If you use an external USB mouse or a Bluetooth mouse with your Ubuntu Linux laptop, the built-in trackpad often becomes a nuisance. Accidental palm brushes against the touchpad while typing can cause the cursor to jump across the screen, highlight text, or click away from the active window.
While some laptops include a physical hardware button or a function key (like Fn+F7) to disable the touchpad, many modern devices lack this feature. If your laptop doesn’t have a hardware switch, you can completely disable the touchpad directly from the Ubuntu operating system settings.
How to Turn Off the Touchpad via System Settings
The easiest way to disable the touchpad on modern versions of Ubuntu (which use the GNOME desktop environment) is through the standard settings menu.
- Click on the system tray in the top right corner of your screen (where the battery and Wi-Fi icons are located).
- Click on the Settings (gear icon) to open the main control panel.
- In the left-hand sidebar, scroll down and click on Mouse & Touchpad.
- Under the “Touchpad” section, look for the main toggle switch labeled Touchpad.
- Click the switch to turn it to the Off position.
Your trackpad will immediately stop responding to touch input. To re-enable it later, simply plug your mouse back in, navigate to this menu, and toggle the switch back on.
How to Disable the Touchpad via Terminal (xinput)
If the graphical settings menu does not work for your specific hardware, or if you are using a different desktop environment (like XFCE or KDE), you can use the command line.
- Open your terminal (
Ctrl+Alt+T). - Run the following command to list all input devices:
xinput list - Look under the “Virtual core pointer” section and find your touchpad (it might be named “SynPS/2 Synaptics TouchPad” or “ELAN Touchpad”). Note the id number next to it (e.g.,
id=14). - To disable the device, run the following command (replace
14with your actual ID):
xinput disable 14
To turn it back on, run the command again, replacing “disable” with “enable”:
xinput enable 14