How do you enable tap-to-click via command line?

Question

You can use this to reverse scroll direction (natural scroll):

xmodmap -e "pointer = 1 2 3 5 4 7 6 8 9 10 11 12"

_{You can also set it back again with xmodmap -e "pointer = 1 2 3 4 5 7 6 8 9 10 11 12"}

and this to switch the left and right buttons:

xmodmap -e "pointer = 3 2 1"

_{And change it back with xmodmap -e "pointer = 1 2 3"}

But how do you enable tap to click from command line? Preferably with one command, and not permanently.

_{By the way, yes I do know this exists:}

Solution 1

Xmodmap is of no help here. Xmodmap controls physical-to-logical mappings of buttons and keys, not the physical process that generate events in the first place.

The tool for this kind of options is xinput. The property name depends on your touchpad model, it may be something like

xinput set-prop "SynPS/2 Synaptics TouchPad" "Synaptics Tap Action" 0

Run xinput list to see the names of available devices and xinput list-props "the device name" to list properties of a device.

See also Dynamic Input Configuration with xinput on the wiki, and some examples.

Solution 2

You can use gsettings:

gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.peripherals.touchpad tap-to-click true  

Which enables tap to click.

gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.peripherals.touchpad tap-to-click false

Will disable it. This is the same as changing it in System Settings.

Solution 3

Based on the main answer, given that I had to modify some of the instructions there:

The command to enable tap-to-click is therefore of the form:

xinput set-prop "device" "action" 1

To read the "device" you have to do

xinput list

But it may prove difficult to identify the device in that list. Some tips: it is probably under "Virtual core pointer"; it may contain terms like "Syn", "Synaptics", "Touchpad", "Alps", "Glidepoint". e.g., mine was AlpsPS/2 ALPS GlidePoint id=16, but I had to guess; as I was not sure I have tested if that was the correct ID number by disabling/enabling the touchpad with xinput --disable 16 and xinput --enable 16.

Now, to get rid of all the confusing names, ID-numbers can be used instead of the device and action names.

So, to read the "action":

xinput list-props 16

Which listed among others:

    libinput Tapping Enabled (297): 0

So, using ID numbers instead of names, the final command was:

xinput set-prop 16 297 1

---

Note: for some reason, using the name of the action within the command, as suggested by the main answer, wouldn't work for me (xinput set-prop ""AlpsPS/2 ALPS GlidePoint" "Tapping Enabled" 1), while using just the name of the device did work (xinput set-prop "AlpsPS/2 ALPS GlidePoint" 297 1).

---

This command can be useful in systems where there is no GUI for such setting, like in the LXQT that I was testing at the date of the post.

Comments

[Wilf]

Well, doing it with xmodmap could be useful - this is for a battered old netbook with no functioning left click key... but I also thought if I used xmodmap, I could enable it in the login screen as well...

[h3.]

I'm sure it's not possible @wilf. xmodmap controls physical-to-logical mappings of buttons and keys, not the physical process that generate events in the first place.

[Wilf]

Would I need to restart Unity/Xserver/LightDM to get these to work?

[h3.]

@wilf No, the command takes effect immediately. You can also configure at least some of these settings via a GUI (in which case they'll be applied when your session starts) but I'm not familiar with the GUI. gsettings changes the setting of the GUI interface.

[Wilf]

Success! xinput set-prop "SynPS/2 Synaptics TouchPad" "Synaptics Tap Action" 11 (might of been that number) seems to work, though it is also working as a back button AT THE SAME TIME. Edit: Whoops, actually, that didn't work - ?!?

[PlasmaBinturong]

with another device name (in my case: "Glidepoint Virtual Touchpad") the action name would be different then? There is no "tap action" shown at all for my device :(

[PlasmaBinturong]

If it's just the mirror of what's available in the graphical menu, it will not work in case the option is not visible graphically... (I get the error: « org.gnome.settings-daemon.peripherals.touchpad » does not exist)

[h3.]

@PlasmaBinturong Yes, the name of the property may depend on the device. And some touchpads may not have a tap action at all, though I've never encountered one.

[PlasmaBinturong]

@Gilles, yes mine has, but funnily (well actually, annoyingly), the tap gets deactivated after resuming sleep/hibernation, and currently I have to sudo service restart glidepoint to get it back... but I still don't see the corresponding tap action in xinput list, so maybe the subject of another question...

[Joe]

This answer is much preferred over xinput, and if you are using Cinnamon you'll want to adjust accordingly like gsettings set org.cinnamon.settings-daemon.peripherals.touchpad false.

[Admin]

ID-numbers can be used instead of names. e.g xinput set-prop 16 297 1. 16 is the number of the touchpad from xinput list, 297 stands for the "Tapping Enabled" action from xinput list-props 16, 1 is true.

[h3.]

@cipricus You can use numbers, but the number can vary from one driver to another. Using the number is mainly useful in scripts when you first parse the input of list-props to find a property, and you don't want to deal with complex quoting so you just store the number to use it with set-prop.

[Admin]

@Gilles - Of course, but I guess the name of the device and that of the action varies almost as much as the numbers, so the list-props is needed anyway. Furthermore, for some reason, using the name of the action within the command, as suggested by the main answer, wouldn't work for me (xinput set-prop ""AlpsPS/2 ALPS GlidePoint" "Tapping Enabled" 1), while using just the name of the device did work (xinput set-prop "AlpsPS/2 ALPS GlidePoint" 297 1).

[balajeerc]

Thanks for this detailed answer.

[Boson Bear]

for me it's the ``libinput Tapping Enabled'' option