Action on plugging AND unplugging a mouse

[theYinYeti]

I am aware of the Gnome settings for when I plug a mouse. But this is not what I want.

 

Is there a way to execute something when I plug a mouse, AND when I unplug a mouse. I want to respectively disable, and enable again the touchpad in such case.

 

My touchpad comes in the way when I type text, but sometimes I need it (when no other mouse). For now, I tried a compromise with

syndaemon -i 2 -K

but that's not satisfactory because the touchpad is unresponsive when I need it, and it keeps clicking randomly when I type text.

 

Yves.

[scarecrow]

Are you using xorg 1.5.X and evdev input hardware, or an older xorg version without evdev?

[theYinYeti]

Older it seems…

[yves@localhost ~]$ rpm -qa | grep -i xorg
libxorg-x11-devel-7.3-4mdv2009.0
x11-server-xorg-[b]1.4.2[/b]-10.1mdv2009.0

 

I don't know much about evdev, but maybe it is used:

[yves@localhost ~]$ sed -n '/mouse/,/Section/p' /etc/X11/xorg.conf
Driver "mouse"
Option "Protocol" "ExplorerPS/2"
Option "Device" "[b]/dev/mouse[/b]"
EndSection
[yves@localhost ~]$ ls -l /dev/mouse
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 10 2009-03-10 08:58 /dev/mouse -> input/mice
[yves@localhost ~]$ ls -l /dev/input/mice
crw-r----- 1 root root 13, 63 2009-03-10 09:58 /dev/input/mice
[yves@localhost ~]$ ls -l /dev/input/event*
crw-r----- 1 root root 13, 64 2009-03-10 09:58 /dev/input/event0
crw------- 1 yves root 13, 65 2009-03-10 09:58 /dev/input/event1

The major number from these event* devices is the same as that of mice, and the minor is very close.

 

Yves.

[scarecrow]

Yep... mmm, I guess with evdev disabled/not used any of these suggestions should work:

http://llbb.wordpress.com/2007/07/09/auto-...chpad-on-linux/

However, with the evdev driver loaded instead they will probably not work. You will need an appropriate HAL rule instead to be put in /etc/hal/fdi/policy folder, but I can't be sure about its syntax (I'm an xml goofy).

Maybe the last suggestion above will work if put in, say, /etc/rc.local or any other multiuser startup script.

Edited March 10, 2009 by scarecrow

[theYinYeti]

Thank you scarecrow :)

 

That worked: I created a “/etc/udev/rules.d/85-synaptics.rules†file with this content:

ACTION=="add", SUBSYSTEM=="input", ID_CLASS="mouse", RUN+="/usr/bin/synclient TouchpadOff=1"
ACTION=="remove", SUBSYSTEM=="input", ID_CLASS="mouse", RUN+="/usr/bin/synclient TouchpadOff=0"

 

I also added the following new line at the end of both “/etc/X11/gdm/Init/Default†and “/etc/X11/gdm/PreSession/Defaultâ€, just before the “exit 0†last line:

/usr/bin/synclient TouchpadOff=`grep -ic mouse /proc/bus/usb/devices`

I have yet to see if this works, as I haven't disconnected so far.

 

Yves.

Edited March 11, 2009 by theYinYeti

[scarecrow]

On my Archlinux it's actually /proc/bus/input/devices rather than /proc/bus/usb/devices. The rest are the same. I will test it too.