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I have a Thinkpad T420 and I use the touchpad for scrolling and zooming (multitouch), but only the trackpoint for the rest.

Is it possible to automatically disable the touchpad while the trackpoint is used ("..disable it magically when trackpoint sensor input is registered.." and re-enable it magically when trackpoint usage ends)?

I am currently running Centos 7 and Debian Jessie with Gnome.

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You could try this patched version of syndaemon; eyko has added support for trackpoint activity so you could build/compile just the syndaemon executable, place it in e.g. /usr/local/bin and run

/usr/local/bin/syndaemon -T -i 3

to disable the touchpad while using your trackpad. Play with the parameters and once you're happy with the result add -d to run it in background and add it to your session startup/.xinitrc e.g.

/usr/local/bin/syndaemon -T -i 2 -d
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  • @Jodka - Note that I don't have a trackpoint here so can't test the above. Apparently, per eyko's blog the initial commit had the trackpoint name hardcoded but now you have to use -T "trackpoint name" so e.g. /usr/local/bin/syndaemon -T "TPPS/2 IBM TrackPoint"-i 3 If you manage to make it work please let me know if any additional steps were required so that I add the info to my answer (or you could edit my post directly, I'll accept the edit). – don_crissti Nov 10 '15 at 19:06
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You can disable the touchpad in the bios (at least this was possible with older Thinkpads).

Alternatively, you can also disable it with xinput, e.g.:

$ xinput disable 'SynPS/2 Synaptics TouchPad'

The exact identify may vary - you can list the the available input devices via xinput.

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  • No, it is not possible to disable it in the base, but Fn+F8 disables it but the question is how to disable it only while using the trackpoint. – Jodka Lemon Aug 26 '15 at 15:03
  • @JodkaLemon, your question is not very clear. When you are actively using the trackpoint you can use xinput to disable the touchpad ... if you want to only disable it magically when trackpoint sensor input is registered, you have to write that ... – maxschlepzig Aug 26 '15 at 15:07
  • This is probably the right track, see "For instance to disable the touchpad (but not trackpoint) using xinput.." here. There are also instructions around for doing it via xorg.conf, but you won't be able to switch back and forth that way. – goldilocks Aug 26 '15 at 15:41
  • @maxschlepzig Thought this is the difference between "when" and "while" but I tried to make clearer. – Jodka Lemon Aug 26 '15 at 16:04

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