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  • How to get touchpad settings back afer (oops!) disabling them?

    From Chris Green@3:633/10 to All on Saturday, July 18, 2026 13:20:01
    I run Debian 13 with an xfce4 desktop and I've inadvertently diabled
    the touchpad settings.

    So I can't actually do anything! The touchpad moves the mouse pointer
    around the screen but clicking on anything does nothing.

    How can I reset the touchpad to defaults?

    --
    Chris Green
    ú

    --- PyGate Linux v1.5.18
    * Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)
  • From mick.crane@3:633/10 to All on Saturday, July 18, 2026 13:30:02
    On 2026-07-18 11:56, Chris Green wrote:
    I run Debian 13 with an xfce4 desktop and I've inadvertently diabled
    the touchpad settings.

    So I can't actually do anything! The touchpad moves the mouse pointer
    around the screen but clicking on anything does nothing.

    How can I reset the touchpad to defaults?



    typing "xinput list" should give a list of things and ID numbers.
    maybe something in there looks like the buttons.
    "xinput disable <ID number>" disables it so presume "xinput enable <ID number>" will enable it.
    Think only applies to the session but maybe can set to defaults if click working.
    mick

    --- PyGate Linux v1.5.18
    * Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)
  • From JEEnius Shivank@3:633/10 to All on Saturday, July 18, 2026 14:40:02
    Press Alt + F2
    type xfce4-mouse-settings in the search bar
    hit enter
    use the tab keys to navigate to move the highlighted thing till *Devices*
    or the *Touchpad* is selected.
    Use right arrow key to switch over Touchpad tab if its not active.
    Press tab until you highlight *Tap To Click* or enable *Touchpad Clicking* Shivank Sharma
    On Sat, Jul 18, 2026 at 4:40?PM Chris Green <cl@isbd.net> wrote:
    I run Debian 13 with an xfce4 desktop and I've inadvertently diabled
    the touchpad settings.

    So I can't actually do anything! The touchpad moves the mouse pointer
    around the screen but clicking on anything does nothing.

    How can I reset the touchpad to defaults?

    --
    Chris Green
    ú




    --- PyGate Linux v1.5.18
    * Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)
  • From Chris Green@3:633/10 to All on Saturday, July 18, 2026 15:20:01
    On Sat, Jul 18, 2026 at 12:32:10PM +0100, mick.crane wrote:
    On 2026-07-18 11:56, Chris Green wrote:
    I run Debian 13 with an xfce4 desktop and I've inadvertently diabled
    the touchpad settings.

    So I can't actually do anything! The touchpad moves the mouse pointer around the screen but clicking on anything does nothing.

    How can I reset the touchpad to defaults?

    should add
    Ctrl + Alt + t brings up the virtual terminal.

    But that's not a terminal on the X display so xinput doesn't do
    anything helpful - it just says "Unable to connect to X server".

    --
    Chris Green

    --- PyGate Linux v1.5.18
    * Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)
  • From Chris Green@3:633/10 to All on Saturday, July 18, 2026 15:20:01
    mick.crane <mick.crane@gmail.com> wrote:
    On 2026-07-18 11:56, Chris Green wrote:
    I run Debian 13 with an xfce4 desktop and I've inadvertently diabled
    the touchpad settings.

    So I can't actually do anything! The touchpad moves the mouse pointer around the screen but clicking on anything does nothing.

    How can I reset the touchpad to defaults?

    typing "xinput list" should give a list of things and ID numbers.
    maybe something in there looks like the buttons.
    "xinput disable <ID number>" disables it so presume "xinput enable <ID number>" will enable it.
    Think only applies to the session but maybe can set to defaults if click working.

    But how do I get to somewhere that I can run "xinput list"? It has to
    run in a terminal running on the laptop's display and I can't click a
    terminal window to allow me to type.

    Using ssh from another system doesn't work because xinput shows me the
    settings for that system.

