Function key to disable touchpad (18.04)

Question

I previously used Fn+F9 to disable/enable my touchpad for when I used an external mouse (when using Ubuntu 16.04). After upgrading to 18.04 I've found that when I hit that combination I get a graphic showing the touchpad icon with an "X" but it actually doesn't do anything at all.

I have an Asus UX305C

$ lsmod | grep asus
asus_nb_wmi            28672  0
asus_wmi               28672  1 asus_nb_wmi
sparse_keymap          16384  1 asus_wmi
wmi                    24576  1 asus_wmi
video                  45056  2 asus_wmi,i915
asus_wireless          16384  0
$ dconf read /org/gnome/desktop/peripherals/touchpad/send-events
'enabled'

EDIT: I discovered that it works correctly in the login screen and also works fine when using a LiveUSB 18.04. I think the issue is some residual package or setting from a 16.04.

@N0rbert - Thanks. I knew I needed more info, but wasn't sure what to include. — Tim Tisdall, Apr 05 '19 at 18:01
I'm have just booted my Ubuntu 18.04.2 LTS (using MATE and GNOME DEs, with kernel 4.15.0-47, without Xorg HWE) on my UX32A. The loaded kernel modules are the same as yours. I have no problems: `+` enables and disables touchpad normally. What is your desktop environment? Please add output of `dconf read /org/gnome/desktop/peripherals/touchpad/send-events` (for GNOME) or `dconf read /org/mate/desktop/peripherals/touchpad/touchpad-enabled` (for MATE) to the question. — N0rbert, Apr 05 '19 at 18:56
You might look at `touchpad-indicator`. It does all of this auto-magically. — heynnema, Apr 05 '19 at 20:21
Try to update corresponding parameter manually with `dconf write /org/gnome/desktop/peripherals/touchpad/send-events "['disabled']"` and then test touchpad reaction. — N0rbert, Apr 05 '19 at 20:21
@N0rbert when advicing people to manually edit dconf setting, better advice to use `gsettings`, which is the cli frontend to dconf. One of the reasons is that the higher level `gsettings` includes consistency check for dconf. The command for gsettings would then be on 18.04: `gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.peripherals.touchpad send-events 'disabled'` — Jacob Vlijm, Apr 05 '19 at 20:28
@N0rbert I did `gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.peripherals.touchpad send-events 'disabled'` and it disabled the touchpad, but Fn-F9 still showed the same icon with an X on it as if it was disabling and did nothing (the touchpad remained disabled until I ran the command again with `enabled`). — Tim Tisdall, Apr 07 '19 at 12:42
@TimTisdall you can try to create new user account or use guest session and check Fn-F9 from it. — N0rbert, Apr 07 '19 at 15:20
@N0rbert - added more info... It works fine from a LiveUSB or on the login screen. I'm guessing there's some local config that's messing something up, but I don't have a clue where to begin finding that. I don't see anything in `~/.gconf`, `~/.gnome`, `~/.gnome2` that seems pertinent. Is there some way to see a diff of gsettings from the defaults? — Tim Tisdall, Apr 08 '19 at 12:39
As useful starting point I can recommend to restore default permissions in the home folder with `sudo chown -R $USER:$USER $HOME` and then reboot. About diff: you can use `gsettings list-recursively | sort > one` and then compare them with some other version (for example from LiveUSB - `gsettings list-recursively | sort > two`) using plain `diff one two` or MeldMerge (`meld one two`). — N0rbert, Apr 08 '19 at 13:19
@N0rbert - The only thing I found in gsettings that seemed like it may have any effect is `org.gnome.desktop.interface gtk-im-module 'gtk-im-context-simple'` is on a clean LiveUSB while my system is 'ibus'. I tried changing it to 'gtk-im-context-simple', but it didn't seem to change anything. — Tim Tisdall, Apr 10 '19 at 17:40
@N0rbert - hmm... I set it to 'gtk-im-context-simple' but after reboot it reverted to 'ibus'. No idea if changing would help any way, though. — Tim Tisdall, Apr 10 '19 at 17:53

Function key to disable touchpad (18.04)

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