I wasn't joking: there's no good reason to disbable a laptop keyboard unless you have great eye sight. Ive hooked in different keyboards, and it was very dissapointing.
How to disable laptop keyboard in Linux mint
- Thread starter Sherri is a Cat
- Start date
OP
Sherri is a Cat
Well-Known Member
WHAT? There is no way I'd leave my babies! I couldn't get them all.
... that you can see , should be added.
The OP may have another reason, which we may learn once we can get away from the cats, lol.
Wizard
OP
Sherri is a Cat
Well-Known Member
My cats are the reason. I might be using a laptop a bit longer. I don't want to buy a monitor. My cats routinely walk in front of or over whatever is in front of me. They consistently shove their heads into my palms demanding to be pet.
OK 
If you unplug your external keyboard (or switch off if wifi) for a moment and gently brush aside a feline, see if you can capture the output of
Then plug the external back in and repeat the exercise.
Give us the output for both (preferably in code tags) and we can work from there.
Mine with just the one inbuilt keyboard looks like this
If you unplug your external keyboard (or switch off if wifi) for a moment and gently brush aside a feline, see if you can capture the output of
Code:
xinput listThen plug the external back in and repeat the exercise.
Give us the output for both (preferably in code tags) and we can work from there.
Mine with just the one inbuilt keyboard looks like this
Code:
chris@VeraXfce-HDD:~$ xinput list
⎡ Virtual core pointer id=2 [master pointer (3)]
⎜ ↳ Virtual core XTEST pointer id=4 [slave pointer (2)]
⎜ ↳ Logitech Wireless Receiver Mouse id=10 [slave pointer (2)]
⎜ ↳ DELL0811:00 044E:120A Mouse id=11 [slave pointer (2)]
⎜ ↳ DELL0811:00 044E:120A Touchpad id=12 [slave pointer (2)]
⎜ ↳ AlpsPS/2 ALPS GlidePoint id=18 [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)]
↳ Video Bus id=7 [slave keyboard (3)]
↳ Power Button id=8 [slave keyboard (3)]
↳ Sleep Button id=9 [slave keyboard (3)]
↳ DELL0811:00 044E:120A UNKNOWN id=13 [slave keyboard (3)]
↳ Intel HID events id=14 [slave keyboard (3)]
↳ Intel HID 5 button array id=15 [slave keyboard (3)]
↳ Dell WMI hotkeys id=16 [slave keyboard (3)]
↳ AT Translated Set 2 keyboard id=17 [slave keyboard (3)]Further to the above, I will give you the rest so that you can accomplish this while we are both online and offline at different times.
First of all, as a precaution, it may be wise to launch your Virtual (on screen) Keyboard, so that if things go wrong, you can still have access to entering commands. Also, unplug or switch off your external keyboard, if you have one available.
You can do that from the Menu, with Settings - Preferences - Accessibility - Keyboard and move the toggle switch to On. To switch it off when you are finished, reverse the toggle switch, or on the virtual keyboard you can click an icon of a small keyboard near its top right.
Let's take a look at my xinput output above.
Under
⎣ Virtual core keyboard
I have two (2) entries for keyboard. Mine is actually the bottom one
↳ AT Translated Set 2 keyboard id=17
To temporarily disable my keyboard, I can type in either of
My keyboard is then disabled for the duration of the computer session I am in, but will be re-enabled following a power down and restart or a reboot.
You could then reconnect your external keyboard and continue from there.
To re-enable the keyboard during the same session
How to make this permanent?
Maarten's link to Baeldung in #6 gives some pointers, but I use a more complete method.
If you are using X11/Xorg (not Wayland), and you likely are on Mint, there is a file
libinput.conf
(on some distros, it will be synaptic.conf)
Full path is
/usr/share/X11/xorg.conf.d/40-libinput.conf
and we can edit that to make the changes and save it.
You can use the CLI Text Editor Nano in Terminal, or (as Root) the GUI Text Editor (xed for Mint), I use Nano.
My content is in the Spoiler below (click to open, click to close)
I use my arrow keys to go to the section beginning
Section "InputClass"
Identifier "libinput keyboard catchall"
and comment out the entire section, so it is now
Save the file, reboot, and your internal keyboard is now disabled longterm.
To revert changes at a later time, just edit the file again to remove the hashes, save and reboot.
Fire away with any questions.
Wizard
First of all, as a precaution, it may be wise to launch your Virtual (on screen) Keyboard, so that if things go wrong, you can still have access to entering commands. Also, unplug or switch off your external keyboard, if you have one available.
You can do that from the Menu, with Settings - Preferences - Accessibility - Keyboard and move the toggle switch to On. To switch it off when you are finished, reverse the toggle switch, or on the virtual keyboard you can click an icon of a small keyboard near its top right.