    --
    Chris Green
    ú

    --- PyGate Linux v1.5.18
    * Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)
  • From Chris Green@3:633/10 to All on Saturday, July 18, 2026 15:30:01
    JEEnius Shivank <shivanksharma2376543@gmail.com> wrote:
    [-- text/plain, size 0.7K, charset UTF-8, 27 lines, encoding quoted-printable --]

    Press Alt + F2
    type xfce4-mouse-settings in the search bar
    hit enter

    use the tab keys to navigate to move the highlighted thing till *Devices*
    or the *Touchpad* is selected.
    Use right arrow key to switch over Touchpad tab if its not active.
    Press tab until you highlight *Tap To Click* or enable *Touchpad Clicking*

    That all works until trying to use the TAB key to navigate, for some
    odd reason that particular window doesn't want to be navigated using
    TAB.

    --
    Chris Green
    ú

    --- PyGate Linux v1.5.18
    * Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)
  • From Greg Wooledge@3:633/10 to All on Saturday, July 18, 2026 15:40:02
    On Sat, Jul 18, 2026 at 13:58:11 +0100, Chris Green wrote:
    On Sat, Jul 18, 2026 at 12:32:10PM +0100, mick.crane wrote:
    should add
    Ctrl + Alt + t brings up the virtual terminal.

    But that's not a terminal on the X display so xinput doesn't do
    anything helpful - it just says "Unable to connect to X server".

    In that case, you should be able to do:

    export DISPLAY=:0
    xinput list

    and so on. (Assuming bash or zsh is your shell, not some csh variant.)

    --- PyGate Linux v1.5.18
    * Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)
  • From tomas@3:633/10 to All on Saturday, July 18, 2026 15:40:02
    On Sat, Jul 18, 2026 at 01:58:11PM +0100, Chris Green wrote:
    On Sat, Jul 18, 2026 at 12:32:10PM +0100, mick.crane wrote:
    On 2026-07-18 11:56, Chris Green wrote:
    I run Debian 13 with an xfce4 desktop and I've inadvertently diabled
    the touchpad settings.

    So I can't actually do anything! The touchpad moves the mouse pointer around the screen but clicking on anything does nothing.

    How can I reset the touchpad to defaults?

    should add
    Ctrl + Alt + t brings up the virtual terminal.

    But that's not a terminal on the X display so xinput doesn't do
    anything helpful - it just says "Unable to connect to X server".
    DISPLAY=:0 xinput
    (Character set might be a bit garbled, though)
    Wayland, take that!
    ;-)
    Cheers
    --
    t


    --- PyGate Linux v1.5.18
    * Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)
  • From Stefan Monnier@3:633/10 to All on Saturday, July 18, 2026 17:00:01
    But how do I get to somewhere that I can run "xinput list"? It has to
    run in a terminal running on the laptop's display and I can't click a terminal window to allow me to type.

    You should be able to enable "mouse keys", which lets you use keys to
    simulate mouse events. By default it uses F2=mouse1 F3=mouse2 F4=mouse3
    (and the numpad numbers for mouse movement).

    How to enable mouse keys depends on your environment and might itself be
    tricky if you can't click, but IME desktop environment usually stash
    those options somewhere in the "accessibility" section.

    Since I virtually never need F2/3/4 nor the numpad keys, I tend to
    enable that feature all the time, even though I use it rather rarely
    (except on my old Thinkpad X30 whose trackpoint buttons are all dead).


    === Stefan

    --- PyGate Linux v1.5.18
    * Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)
  • From Chris Green@3:633/10 to All on Saturday, July 18, 2026 19:20:01
    Greg Wooledge <greg@wooledge.org> wrote:
    On Sat, Jul 18, 2026 at 13:58:11 +0100, Chris Green wrote:
    On Sat, Jul 18, 2026 at 12:32:10PM +0100, mick.crane wrote:
    should add
    Ctrl + Alt + t brings up the virtual terminal.

    But that's not a terminal on the X display so xinput doesn't do
    anything helpful - it just says "Unable to connect to X server".

