How to use trackpoint but keep touchpad disabled on Lenovo ThinkPad e531
I have a Lenovo ThinkPad e531 laptop. This model has both a touchpad and a trackpoint. I'd like to use the Trackpoint, because I'm used to it from my previous laptop, but I'd also like to disable the touchpad, to prevent accidentally touching it.
Problem is, there are no dedicated trackpoint buttons on e531.
This is a picture of the e530 model:
You can see it has a separate buttons above the touchpad which you can use when using the trackpoint.
This is a picture of my model (the e531):
As you can see, there are no buttons. There is just the touchpad.
I can disable the touchpad (in System Settings > Mouse & Touchpad) and use the trackpoint to move the mouse pointer around, but then there is no way to click. As you can probably imagine, this is not very useful.
What I'm thinking is there should be a way to disable the mouse motion feature of the touchpad but still keep it clickable so I can use it as the mouse buttons for the trackpont. My question is, how to do it.
I assume that it can be achieved with the xinput
utility, but as I'm not very familiar with it, I don't know how. Anybody can help me here, or at least point me in the right direction?
This is the output of xinput
on my machine:
~ > xinput
⎡ Virtual core pointer id=2 [master pointer (3)]
⎜ ↳ Virtual core XTEST pointer id=4 [slave pointer (2)]
⎜ ↳ SynPS/2 Synaptics TouchPad id=12 [slave pointer (2)]
⎜ ↳ TPPS/2 IBM TrackPoint id=14 [slave pointer (2)]
⎜ ↳ Logitech Unifying Device. Wireless PID:1025 id=15 [slave pointer (2)]
⎣ Virtual core keyboard id=3 [master keyboard (2)]
↳ Virtual core XTEST keyboard id=5 [slave keyboard (3)]
↳ Power Button id=6 [slave keyboard (3)]
↳ Video Bus id=7 [slave keyboard (3)]
↳ Video Bus id=8 [slave keyboard (3)]
↳ Power Button id=9 [slave keyboard (3)]
↳ Integrated Camera id=10 [slave keyboard (3)]
↳ AT Translated Set 2 keyboard id=11 [slave keyboard (3)]
↳ ThinkPad Extra Buttons id=13 [slave keyboard (3)]
This is the list of the TrackPoint (device 14) properties:
~ > xinput --list-props 14
Device 'TPPS/2 IBM TrackPoint':
Device Enabled (133): 1
Coordinate Transformation Matrix (135): 1.000000, 0.000000, 0.000000, 0.000000, 1.000000, 0.000000, 0.000000, 0.000000, 1.000000
Device Accel Profile (256): 0
Device Accel Constant Deceleration (257): 1.000000
Device Accel Adaptive Deceleration (258): 1.000000
Device Accel Velocity Scaling (259): 10.000000
Device Product ID (250): 2, 10
Device Node (251): "/dev/input/event13"
Evdev Axis Inversion (404): 0, 0
Evdev Axes Swap (406): 0
Axis Labels (407): "Rel X" (143), "Rel Y" (144)
Button Labels (408): "Button Left" (136), "Button Middle" (137), "Button Right" (138), "Button Wheel Up" (139), "Button Wheel Down" (140), "Button Horiz Wheel Left" (141), "Button Horiz Wheel Right" (142)
Evdev Middle Button Emulation (409): 0
Evdev Middle Button Timeout (410): 50
Evdev Third Button Emulation (411): 0
Evdev Third Button Emulation Timeout (412): 1000
Evdev Third Button Emulation Button (413): 3
Evdev Third Button Emulation Threshold (414): 20
Evdev Wheel Emulation (415): 1
Evdev Wheel Emulation Axes (416): 6, 7, 4, 5
Evdev Wheel Emulation Inertia (417): 10
Evdev Wheel Emulation Timeout (418): 200
Evdev Wheel Emulation Button (419): 2
Evdev Drag Lock Buttons (420): 0
This is the list of the Touchpad (device 12) properties:
~ > xinput --list-props 12
Device 'SynPS/2 Synaptics TouchPad':
Device Enabled (133): 1
Coordinate Transformation Matrix (135): 1.000000, 0.000000, 0.000000, 0.000000, 1.000000, 0.000000, 0.000000, 0.000000, 1.000000
Device Accel Profile (256): 1
Device Accel Constant Deceleration (257): 2.500000
Device Accel Adaptive Deceleration (258): 1.000000
Device Accel Velocity Scaling (259): 12.500000
Synaptics Edges (260): 1726, 4858, 1577, 3665
Synaptics Finger (261): 25, 30, 256
Synaptics Tap Time (262): 180
Synaptics Tap Move (263): 192
Synaptics Tap Durations (264): 180, 180, 100
Synaptics ClickPad (265): 1
Synaptics Tap FastTap (266): 0
Synaptics Middle Button Timeout (267): 0
Synaptics Two-Finger Pressure (268): 282
Synaptics Two-Finger Width (269): 7
Synaptics Scrolling Distance (270): 87, 87
Synaptics Edge Scrolling (271): 0, 0, 0
Synaptics Two-Finger Scrolling (272): 1, 0
Synaptics Move Speed (273): 1.000000, 1.750000, 0.045725, 40.000000
Synaptics Edge Motion Pressure (274): 30, 160
Synaptics Edge Motion Speed (275): 1, 349
Synaptics Edge Motion Always (276): 0
Synaptics Off (277): 0
Synaptics Locked Drags (278): 0
Synaptics Locked Drags Timeout (279): 5000
Synaptics Tap Action (280): 2, 3, 0, 0, 1, 3, 0
Synaptics Click Action (281): 1, 3, 0
Synaptics Circular Scrolling (282): 0
Synaptics Circular Scrolling Distance (283): 0.100000
Synaptics Circular Scrolling Trigger (284): 0
Synaptics Circular Pad (285): 0
Synaptics Palm Detection (286): 0
Synaptics Palm Dimensions (287): 10, 200
Synaptics Coasting Speed (288): 20.000000, 50.000000
Synaptics Pressure Motion (289): 30, 160
Synaptics Pressure Motion Factor (290): 1.000000, 1.000000
Synaptics Resolution Detect (291): 1
Synaptics Grab Event Device (292): 1
Synaptics Gestures (293): 1
Synaptics Capabilities (294): 1, 0, 0, 1, 1, 1, 1
Synaptics Pad Resolution (295): 42, 42
Synaptics Area (296): 0, 0, 0, 0
Synaptics Soft Button Areas (297): 3292, 0, 3397, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0
Synaptics Noise Cancellation (298): 8, 8
Device Product ID (250): 2, 7
Device Node (251): "/dev/input/event6"
Summary from @thom comment, I've done this to make it work:
- Open file
/usr/share/X11/xorg.conf.d/50-synaptics.conf
for edit. - Find
Section "InputClass"
which the following line isIdentifier "Default clickpad buttons"
. - Edit option for
SoftButtonAreas
to values64% 0 1 42% 36% 64% 1 42%
, this is size of the right and middle button. -
Enable option
AreaBottomEdge
and change value to1
, this will disable touchpad movement.If everything done right, your class should looks like:
Section "InputClass" Identifier "Default clickpad buttons" MatchDriver "synaptics" Option "SoftButtonAreas" "64% 0 1 42% 36% 64% 1 42%" Option "AreaBottomEdge" "1" EndSection
Save file and re-login.
I use S440 btw, but I think this should work for all model that use buttonless touchpad.