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Track-pad alternate to mouse

Finston Pickle

Mon Sep 25, 2017 9:35:38 am

I have had an issue with my laptop, for some time - associated with my track-pad - which I kept live in case the wireless mouse failed, leaving me unable to move the cursor.

What I have found is that my hands moving over the keys periodically causes the cursor position to move - I didn't realise that this movement was due to the track-pad for nearly a year - thinking that it was a glitch in Open Office.

Need I have been so cautious - would a wired mouse have come to the rescue if my wireless mouse had failed?

Say I wanted to keep the track-pad alternate input - what can I do physically (some sort of cover) to stop the track-pad from responding to my typing hands?

Swarfendor437

Mon Sep 25, 2017 7:17:05 pm

Sometimes there is a Fn and F# combination like on Samsungs. Other times it could be an Alt+ another key? On HP netbooks you have to tap the touchpad in a certain corner to lock it - useful as most touchpads have the issue where you are merrily typing away when your cursor jumps to the start of where you were writing! *Annoying! (*said in weird Professor Frink voice off the Simpsons!). If there is any LED like on the HP then tapping near that might lock it then double-tap to unlock? ;)

Finston Pickle

Tue Sep 26, 2017 6:23:35 pm

Thanks for the update and ideas, Swarf.

I see some interesting symbols under the function keys - a clear and full rectangle looks promising - but I dare not press it in case it ***** something else up!

Time to look in the laptop guide or raise the topic with Entroware, I guess.

In the meantime I'm being more disciplined with hand movements over the trackpad! - glad it was not Open Offiece at fault - strange, I have had two previous laptops and no issues with trackpads (perhaps they were off by default).

MBMz10

Wed Sep 27, 2017 4:07:19 am

I'm running Zorin Lite on my 10 ish year old HP and noticed in the mouse/trackpad settings a 'disable while typing' for the track pad with a time out/delay setting also. When I go to mouse/trackpad settings a drop down list with mouse (usb), track pad and the little stick in the keyboard center to allow setting behaviors for each device. Never played with these before as it all seems to just work for me on this machine but did disable the 'stick' as I never use it.

I just booted the machine up with Zorin Core (live session), cant see how you could disable any devices in there, nowhere near the same amount of settings as the Lite version! All 3 of my input devices worked about the same. Maybe there is an extension to enable changing each device or in Dconf editor or maybe your manual will give ideas!

Incidentally I noticed 2 entries for my Logitech USB wireless mouse and disabled one as the mouse has been driving me crazy lately, changed batteries etc but it seems to be working OK now so I will be curious to see how this pans out for you.

Finston Pickle

Wed Sep 27, 2017 6:00:05 pm

Consulted the Entroware laptop guide and found Fn + F1 will disable the trackpad - and seemingly give an indication of status - on the screen presumably.

Eureka! - I thought.

Gave it a go - and - no change, trackpad still active in prallel with my mouse - whist in a Z12 session.

Has Zorin 12 somehow overidden the Entroware features? Do I have to do a Fn + F1 before Zorin fires up - or when it has powered off?

Questions, questions! Why don't switches feature anymore on electrical gizmos!!

Any suggestions? - I'm thnking a piece of cardboard over the trackpad.

Swarfendor437

Wed Sep 27, 2017 6:13:54 pm

Have you tried the trackpad shortcut without the mouse attached? ;) :D

Finston Pickle

Thu Sep 28, 2017 7:06:43 pm

No, I have not tried that.

But I am worried that if I disable the trackpad with no mouse that the mouse might not be recognised, when I plug the usb bit in again (wireless mouse).

I once go into a real mess when I first started playing with Zorin 9 about three years ago (on an old laptop that did not matter) and lost both trackpad and mouse. It was impossible to do anyhing! I can't even remember how I got out of it.

Careful fingers or cardboard overlay, for me, I guess.

Finston Pickle

Mon Oct 02, 2017 6:19:04 pm

I've just had a look at my Zorin 9 laptop and found in settings > mouse and touch pad:

Touch pad on/off switch, set to on

Tick boxes (all ticked) for:

disable whilst typing
tap to click
two finger scroll

What happened to these features in Zorin 12, I wonder?

MBMz10

Tue Oct 03, 2017 4:02:39 am

As with my laptop experience above with Zorin 12 vs Zorin Lite I would guess it is to do with the underlying Gnome Shell that Zorin is built upon.

Have you tried looking for extensions? I did a search and found these:
https://askubuntu.com/questions/778716/ ... nome-16-04
https://extensions.gnome.org/extension/ ... indicator/

I haven't tested any myself as I haven't got Z12 on my laptop (I have Lite) but this looks like it may provide a reason and solution. As usual, backup system before trying and these are the only 2 sites I looked at in about 5 minutes of looking.

Finston Pickle

Tue Oct 03, 2017 6:53:07 pm

I think that I will raise the issue with the Ultimate support team and advise their rcommendation when it arrives.

Thanks for the inputs from all.

MBMz10

Wed Oct 04, 2017 6:02:24 pm

Finston Pickle wrote:I think that I will raise the issue with the Ultimate support team and advise their rcommendation when it arrives.

Thanks for the inputs from all.

Thats a great idea.