Disable Internal Laptop Keyboard When External Keyboard Is Plugged In On Linux
fhoekstra.eu
Do you also find yourself wanting to use your custom keyboard while travelling with your Linux laptop? Without triggering keypresses through the built-in keyboard underneath of course! I’ll first show you how to disable the built-in laptop keyboard with a bash script. And then automatically disable the laptop keyboard when, and only when, your custom keyboard is plugged in, and enable it again when your custom keyboard is unplugged.

cross-posted from: https://feddit.nl/post/49130941

How to disable Linux laptop keyboard when custom keyboard is plugged in

How are you guys doing this? Are you using Sway or Hyprland for this? Anyone else using udev already?

  • lambaliciousEnglish
    3·
    4 days ago

    I assume one of the reasons to fully disable the internal keyboard is that the external one is sitting on top, so this setup is for when you are short of space? (eg.: lap carrying your laptop, note: don’t do that!)

    Tho, someone correct me if this is not the case, this way, ¿you would also lose access to the special hardware key functions of the keyboard (eg.: AURA mode, fan speed, rfkill on ASUS laptops, etc), right?

    Defo this is one of the nice thigns I like udev rules for - taking action when specific hardware is plugged or unplugged, thus making the mechanical task of connecting and configuring hardware lots more ergonomic.

    • fhoekstra@feddit.nlOPEnglish
      2·
      2 days ago

      My ASUS laptop special buttons above the normal keyboard are registered as a separate device to the kernel, so this does not impact them. They are far enough out of the way to not get pressed by my ergo split though.

      • lambaliciousEnglish
        2·
        1 day ago

        Excellent! Hadn’t really thought that one keyboard can be multiple devices, but then again, those are also keyboard-touchpad combos, should have expected something like that.