TouchFreeze – Tray icon that disables your touchpad while typing

TouchFreeze docks in your system tray (KDE/Gnome) and disables button click events while typing.It's similar to ksynaptics if you know that but more simple.
touchfreeze  is  a  program  that  disables  your touchpad when you are typing. This prevents unintended click and scroll events when  part  of your hand touches the touchpad while you are typing.

After you stop typing, there is a certain delay before your touchpad is enabled again. You can set the value of the delay by moving the  slider in touchfreeze’s window.  touchfreeze’s window appears when clicking on its dock icon.

touchfreeze only disables click and  scroll  events  coming  from  your touchpad.  It  does  not  disable  cursor  movement, neither any events coming from your mouse.

Differences:

  • no configuration of the touch pad
  • ksynaptics ranks high on powertop
  • no additional dependencies but Qt4

Install Touchfreeze in Ubuntu

sudo apt-get install touchfreeze

Or click on the following link to install

apt://touchfreeze

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14 Responses

  1. Vancouverite says:

    This is a nice idea. I installed it from the repositories and when I run it I get a segmentation fault. Anybody else see this?

    Ubuntu 9.10, amd64
    Lenovo T400
    =============
    $ touchfreeze
    SynDaemon::SynDaemon

    set daemon true
    set pad true
    using typing delay of 500 ms
    “/usr/bin/synclient”
    initial state is TouchpadOff= 0
    Segmentation fault

  2. Hesto says:

    WOW! This is exactly what I have been looking for! Thank you very much!

  3. Divan Santana says:

    Work around to above Segmentation fault bug…

    cd /usr/local/bin/
    touch start-touchfreeze
    sudo chmod 755 start-touchfreeze
    sudo vim start-touchfreeze

    #!/bin/sh
    /usr/bin/kdesudo /usr/bin/touchfreeze

    cd ~/.kde/Autostart/
    ln -s /usr/local/bin/start-touchfreeze touchfreeze

    Now log out and log in 🙂

  4. digi says:

    doesn’t 9.10 has this feature by default – under preferences->mouse->touchpad ?

  5. Divan Santana says:

    Yes, but not in kubuntu, hence the handy tip.

  6. Fabian says:

    Thanks for the workaround. Works on Kubuntu 9.10. But it would be nice if the tool although run with user rights.

  7. martin says:

    It does not work for my satelite A300. When I installed it and run it nothing happens. Touchpad working normally. When turn it off and on nothing happens.
    Sorry!

  8. Divan Santana says:

    The latest version just released(I installed it from source) prevents the Segmentation faults with the latest qt and KDE.

  9. Trinae Ross says:

    Is it me or does Touchfreeze not work in Ubuntu 10.4. Downloaded it, installed it and the cursor still ends up in weird places while typing. In 9.10, I didn’t have that issue. I am using an Acer Aspire Timeline 4810T. Any ideas?

  10. dg says:

    Does anyone know if touchfreeze will “work” now in the latest ubuntu? It is installed and says my touchpad is disabled, but it isn’t and is driving me crazy! Any known fixes?

  11. Simon says:

    Same for me: touchpad disabled, but it still works absolutely normal.
    ubuntu 10.04 Lucid Netbook Remix

  12. Simon says:

    me again, sorry:
    terminal says this:

    set daemon true
    set pad false
    using typing delay of 1070 ms
    “/usr/bin/synclient”
    initial state is TouchpadOff= 0
    disable touchpad
    Couldn’t find synaptics properties. No synaptics driver loaded?
    set pad false
    disable touchpad
    Couldn’t find synaptics properties. No synaptics driver loaded?
    set pad false

    What can I do? Thanks for any help!

    Simon

  13. Bob-El says:

    How do I uninstall “Touchfreeze”. When I type “sudo apt-get remove touchfreeze” I get this:
    Reading package lists… Done
    Building dependency tree
    Reading state information… Done
    The following packages will be REMOVED:
    touchfreeze
    0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 1 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
    E: Could not open lock file /var/cache/apt/archives/lock – open (2: No such file or directory)
    E: Unable to lock the download directory

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