How to use trackpoint but keep touchpad disabled on Lenovo ThinkPad e531

Question

I have a Lenovo ThinkPad e531 laptop. This model has both a touchpad and a trackpoint. I'd like to use the Trackpoint, because I'm used to it from my previous laptop, but I'd also like to disable the touchpad, to prevent accidentally touching it.

Problem is, there are no dedicated trackpoint buttons on e531.

This is a picture of the e530 model:

You can see it has a separate buttons above the touchpad which you can use when using the trackpoint.

This is a picture of my model (the e531):

As you can see, there are no buttons. There is just the touchpad.

I can disable the touchpad (in System Settings > Mouse & Touchpad) and use the trackpoint to move the mouse pointer around, but then there is no way to click. As you can probably imagine, this is not very useful.

What I'm thinking is there should be a way to disable the mouse motion feature of the touchpad but still keep it clickable so I can use it as the mouse buttons for the trackpont. My question is, how to do it.

I assume that it can be achieved with the xinput utility, but as I'm not very familiar with it, I don't know how. Anybody can help me here, or at least point me in the right direction?

This is the output of xinput on my machine:

~ > xinput
⎡ Virtual core pointer                      id=2    [master pointer  (3)]
⎜   ↳ Virtual core XTEST pointer                id=4    [slave  pointer  (2)]
⎜   ↳ SynPS/2 Synaptics TouchPad                id=12   [slave  pointer  (2)]
⎜   ↳ TPPS/2 IBM TrackPoint                     id=14   [slave  pointer  (2)]
⎜   ↳ Logitech Unifying Device. Wireless PID:1025   id=15   [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)]
    ↳ Video Bus                                 id=8    [slave  keyboard (3)]
    ↳ Power Button                              id=9    [slave  keyboard (3)]
    ↳ Integrated Camera                         id=10   [slave  keyboard (3)]
    ↳ AT Translated Set 2 keyboard              id=11   [slave  keyboard (3)]
    ↳ ThinkPad Extra Buttons                    id=13   [slave  keyboard (3)]

This is the list of the TrackPoint (device 14) properties:

~ > xinput --list-props 14
Device 'TPPS/2 IBM TrackPoint':
        Device Enabled (133):   1
    Coordinate Transformation Matrix (135): 1.000000, 0.000000, 0.000000, 0.000000, 1.000000, 0.000000, 0.000000, 0.000000, 1.000000
    Device Accel Profile (256): 0
    Device Accel Constant Deceleration (257):   1.000000
    Device Accel Adaptive Deceleration (258):   1.000000
    Device Accel Velocity Scaling (259):    10.000000
    Device Product ID (250):    2, 10
    Device Node (251):  "/dev/input/event13"
    Evdev Axis Inversion (404): 0, 0
    Evdev Axes Swap (406):  0
    Axis Labels (407):  "Rel X" (143), "Rel Y" (144)
    Button Labels (408):    "Button Left" (136), "Button Middle" (137), "Button Right" (138), "Button Wheel Up" (139), "Button Wheel Down" (140), "Button Horiz Wheel Left" (141), "Button Horiz Wheel Right" (142)
    Evdev Middle Button Emulation (409):    0
    Evdev Middle Button Timeout (410):  50
    Evdev Third Button Emulation (411): 0
    Evdev Third Button Emulation Timeout (412): 1000
    Evdev Third Button Emulation Button (413):  3
    Evdev Third Button Emulation Threshold (414):   20
    Evdev Wheel Emulation (415):    1
    Evdev Wheel Emulation Axes (416):   6, 7, 4, 5
    Evdev Wheel Emulation Inertia (417):    10
    Evdev Wheel Emulation Timeout (418):    200
    Evdev Wheel Emulation Button (419): 2
    Evdev Drag Lock Buttons (420):  0

This is the list of the Touchpad (device 12) properties:

