[Swlug] Dsabling the trackpad

[Rhys Sage]

Sadly, I did not set up SSH as I was not expecting to have to use it. I have used SSH to access a Raspberry Pi on my home network but never anything over the internet. I'm not quite sure how that would work. It's such a shame it's not as easy as it is on my Asus to turn the trackpad off. Sod's law, of course - I like my trackpad and use it but can turn it on and off easily. He can't cope with a trackpad and can't turn it off easily. I sent him the script instructions but I'm not even sure he can copy and paste.

Rhys Sage






On Friday 12 July 2024 at 19:11:47 GMT-4, Jonathan Marsden <jmarsden at fastmail.fm> wrote: 





Rhys,

Assuming you have SSH or similar secure remote shell access to his machine (when it is powered on and connected to the Internet), can't you use that access to put the commands needed into a script that runs at boot time, or into a script that his user account runs at login?

If you left the UK without setting up a way for you to do remote support... that was probably a mistake.  Does anyone in the group (that you trust!) live near your Dad, so they could go see him and create the needed little shell script?

Jonathan
-- 
  Jonathan Marsden
  Pastor, Deer Park Baptist Church, Tenby
  jmarsden at fastmail.fm

On Fri, 12 Jul 2024, at 20:42, Rhys Sage via Swlug wrote:
> I set up dad's laptop to use Debian 12. What I didn't know at the time 
> was that he has problems with the trackpad and prefers to use a mouse. 
> He's using an older HP laptop. 
>
> On my Asus I can just press Fn + F9 to turn the trackpad on or off. I 
> did find a way of doing it via the terminal but dad really shouldn't be 
> let loose on terminal. He doesn't understand computers at all. I gave 
> him the terminal commands but it probably won't work. Is there a 
> simpler way of doing it via just keyboard shortcuts?
>
> It doesn't help that I'm back in the US again.
>
> Rhys Sage

>
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