    In that case, you should be able to do:

    export DISPLAY=:0
    xinput list

    and so on. (Assuming bash or zsh is your shell, not some csh variant.)

    Ah, yes, that does it, thank you. I'm surprised it worked, I guess
    that xinput doesn't need to actually access the display, it just wants
    to know which display the mouse should work on.

    --
    Chris Green
    ú

    --- PyGate Linux v1.5.18
    * Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)
  • From Nicolas George@3:633/10 to All on Saturday, July 18, 2026 19:30:01
    Chris Green (HE12026-07-18):
    export DISPLAY=:0
    xinput list

    Ah, yes, that does it, thank you. I'm surprised it worked, I guess
    that xinput doesn't need to actually access the display, it just wants
    to know which display the mouse should work on.

    xinput needs to access the display, and for that the first thing it
    needs to know is which display to access.

    You seem to have an inaccurate conception of how X11 clients work, I
    recommend you read a little about it to avoid further misunderstanding
    in these discussions.

    Regards,

    --
    Nicolas George

    --- PyGate Linux v1.5.18
    * Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)
  • From Chris Green@3:633/10 to All on Sunday, July 19, 2026 10:00:01
    Nicolas George <george@nsup.org> wrote:
    Chris Green (HE12026-07-18):
    export DISPLAY=:0
    xinput list

    Ah, yes, that does it, thank you. I'm surprised it worked, I guess
    that xinput doesn't need to actually access the display, it just wants
    to know which display the mouse should work on.

    xinput needs to access the display, and for that the first thing it
    needs to know is which display to access.

    You seem to have an inaccurate conception of how X11 clients work, I recommend you read a little about it to avoid further misunderstanding
    in these discussions.

    Of course, since it is running on the same computer the X server is
    there and contactable, even though the display isn't visible. So xinput
    can be its client. I just hadn't thought it through properly.

    --
    Chris Green
    ú

    --- PyGate Linux v1.5.18
    * Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)
  • From Timothy M Butterworth@3:633/10 to All on Sunday, July 19, 2026 11:20:02
    On Sat, Jul 18, 2026 at 7:10?AM Chris Green <cl@isbd.net> wrote:
    I run Debian 13 with an xfce4 desktop and I've inadvertently diabled
    the touchpad settings.

    So I can't actually do anything! The touchpad moves the mouse pointer
    around the screen but clicking on anything does nothing.

    How can I reset the touchpad to defaults?

    The easiest solution is to connect a USB mouse.


    --
    Chris Green
    ú


    --
    ???????
    ??????? Debian - The universal operating system
    ??????? https://www.debian.org/
    ?????


    --- PyGate Linux v1.5.18
    * Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)
  • From Chris Green@3:633/10 to All on Sunday, July 19, 2026 12:00:01
    Timothy M Butterworth <timothy.m.butterworth@gmail.com> wrote:
    [-- text/plain, size 0.7K, charset UTF-8, 29 lines, encoding quoted-printable --]

    On Sat, Jul 18, 2026 at 7:10?AM Chris Green <cl@isbd.net> wrote:

    I run Debian 13 with an xfce4 desktop and I've inadvertently diabled
    the touchpad settings.

    So I can't actually do anything! The touchpad moves the mouse pointer around the screen but clicking on anything does nothing.

    How can I reset the touchpad to defaults?


    The easiest solution is to connect a USB mouse.

    Mouse was disabled too. I was actually trying to disable everything
    **except** the touchpad because of an issue with scrolling using the
    touchpad.

    --
    Chris Green
    ú

    --- PyGate Linux v1.5.18
    * Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)
  • From Steinar Bang@3:633/10 to All on Tuesday, July 21, 2026 16:20:02
    Is it an Acer laptop? If so: try F7 (without the Fn modifier).

    On my Acer F7 toggles the touchpad on and off. In BIOS I think,
    bypasses whatever OS you're running.

    If that doesn't work, try some other F keys.

    --- PyGate Linux v1.5.18
    * Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)