It’s probably that the devices are enumerated differently with every boot. Instead of the device number, use the device name and optionally, the device type to help with ambiguity. Here’s a real world example to help you understand what I mean by that:
wxl@amorphous:~$ xinput
⎡ Virtual core pointer id=2 [master pointer (3)]
⎜ ↳ Virtual core XTEST pointer id=4 [slave pointer (2)]
⎜ ↳ Adafruit KB2040 Keyboard id=10 [slave pointer (2)]
⎜ ↳ Adafruit KB2040 Mouse id=11 [slave pointer (2)]
⎜ ↳ Qwertykeys qk60 Mouse id=13 [slave pointer (2)]
⎜ ↳ Qwertykeys qk60 Consumer Control id=15 [slave pointer (2)]
⎜ ↳ E-Signal USB Gaming Mouse id=18 [slave pointer (2)]
⎜ ↳ E-Signal USB Gaming Mouse Keyboard id=19 [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)]
↳ Power Button id=8 [slave keyboard (3)]
↳ Sleep Button id=9 [slave keyboard (3)]
↳ Qwertykeys qk60 id=12 [slave keyboard (3)]
↳ Qwertykeys qk60 System Control id=14 [slave keyboard (3)]
↳ Qwertykeys qk60 Keyboard id=16 [slave keyboard (3)]
↳ Apple Computer, Inc. IR Receiver id=17 [slave keyboard (3)]
↳ Adafruit KB2040 Keyboard id=20 [slave keyboard (3)]
↳ Qwertykeys qk60 Consumer Control id=21 [slave keyboard (3)]
↳ E-Signal USB Gaming Mouse Keyboard id=22 [slave keyboard (3)]
wxl@amorphous:~$ xinput | grep "Adafruit KB2040 Keyboard"
⎜ ↳ Adafruit KB2040 Keyboard id=10 [slave pointer (2)]
↳ Adafruit KB2040 Keyboard id=20 [slave keyboard (3)]
wxl@amorphous:~$ xinput list "Adafruit KB2040 Keyboard"
Warning: There are multiple devices matching 'Adafruit KB2040 Keyboard'.
To ensure the correct one is selected, please use the device ID, or prefix the
device name with 'pointer:' or 'keyboard:' as appropriate.
unable to find device Adafruit KB2040 Keyboard
wxl@amorphous:~$ xinput list keyboard:"Adafruit KB2040 Keyboard"
Adafruit KB2040 Keyboard id=20 [slave keyboard (3)]
Reporting 1 classes:
Class originated from: 20. Type: XIKeyClass
Keycodes supported: 248
I would rather setup a shortcut key so that the recipient can toggle the touchpad when she needs it.
There’s no option in hp’s BIOS for it.
She has no experience whatsoever with linux, and I’m trying to set it up for as easy for her to use.
Windows 11 messed her up so bad she got mad and told me she want’s something else.
The updates kept changing her settings to how Microsoft wanted those settings.
I’m not sure this works exactly the same with every device but if you disable a device it seems to show a different output:
∼ Adafruit KB2040 Keyboard id=20 [floating slave]
Note the first character. It means it’s out of the tree. It’s also now “floating.”
So I think you could do something like this:
#!/usr/bin/env bash
mydevice="ELAN071A:00 04F3:30FD Touchpad"
# check if device is disabled
if [ "$(xinput list --short "$mydevice" | grep floating)" ]; then
xinput enable "$mydevice"
else
xinput disable "$mydevice"
fi
Warning: if the device has the exact same name but both as a pointer and as a keyboard as in my “Adafruit KB2040 Keyboard” this becomes infinitely difficult. Though I’ve showed you the way to distinguish between them above, that doesn’t work when the device is disabled because at that point, it’s neither pointer nor keyboard.
Oh, then set up a shortcut in your shortcut manager. Since I seem to remember you’re on Lubuntu, that means lxqt-config-globalkeys.