Disable Keyboard & Mouse input on unix (under X)
Solution 1
Assuming your GUI is X-based (as almost all UNIX GUIs are), use xinput
.
First, list your devices:
$ xinput --list
⎡ Virtual core pointer id=2 [master pointer (3)]
⎜ ↳ Virtual core XTEST pointer id=4 [slave pointer (2)]
⎜ ↳ Windows mouse id=6 [slave pointer (2)]
⎣ Virtual core keyboard id=3 [master keyboard (2)]
↳ Virtual core XTEST keyboard id=5 [slave keyboard (3)]
↳ Windows keyboard id=7 [slave keyboard (3)]
List the details for your mouse (id=6 in our example):
$ xinput --list-props 6
Device 'Windows mouse':
Device Enabled (112): 1
Coordinate Transformation Matrix (114): 1.000000, 0.000000, 0.000000, 0.000000, 1.000000, 0.000000, 0.000000, 0.000000, 1.000000
Device Accel Profile (222): 0
Device Accel Constant Deceleration (223): 1.000000
Device Accel Adaptive Deceleration (224): 1.000000
Device Accel Velocity Scaling (225): 10.000000
Now disable it:
$ export DISPLAY=:0
$ xinput set-int-prop 6 "Device Enabled" 8 0
To enable it do:
$ xinput set-int-prop 6 "Device Enabled" 8 1
The same goes for the keyboard, just replace the int-prop number with the proper id.
Tested and worked on cygwin.
Of course, you have to plan beforehand how will you enable your devices again. such as schedule it on cron, re-enable it remotely, or disable just one of them in first place.
Solution 2
xinput --set-int-prop
is deprecated. You should use --set-prop
instead. Also, xinput --enable [device]
and xinput --disable [device]
can be used to enable and disable devices respectively.
Here is a shell script I use to enable, disable, and toggle my laptop's touchpad:
#!/bin/bash
# Enables, disables, or toggles device
device='AlpsPS/2 ALPS GlidePoint'
if [[ $1 == -e ]] ; then
# Enable
#xinput --set-prop "$device" "Device Enabled" 1
xinput --enable "$device"
elif [[ $1 == -d ]] ; then
# Disable
#xinput --set-prop "$device" "Device Enabled" 0
xinput --disable "$device"
elif [[ $1 == -t ]] ; then
# Toggle
if [[ $(xinput list-props "$device" |
grep "Device Enabled") == *:*1 ]] ; then
#xinput --set-prop "$device" "Device Enabled" 0
xinput --disable "$device"
else
#xinput --set-prop "$device" "Device Enabled" 1
xinput --enable "$device"
fi
else
echo "usage: $0 [-edt]"
fi
Solution 3
The answered question using xinput is the right one, but here is a quick one if all you are looking for is a simple screensaver type lock. I wrote this back in the '90s, and all it does is eat the X server's keyboard and mouse events, until you type the password. No feedback at all other than exiting when you type it correctly.
http://ishiboo.com/~danny/Projects/xl/
I use it as a screen-lock, exactly how you want to use it.
Solution 4
Your answer is probably best for your second use case (doing something remotely), but probably not for your first (being away from keyboard). How would you run xinput again to restore access when you return?
The standard solution to locking the system while away from it is XScreenSaver, which is installed by default in most distros. If configured to lock the keyboard, it will prompt for your password before unlocking it.
Solution 5
At least on Debian-based systems such as Ubuntu there is a utility called xtrlock (1)
available through the package repositories.
This utility locks the keyboard and mouse until the password is entered while leaving windows visible. I find it useful for computers running information displays and the like.
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Philomath
No computer runs windows, it walks. --Philomath Using Cygwin now, (what a shame...). In process of converting to *nix.
Updated on September 18, 2022Comments
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Philomath over 1 year
How can one programmatically "freeze" the Keyboard & Mouse temporarily, so that no one could mess with the system?
There are several possibilities where this is useful. For instance, I have a laptop and I want to make sure no one uses it while I leave, even if somebody knows the password or can guess it (like wife or children), as well as depressing thieves' appetite (as it seems dis-functioning). or I'm doing something remotely so I want to make sure the user at the computer doesn't disturb.
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Gilles 'SO- stop being evil' almost 13 yearsRelated: similar question on OSX
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Philomath almost 13 yearsI have updated.
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Philomath almost 13 yearsI have updated.
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Philomath almost 13 yearsNo other answer here answers the question.
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Emanuel Berg over 11 yearsIn my case, the command to disable the mouse looks like this:
xinput set-int-prop 9 "Device Enabled" 8 0
- only, 1) I'd like to hide the mouse pointer as well, and 2) if I go from X to a tty (Linux console/VTs), and then back to X, this is reset (xinput list-props 9
confirms this). -
Emanuel Berg over 11 yearsCheck out my comment to Philomath's post. I've got the same problem for
xinput --disable 9
. -
Emanuel Berg over 11 yearsCheck out my answer to a similar question on SO - it does the same, but can be invoked from a tty, and, it also (using a workaround) hides the pointer.
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Sam Watkins almost 11 yearsI voted for this as it is the kind of solution I want, but it doesn't work for me on Linux with shadow passwords. A process has to be root to access /etc/shadow and associated functions, but I want to run xl as a non-root user. My use case: when we watch shows on the computer, my baby daughter likes to bash on the keyboard! xscreensaver is not helpful for this
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Sam Watkins almost 11 yearsYour answer is a great example of "suckless" or unix programming "do one thing and do it well" ... except that it doesn't work for me (with shadow passwords!) For my use case I'm happy to hard-code a password, so that's okay. Now teach me how to disable the power button, that's my baby's favourite button!
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Virendra almost 11 yearswhy do you not want root? why not suid the xl binary?
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Virendra about 10 yearsBTW, you can specify the password on the commandline or via a environment variable now.
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Ez0r over 9 yearsIs it possible to eat X input events with a standard X toolset and a shell script?
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mehov over 5 yearsThis seems like the most simple and lightweight option, and it's been around since mid-90s too. One problem is I don't think it's possible to hide the locked cursor image, which makes this unusable for signage, unfortunately.
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ed22 over 4 yearsCan I disable a "master pointer" device?