Disable mouse (not touchpad!) in Xorg while idle

Question

I am an avid keyboard user, but I still need the mouse every now and then. To minimize the hand travel, I have the mouse located below my keyboard. (On a side note, using the mouse this way feels more natural to my hand.)

I am currently using unclutter to hide the pointer while I don’t use the mouse. Unfortunately, I am nudging it at times while typing, which causes the pointer to reappear. Sometimes this will move the pointer over another window, which in turn takes the focus away from my current window. (I am using sloppy focus, and changing this is not an option.)

I am now searching for a possibility to not only hide the pointer after a certain amount of idle time, but disable the mouse altogether. Clicking any mouse button or using the mouse wheel should then re-enable the mouse.

Answer 1

First thing that we need to accomplish is turning off mouse, but only in X. For this we could use xinput.

We need to discover input devices that are connected to computer (to X server):

pbm@tauri ~ $ xinput list
⎡ Virtual core pointer                          id=2    [master pointer  (3)]
⎜   ↳ Virtual core XTEST pointer                id=4    [slave  pointer  (2)]
⎜   ↳ A4Tech USB Mouse                          id=10   [slave  pointer  (2)]
⎜   ↳ Macintosh mouse button emulation          id=11   [slave  pointer  (2)]
⎣ Virtual core keyboard                         id=3    [master keyboard (2)]
     [...]

Device that we need to use is A4Tech USB Mouse with id=10. Next we need to check properties of that device:

pbm@tauri ~ $ xinput list-props "A4Tech USB Mouse"
Device 'A4Tech USB Mouse':
       Device Enabled (121):   1
       [....]

To turn off device we need to change property Device Enabled:

xinput set-prop DEV PROP STATE
xinput set-prop "A4Tech USB Mouse" "Device Enabled" 0

To turn it on:

xinput set-prop "A4Tech USB Mouse" "Device Enabled" 1

Next thing is to do it automatically... ;) In this example we will be disabling mouse by keyboard shortcut and enable it by pressing left + right mouse button.

For this we could use actkbd - keyboard (but not only) shortcut daemon that works outside of X server.

First we need to create empty configuration file for actkbd: touch /etc/actkbd.conf. Next thing is to discover devices connected to computer:

pbm@tauri ~ $ cat /proc/bus/input/devices 
I: Bus=0003 Vendor=046d Product=c312 Version=0110
N: Name="BTC USB Multimedia Keyboard"
P: Phys=usb-0000:00:1d.0-1.6/input0
S: Sysfs=/devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:1d.0/usb2/2-1/2-1.6/2-1.6:1.0/input/input6
U: Uniq=
H: Handlers=kbd event3 
B: EV=120013
B: KEY=1000000000007 ff9f207ac14057ff febeffdfffefffff fffffffffffffffe
B: MSC=10
B: LED=7

I: Bus=0003 Vendor=09da Product=000a Version=0110
N: Name="A4Tech USB Mouse"
P: Phys=usb-0000:00:1d.0-1.5/input0
S: Sysfs=/devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:1d.0/usb2/2-1/2-1.5/2-1.5:1.0/input/input8
U: Uniq=
H: Handlers=mouse1 event5 
B: EV=17
B: KEY=ff0000 0 0 0 0
B: REL=343
B: MSC=10

[...]

In this part most interesting for use are names and handlers of keyboard and mouse devices.

First we handle turning off mouse by keyboard shortcut, so we need to discover key ids:

pbm@tauri ~ $ sudo actkbd -s -d /dev/input/event3
Keys: 29+41+42 //we need to press keys that will turn off mouse, 29+41+42 is Ctrl + Shift + `

When we know what are keys ids we need to put them to config file (/etc/actkbd.conf):

29+41+42:::sudo -u pbm DISPLAY=:0 xinput set-prop "A4Tech USB Mouse" "Device Enabled" 0

To test it out we need to run actkbd in daemon mode:

pbm@tauri ~ $ sudo actkbd -d /dev/input/event3 -D

In the same way we need to handle "turn on" event:

1. Check handlers of mouse device
2. Check key codes of left+right mouse button using actkbd
3. Put it to actkbd.conf
4. Run actkbd daemon to monitor mouse input device

Running daemons could be realized as init script or autorun script in environment.

To automatically turning mouse off we could monitor input device (cat /dev/input/event5) and turn it off when there is no input...

I hope that my short intro will help you... ;)

Answer 2

Have you tried a "Pointer Capture" Gnome panel applet?

The mouse pointer can be locked into an area of the screen so the pointing device is free for other tasks. For example, this capability allows a powerchair user to control both the powerchair and the mouse pointer with a single powerchair joystick

The Pointer Capture panel applet creates such an area on the panel, into which the user can lock the pointer until released in a determined way.

The Pointer Capture panel applet can be installed by right-clicking the GNOME Desktop menu bar / system panel, selecting Add to Panel, choosing Pointer Capture and clicking the Add button

In case the description from gnome.org isn't clear, this will create an area in the panel where when the mouse enters (or you clic), the cursor will disappear and won't reappear until a defined action occurs, for example a second click. Sounds like exactly what you need?