Friday, 5 October 2012

Kubuntu 12.04: Disable touchpad while typing

To Disable Touchpad while Typing:

Touchpad-Indicator

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:atareao/atareao
 
sudo apt-get update
 
sudo apt-get install touchpad-indicator

Ubuntu 12.04 Turn Off Discrete Graphic Card on Boot

This simple tutorial will explain how to turn off discrete card on a Ubuntu laptop with two graphic cards. Discrete graphic card takes up more energy and the processor usage. If you seldom use the discrete card, follow the steps to turn it off.

1. On Ubuntu, hit Ctrl+Alt+T to launch a terminal window. Copy and paste this command in terminal, and hit enter to switch to hybrid graphics:

echo IGD > /sys/kernel/debug/vgaswitcheroo/switch

2. Then execute this command to temporarily turn off discrete card:

echo OFF > /sys/kernel/debug/vgaswitcheroo/switch

If the indicator lamp runout, follow step 3 to turn off discrete card on boot.

3. Edit /etc/rc.local file with your favorite editor:

sudo gedit /etc/rc.local

Copy the two commands from step 1 & 2, and paste them before exit 0 . Make it
looks like:


Check the result by this command:

cat /sys/kernel/debug/vgaswitcheroo/switch

It should output something like this:

0:IGD:+:Pwr:0000:00:02.0
1:DIS: :Off:0000:01:00.0

Synaptik Clickpad : Testing

"Clickpad" devices are becoming more and more popular. A "clickpad" is a touchpad with buttons integrated into the touch surface. This includes many variations of Synaptics trackpads and all the multitouch Apple trackpads. This ppa adds support for these devices, and supports the ability to do zone-based right clicking as well as 2 finger operations, such as a click and drag.
The timeframe for testing this PPA is until February 17th.

Installing

Please ensure you are comfortable with recovering your system using only the keyboard if necessary before continuing!

Prerequisites: Make sure you are running the latest version of precise, and all your packages are up to date. Unfortunately this cannot be installed on oneiric or any previous ubuntu release.

1) Add the clickpad ppa (https://launchpad.net/~chasedouglas/+archive/clickpad). You can do this by issuing the following command:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:chasedouglas/clickpad

2) Update apt and run a dist upgrade -- this should prompt you to upgrade xserver-xorg-input-synaptics.

sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get dist-upgrade

3) Logout of your current session, and log in again for the changes to take effect.

4) Does your clickpad device work? If so, you can skip step 4. At the moment, many clickpad devices are not automatically recognized by the kernel. There is upstream kernel work going on that should alleviate this problem in the final precise kernel. In the meantime, you can force your device to operate in clickpad mode for this testing.

a) Obtain your device id by running xinput. You will see a listing similar to this -- pick out the id of your clickpad. In my case, the id is 10, the SynPS/2 Synaptics TouchPad.

nskaggs@permacultured:~$ xinput
⎡ Virtual core pointer                     id=2 [master pointer  (3)]
⎜   ↳ Virtual core XTEST pointer               id=4 [slave  pointer  (2)]
⎜   ↳ SynPS/2 Synaptics TouchPad               id=10 [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)]
    ↳ Power Button                             id=7 [slave  keyboard (3)]
    ↳ Sleep Button                             id=8 [slave  keyboard (3)]
    ↳ AT Translated Set 2 keyboard             id=9 [slave  keyboard (3)]

b) Execute the following commands to download a script to force your device to be a clickpad:

wget http://people.canonical.com/~cndougla/enable-clickpad.sh
chmod a+x enable-clickpad.sh


c) Execute the script
./enable-clickpad.sh <device name|device id>
5) Optionally, you can also turn the lower right corner of the clickpad into a right button zone. This zone will allow you to click using one finger on the right lower corner of the touchpad and have the click register as a right click instead of a left click. "Two finger tapping" for right click hasn't changed by using this driver.
a) Execute the following commands to download a script to create a rightclick zone.
wget http://people.canonical.com/~cndougla/enable-rightbutton.sh
chmod a+x enable-rightbutton.sh
b) Execute the script
./enable-rightbutton.sh <device name|device id>

Ok, hopefully the upgrade went smooth for you, but if not, You may need to recover your system using ppa-purge and then file a bug on what went wrong.

Testing
Use your trackpad as normal. Are there any issues?
Attempt a click-and-drag with separate fingers. Did it work?
If you enable the right button zone, does a button press in the lower right corner cause a right click?
Does the trackpad behave as you would expect?

Filing Bugs
Please file bugs against xserver-xorg-input-synaptics package in launchpad (https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/xserver-xorg-input-synaptics/+filebug).

Make sure when filing to tag it "clickpad", and mention you are testing from the test clickpad ppa. This will make sure your issue is seen by the developers and they will know it is in relation to this new package.

Giving Feedback
Send your comments and questions to the ubuntu-x mailing list with the subject "Re: CFT ClickPad Support". Don't worry if your not subscribed to the list; emails will be accepted from unsubscribed participants. In addition, you can chat on IRC by visiting the #ubuntu-x channel on freenode.

Getting Help
Don't hesitate to reach out to the wonderful folks on freenode @ #ubuntu-x, the ubuntu-x mailing list, the ubuntu+1 forums, or myself if you have questions. Thanks for helping test ubuntu!



Enable-rightclick.sh
http://www.mediafire.com/?lagb3t6ntedhdeo

Enable-Clickpad.sh
http://www.mediafire.com/?sl8akq43ipk1ffk