

These changes are automatically saved for the user.

4. Manual configuration with Xinput

To adjust parameters from the terminal:

1. List all input devices:

xinput list

2. Find the touchpad ID number (for example: SynPS/2 Synaptics TouchPad id=12).

3. Display its properties:

xinput list-props 12

4. Useful command examples:

• Enable tap-to-click:

  xinput set-prop 12 "libinput Tapping Enabled" 1
  

• Temporarily disable the touchpad:

  xinput disable 12
  

• Re-enable it:

  xinput enable 12
  

5. Persistent configuration

To make the changes permanent, create the file:

sudo nano /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/40-libinput.conf

Recommended content:

Section "InputClass"
   Identifier "touchpad"
   MatchIsTouchpad "on"
   Driver "libinput"
   Option "Tapping" "on"
   Option "NaturalScrolling" "true"
   Option "DisableWhileTyping" "true"
EndSection

Save with Ctrl+O, close with Ctrl+X, and restart the system.

6. Troubleshooting

• Check if the system detects the device:

  grep -i touchpad /var/log/Xorg.0.log
  

• Check if the kernel module is loaded:

  lsmod | grep psmouse
  

• If it does not appear, load it manually:

  sudo modprobe psmouse
  

7. Disable the touchpad when a mouse is connected

You can automate this with syndaemon or a small script:

#!/bin/bash
if xinput list | grep -i mouse; then
   xinput disable $(xinput list | grep -i touchpad | awk '{print $6}' | cut -d'=' -f2)
fi

Save the script and run it at session startup.

8. References

• Ubuntu Wiki: Synaptics Touchpads