Enable Ubuntu Touchpad via Terminal | Generated by AI

Home 2026.02

Here are the most common and up-to-date ways (as of 2025–2026) to enable the touchpad from the terminal in Ubuntu. The method depends on whether you’re using Wayland (default since ~Ubuntu 21.10/22.04) or X11, and on your GNOME version.

Method 1: GNOME settings via terminal (recommended – works on both Wayland and X11)

This is the cleanest method for modern Ubuntu versions (22.04, 24.04, 24.10, 25.04, etc.) using GNOME.

# Enable touchpad (normal mode)
gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.peripherals.touchpad send-events enabled

Extra useful variants:

# Disable touchpad
gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.peripherals.touchpad send-events disabled

# Smart mode: disable when external mouse is connected
gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.peripherals.touchpad send-events disabled-on-external-mouse

# Show current setting
gsettings get org.gnome.desktop.peripherals.touchpad send-events

This change is immediate and survives reboot.

Method 2: Using xinput (only works on X11 sessions – very common in older guides)

  1. List all input devices:
xinput list

Look for something like:

Example output snippet:

⎜   ↳ DLL07E4:01 06CB:7E92 Touchpad          id=12   [slave  pointer  (2)]
  1. Enable it (replace 12 with your real ID):
xinput enable 12

or (more explicit)

xinput set-prop 12 "Device Enabled" 1

To disable again: xinput disable 12 or ... "Device Enabled" 0

Note: This only works in an X11 session. If you’re on Wayland (default), xinput won’t see or control the touchpad properly.

Quick way to check if you’re on Wayland or X11

echo $XDG_SESSION_TYPE

If nothing above works

Very rare cases (driver bug, kernel issue, etc.):

# Reload the touchpad kernel module (most common ones)
sudo modprobe -r psmouse
sudo modprobe psmouse proto=imps   # or auto, synaptics, etc.

But try the first two methods first — they solve 95%+ of cases.

Let me know what Ubuntu version you’re using and whether you’re on Wayland/X11 if it still doesn’t work!

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