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I'd like to automatically disable the touchpad on my Thinkpad X301 after the system boots up.

I can successfully run the script manually, but when I try to execute it by any autostart method, it just won't do.

The script looks like that:

#!/bin/bash
xinput set-prop 10 "Device Enabled" 0
exit 0
  • I checked that the ID is correct with xinput list.
  • I have granted execution rights to the script.

What I've tried with no success:

  • to add it to Startup Applications in Control Center

  • put a disable_touchpad.desktop file to ~/.config/autostart with the following content:

    [Desktop Entry]
Type=Application
Exec=/home/username/disable_touchpad.sh
Hidden=false
NoDisplay=false
X-GNOME-Autostart-enabled=true
Name=Disable Touchpad
Icon=/home/username/Pictures/icon_touchpad.png

I also tried to put the script from my home folder to /usr/local/bin (and edit the file above accordingly), did not make any difference.

Currently I put the script to my Desktop and I manually execute it every time.

I know that there is one more way to try, which is using crontab and @reboot, but I would prefer the options above and would really like to know why these approaches don't work.

What am I doing wrong?

muru
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chris.mccoy
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  • Have you checked if the script executes at all? Maybe add a `date > /tmp/log` to it and see if the file `/tmp/log` gets created? – muru Feb 06 '16 at 12:18
  • Well, if I execute it manually it disables the touchpad with no problem. Do you think I should add it to the script anyway? – chris.mccoy Feb 06 '16 at 12:28
  • There are two possibilities: either the script executes at startup and something else fails, or the script doesn't execute at startup. We can eliminate one possibility. – muru Feb 06 '16 at 12:30
  • Thank you for your kind help, editinit's recommendation worked. So the script ran successfully. But thank you again! – chris.mccoy Feb 06 '16 at 12:40
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    Possible duplicate of ["Startup Applications" not working](http://askubuntu.com/questions/708012/startup-applications-not-working) – Jacob Vlijm Feb 06 '16 at 12:45

1 Answers1

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Might be ubuntu-mate startup program taking time to load(touchpad driver). you can try adding sleep into your above script.

#!/bin/bash
sleep 30
xinput set-prop 10 "Device Enabled" 0
exit 0

Please increase the sleep time if above does not work.

koolwithk
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  • You're a genius! :) It did not work with 30, but I increased it to 60 and it's perfect. I added the script to startup applications and now it works like a charm. Thank you! – chris.mccoy Feb 06 '16 at 12:36