Bug 487281

Summary:	Touchpad is not automatically disabled while typing
Product:	[I don't know] kde	Reporter:	Nuno Gomes <nunogomes.pt+kde>
Component:	general	Assignee:	Unassigned bugs <unassigned-bugs-null>
Status:	CLOSED UPSTREAM
Severity:	normal	CC:	nate, temp.o5kdx
Priority:	NOR
Version First Reported In:	unspecified
Target Milestone:	---
Platform:	Ubuntu
OS:	Linux
Latest Commit:		Version Fixed In:
Sentry Crash Report:

Description Nuno Gomes 2024-05-20 14:37:49 UTC

SUMMARY

When I write on my laptop, as soon as my palms touch the touchpad, the mouse travels anywhere on the screen and I often see large chunks of text being selected and replaced by what I'm writing at the moment.
I tried to select and deselect "Disable while typing" in the settings, but the behaviour is the same whatever option I use, whether I use X11 or Wayland.

STEPS TO REPRODUCE
1. Open any text editor on a laptop running a Linux distro with KDE Plasma.
2. Start typing.
3. 

OBSERVED RESULT

The mouse pointer goes wild and very often large chunks of text are selected and replaced by what we're typing at the moment.

EXPECTED RESULT

The working environment/OS is able to properly detect the palms on the touchpad and deactivate the latter while we're typing.

SOFTWARE/OS VERSIONS
Linux/KDE Plasma: TUXEDO OS 3 jammy 22.04 x86_64
KDE Plasma Version: 6.0.4
KDE Frameworks Version: 6.1.0
Qt Version: 6.7.0

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

Kernel Version: 6.5.0-10036-tuxedo (64-bit)
Graphics Platform: X11

Comment 1 Nate Graham 2024-05-24 01:35:14 UTC

The "disable touchpad while typing" feature is provided by the Libinput library. In KDE code, we provide an option to turn it on or off, but we can't control its behavior.

It sounds like Libinput's palm rejection feature may not be working for your trackpad hardware. I'd recommend you either report it to Libinput itself at https://gitlab.freedesktop.org/libinput/libinput/-/issues/, or to the Tuxedo people if you're using one of their laptops. They'll certainly want to know that palm rejection isn't working properly.

Comment 2 Nuno Gomes 2024-07-05 04:47:42 UTC

(In reply to Nate Graham from comment #1)
> The "disable touchpad while typing" feature is provided by the Libinput
> library. In KDE code, we provide an option to turn it on or off, but we
> can't control its behavior.
> 
> It sounds like Libinput's palm rejection feature may not be working for your
> trackpad hardware. I'd recommend you either report it to Libinput itself at
> https://gitlab.freedesktop.org/libinput/libinput/-/issues/, or to the Tuxedo
> people if you're using one of their laptops. They'll certainly want to know
> that palm rejection isn't working properly.

I contacted Tuxedo, but they replied saying that «unfortunately we have no influence. This is more a matter for those who provide this feature, be it Xorg or Wayland or the desktop environment programmers. From what I’ve heard, this feature works better under Wayland. But if it doesn’t, then unfortunately our hands are tied.»

It doesn't seem to be related to the brand of touchpad, as I have the same problem on a Lenovo T420 - this was my work machine for several years until recently. However, I never bothered with it because I just used the trackpoint.

I'll report it to Libinput, as you suggest.

Comment 3 temp.o5kdx 2025-05-26 09:59:31 UTC

Not resolved. Still reproducible on KDE Neon.

Operating System: KDE neon 6.3
KDE Plasma Version: 6.3.5
KDE Frameworks Version: 6.14.0
Qt Version: 6.9.0
Kernel Version: 6.8.0-60-generic (64-bit)

Comment 4 Nate Graham 2025-05-27 04:17:14 UTC

That makes sens since this was closed as an upstream issue in Libinput. If it hasn't been fixed there, you'll still experience it in KDE neon. So will everyone else with the hardware necessary to trigger the issue.

It sounds like you should submit an issue at https://gitlab.freedesktop.org/libinput/libinput/-/issues/.