Toggle touchpad (enable/disable) in Linux with xinput.

toggletouchpad.sh

	#!/bin/bash
#
# type cmd `xinput`, it shows my device X input information as follow
#
# ➜  ~ xinput
# ⎡ Virtual core pointer                      id=2    [master pointer  (3)]
# ⎜   ↳ Virtual core XTEST pointer                id=4    [slave  pointer  (2)]
# ⎜   ↳ ETPS/2 Elantech Touchpad                  id=14   [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)]
#     ↳ Asus Wireless Radio Control               id=7    [slave  keyboard (3)]
#     ↳ Video Bus                                 id=8    [slave  keyboard (3)]
#     ↳ Video Bus                                 id=9    [slave  keyboard (3)]
#     ↳ Sleep Button                              id=10   [slave  keyboard (3)]
#     ↳ ASUS USB2.0 Webcam                        id=11   [slave  keyboard (3)]
#     ↳ Asus WMI hotkeys                          id=12   [slave  keyboard (3)]
#     ↳ AT Translated Set 2 keyboard              id=13   [slave  keyboard (3)]
#
# So my touchpad's ID is 14, then use `xinput disable 14` and `xinput enable 14` for toggling~
#
# Following bash script is referred to this askubuntu question:
# http://askubuntu.com/questions/751413/how-to-disable-enable-toggle-touchpad-in-a-dell-laptop


if xinput list-props 14 | grep "Device Enabled (169):.*1" >/dev/null
then
    xinput disable 14
    notify-send -u low -i mouse "Trackpad disabled"
else
    xinput enable 14
    notify-send -u low -i mouse "Trackpad enabled"
fi

I am having the issue of the touchpad function keys to toggle not working on my asus tuf a17 in Zorin OS 15. I followed your recommendation, and wrote this up as a script under /etc/acpi with a trigger from /etc/acpi/events with the following lines:

event=0B3CBB35-E3C2- 000000ff 00000000
action=/etc/apci/elan-touchpad.sh

the event is the key combination of the function and F10 keys.
my elan-touchpad.sh has the following:

#!/bin/sh

if xinput list-props 17 | grep "Device Enabled (156):.*1" >/dev/null
then
xinput disable 17
notify-send -u low -i mouse "Trackpad disabled"
else
xinput enable 17
notify-send -u low -i mouse "Trackpad enabled"
fi

but the shortcut still does not provide function. I use an external mouse and having this ability to switch between the two by shortcut would be beneficial. Any help you could provide would be appreciated.

A more robust version would be this one-liner that you can bind to a key in settings:

if xinput list-props 15 | grep "Device Enabled ([[:digit:]]\+):\s*1" >/dev/null; then xinput disable 15 && notify-send -u low -i mouse "Trackpad disabled"; else xinput enable 15 && notify-send -u low -i mouse "Trackpad enabled"; fi

Replace the device ID (15) with the one specific to your system. Note, it may change if systems id reconfigured.

@rimutaka thanks for making it one line for no reason to make it harder to read.