Let's take a look at my xinput output above.
Under
⎣ Virtual core keyboard
I have two (2) entries for keyboard. Mine is actually the bottom one
↳ AT Translated Set 2 keyboard id=17
To temporarily disable my keyboard, I can type in either of
Code:
xinput disable 17
OR
xinput disable "AT Translated Set 2 keyboard"My keyboard is then disabled for the duration of the computer session I am in, but will be re-enabled following a power down and restart or a reboot.
You could then reconnect your external keyboard and continue from there.
To re-enable the keyboard during the same session
Code:
xinput enable 17
OR
xinput enable "AT Translated Set 2 keyboard"How to make this permanent?
Maarten's link to Baeldung in #6 gives some pointers, but I use a more complete method.
If you are using X11/Xorg (not Wayland), and you likely are on Mint, there is a file
libinput.conf
(on some distros, it will be synaptic.conf)
Full path is
/usr/share/X11/xorg.conf.d/40-libinput.conf
and we can edit that to make the changes and save it.
You can use the CLI Text Editor Nano in Terminal, or (as Root) the GUI Text Editor (xed for Mint), I use Nano.
My content is in the Spoiler below (click to open, click to close)
cat /usr/share/X11/xorg.conf.d/40-libinput.conf
# Match on all types of devices but joysticks
#
# If you want to configure your devices, do not copy this file.
# Instead, use a config snippet that contains something like this:
#
# Section "InputClass"
# Identifier "something or other"
# MatchDriver "libinput"
#
# MatchIsTouchpad "on"
# ... other Match directives ...
# Option "someoption" "value"
# EndSection
#
# This applies the option any libinput device also matched by the other
# directives. See the xorg.conf(5) man page for more info on
# matching devices.
Section "InputClass"
Identifier "libinput pointer catchall"
MatchIsPointer "on"
MatchDevicePath "/dev/input/event*"
Driver "libinput"
EndSection
Section "InputClass"
Identifier "libinput keyboard catchall"
MatchIsKeyboard "on"
MatchDevicePath "/dev/input/event*"
Driver "libinput"
EndSection
Section "InputClass"
Identifier "libinput touchpad catchall"
MatchIsTouchpad "on"
MatchDevicePath "/dev/input/event*"
Driver "libinput"
EndSection
Section "InputClass"
Identifier "libinput touchscreen catchall"
MatchIsTouchscreen "on"
MatchDevicePath "/dev/input/event*"
Driver "libinput"
EndSection
Section "InputClass"
Identifier "libinput tablet catchall"
MatchIsTablet "on"
MatchDevicePath "/dev/input/event*"
Driver "libinput"
EndSection
# Match on all types of devices but joysticks
#
# If you want to configure your devices, do not copy this file.
# Instead, use a config snippet that contains something like this:
#
# Section "InputClass"
# Identifier "something or other"
# MatchDriver "libinput"
#
# MatchIsTouchpad "on"
# ... other Match directives ...
# Option "someoption" "value"
# EndSection
#
# This applies the option any libinput device also matched by the other
# directives. See the xorg.conf(5) man page for more info on
# matching devices.
Section "InputClass"
Identifier "libinput pointer catchall"
MatchIsPointer "on"
MatchDevicePath "/dev/input/event*"
Driver "libinput"
EndSection
Section "InputClass"
Identifier "libinput keyboard catchall"
MatchIsKeyboard "on"
MatchDevicePath "/dev/input/event*"
Driver "libinput"
EndSection
Section "InputClass"
Identifier "libinput touchpad catchall"
MatchIsTouchpad "on"
MatchDevicePath "/dev/input/event*"
Driver "libinput"
EndSection
Section "InputClass"
Identifier "libinput touchscreen catchall"
MatchIsTouchscreen "on"
MatchDevicePath "/dev/input/event*"
Driver "libinput"
EndSection
Section "InputClass"
Identifier "libinput tablet catchall"
MatchIsTablet "on"
MatchDevicePath "/dev/input/event*"
Driver "libinput"
EndSection
I use my arrow keys to go to the section beginning
Section "InputClass"
Identifier "libinput keyboard catchall"
and comment out the entire section, so it is now
Code:
#Section "InputClass"
# Identifier "libinput keyboard catchall"
# MatchIsKeyboard "on"
# MatchDevicePath "/dev/input/event*"
# Driver "libinput"
#EndSectionSave the file, reboot, and your internal keyboard is now disabled longterm.
To revert changes at a later time, just edit the file again to remove the hashes, save and reboot.
Fire away with any questions.
Wizard
OP
Sherri is a Cat
Well-Known Member
I can't do this for a few days . Things are pretty hectic right now
Understood - take your time.
Chris
Chris
Heh... This is one of my planned articles.
