Ubuntu – How to disable the “tap dragging”-feature in Ubuntu 18.04 (libinput) without disabling “tap to click”

18.04gnomelibinputtouchpadxorg

I can't seem to figure out how to disable the "tap dragging"-feature in Ubuntu 18.04's libinput. By disabling "tap dragging" I mean that I want to disable the dragging-functionality when using tap without actually disabling "Tap-to-click". This way when I want to drag something, I'd have to actually click on the touchpad. While it could be a handy feature for some, I don't really need it and it keeps triggering by accident. If it's any help, I am on Macbook Pro, some late-2013 or early-2014 version.

I've tried to search around for an answer, and checked libinput's manual to figure out the correct configuration. What I found was this:

Option "TappingDrag" "bool"

Enables or disables drag during tapping behavior ("tap-and-drag"). When enabled,
a tap followed by a finger held down causes a single button down only, all
motions of that finger thus translate into dragging motion. Tap-and-drag
requires option Tapping to be enabled.

I tried to set this option in /usr/share/X11/xorg.conf.d/40-libinput.conf:

Section "InputClass"
        Identifier "libinput touchpad catchall"
        MatchIsTouchpad "on"
        MatchDevicePath "/dev/input/event*"
        Driver "libinput"
        Option "TappingDrag" "false"
EndSection

Reboot and tap dragging is still there. I also tried to add the same TappingDrag-option to the Touchscreen- and Tablet-sections in the config file with no luck. What am I doing wrong?

I hope someone knows the answer, this is really bugging me. Thanks in advance!

Best Answer

Since 18.04 is using Xorg instead of Wayland, you should be able to set it this way:

First find the device:

% xinput list                                                                   
⎡ Virtual core pointer                      id=2    [master pointer  (3)]
⎜   ↳ Virtual core XTEST pointer                id=4    [slave  pointer  (2)]
⎜   ↳ SynPS/2 Synaptics TouchPad                id=12   [slave  pointer  (2)]
⎜   ↳ TPPS/2 IBM TrackPoint                     id=13   [slave  pointer  (2)]
⎣ Virtual core keyboard                     id=3    [master keyboard (2)]
    ↳ Virtual core XTEST keyboard               id=5    [slave  keyboard (3)]
    ↳ Power Button                              id=6    [slave  keyboard (3)]
    ↳ Video Bus                                 id=7    [slave  keyboard (3)]
    ↳ Video Bus                                 id=8    [slave  keyboard (3)]
    ↳ Sleep Button                              id=9    [slave  keyboard (3)]
    ↳ Integrated Camera: Integrated C           id=10   [slave  keyboard (3)]
    ↳ AT Translated Set 2 keyboard              id=11   [slave  keyboard (3)]
    ↳ ThinkPad Extra Buttons                    id=14   [slave  keyboard (3)]

I'm on a thinkpad. Your devices are likely different.

List the properties of the touchpad:

% xinput list-props 12                                                          
Device 'SynPS/2 Synaptics TouchPad':
    Device Enabled (140):   1
    Coordinate Transformation Matrix (142): 1.000000, 0.000000, 0.000000, 0.000000, 1.000000, 0.000000, 0.000000, 0.000000, 1.000000
    libinput Tapping Enabled (276): 1
    libinput Tapping Enabled Default (277): 0
    libinput Tapping Drag Enabled (278):    1
    ...

Then disable it:

% xinput set-prop 'SynPS/2 Synaptics TouchPad' 'libinput Tapping Drag Enabled' 0

The way I set this permanently is by putting into a script that runs on login.

I hope that helps. I don't know how to fix it at the system-level, nor on Wayland.

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