How to disable the mousepad while typing

How many times did you hate that your netbook / notebook didn't come with a button to to disable el mousepad? How many times did it happen to you that you were typing something and suddenly the cursor position changed by itself because inadvertently you touched the mousepad? Worse yet, did you ever know erased everything you wrote for that very reason? If you went through any of these traumatic experiences, surely this short tip will be very helpful.

To disable the mousepad or trackpad while typing, you just have to run the following command from a terminal:

syndaemon -i 1 -d

The parameter -i 1 what it does is disable the mousepad for a period of 1 sec. since the last time a key was pressed, after that time it is enabled again. The -d parameter tells syndaemon to act like a daemon. I recommend adapting this command according to your needs and exploring the possibility of using other syndaemon parameters.

Once the rigor test has been carried out, all that remains is to add that command within the applications that run at startup. In XFCE, which is a popular environment for those who use netbooks or notebooks, this is accomplished by going to Settings> Configuration Management> Session and startup> Applications autostart. The idea is similar in other settings. You can also add this command in ~ / .xinitrc.

Once there, create an entry using the command detailed above.

Save the changes and log in again.

For more help on syndaemon and the use of other parameters, you can access its manual:

man syndaemon

Also recommended reading is the Arch wiki.