~ > xinput --list-props 12
Device 'SynPS/2 Synaptics TouchPad':
    Device Enabled (133):   1
    Coordinate Transformation Matrix (135): 1.000000, 0.000000, 0.000000, 0.000000, 1.000000, 0.000000, 0.000000, 0.000000, 1.000000
    Device Accel Profile (256): 1
    Device Accel Constant Deceleration (257):   2.500000
    Device Accel Adaptive Deceleration (258):   1.000000
    Device Accel Velocity Scaling (259):    12.500000
    Synaptics Edges (260):  1726, 4858, 1577, 3665
    Synaptics Finger (261): 25, 30, 256
    Synaptics Tap Time (262):   180
    Synaptics Tap Move (263):   192
    Synaptics Tap Durations (264):  180, 180, 100
    Synaptics ClickPad (265):   1
    Synaptics Tap FastTap (266):    0
    Synaptics Middle Button Timeout (267):  0
    Synaptics Two-Finger Pressure (268):    282
    Synaptics Two-Finger Width (269):   7
    Synaptics Scrolling Distance (270): 87, 87
    Synaptics Edge Scrolling (271): 0, 0, 0
    Synaptics Two-Finger Scrolling (272):   1, 0
    Synaptics Move Speed (273): 1.000000, 1.750000, 0.045725, 40.000000
    Synaptics Edge Motion Pressure (274):   30, 160
    Synaptics Edge Motion Speed (275):  1, 349
    Synaptics Edge Motion Always (276): 0
    Synaptics Off (277):    0
    Synaptics Locked Drags (278):   0
    Synaptics Locked Drags Timeout (279):   5000
    Synaptics Tap Action (280): 2, 3, 0, 0, 1, 3, 0
    Synaptics Click Action (281):   1, 3, 0
    Synaptics Circular Scrolling (282): 0
    Synaptics Circular Scrolling Distance (283):    0.100000
    Synaptics Circular Scrolling Trigger (284): 0
    Synaptics Circular Pad (285):   0
    Synaptics Palm Detection (286): 0
    Synaptics Palm Dimensions (287):    10, 200
    Synaptics Coasting Speed (288): 20.000000, 50.000000
    Synaptics Pressure Motion (289):    30, 160
    Synaptics Pressure Motion Factor (290): 1.000000, 1.000000
    Synaptics Resolution Detect (291):  1
    Synaptics Grab Event Device (292):  1
    Synaptics Gestures (293):   1
    Synaptics Capabilities (294):   1, 0, 0, 1, 1, 1, 1
    Synaptics Pad Resolution (295): 42, 42
    Synaptics Area (296):   0, 0, 0, 0
    Synaptics Soft Button Areas (297):  3292, 0, 3397, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0
    Synaptics Noise Cancellation (298): 8, 8
    Device Product ID (250):    2, 7
    Device Node (251):  "/dev/input/event6"

Solution

Summary from @thom comment, I've done this to make it work:

1. Open file /usr/share/X11/xorg.conf.d/50-synaptics.conf for edit.
2. Find Section "InputClass" which the following line is Identifier "Default clickpad buttons".
3. Edit option for SoftButtonAreas to values 64% 0 1 42% 36% 64% 1 42%, this is size of the right and middle button.

4. Enable option AreaBottomEdge and change value to 1, this will disable touchpad movement.

   If everything done right, your class should looks like:

   Section "InputClass"
       Identifier "Default clickpad buttons"
       MatchDriver "synaptics"
       Option "SoftButtonAreas" "64% 0 1 42% 36% 64% 1 42%"
       Option "AreaBottomEdge" "1"
   EndSection
   

5. Save file and re-login.

I use S440 btw, but I think this should work for all model that use buttonless touchpad.

Comments

[Marco]

Do you have any idea how to enable vertical scrolling with the TrackPoint? Tried to activate ScrollVheelEmulation, but nothing worked so far. (thinkwiki.org/wiki/How_to_configure_the_TrackPoint#Scrollin‌​g)

[neizod]

@Marco that issue seems to need proper patch and rebuild, which I only seen it in Arch Linux so far (aur.archlinux.org/packages/xf86-input-evdev-trackpoint ). For now, we wait. (you might wanna subscribe this tracker bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/xserver-xorg-input-evdev/+‌​bug/…).