Since my default sony vaio shortcuts don't completely work in Ubuntu 12.04, I'd like to assign a script to Fn + F1, which toggles the touchpad on and off, so that the cursor would stop moving while I'm typing. Since I use a mouse and rarely need to use the touchpad, I don't want to use "disable touchpad while writing", which doesn't really seem to work anyway.

I figured that using a script with the following command (this works, but I have to open up a terminal each time):

xinput set-prop 12 "Device Enabled" 0

I have two problems at this point. One is that I don't know how to write this script so that it will toggle it off if it is on, and on if it is off. I know I should use an if statement but I don't know what value I should be checking to see if it is on or off.

The second one is that I am having problems creating a new shortcut. I use System Settings -> Keyboard -> Shortcuts. I tried to add, to custom shortcuts, a new one by clicking the '+' sign. I named it Toggle Touchpad, and added the path to the executable script with the line above, by typing

/home/irem/.toggletouchpad

I have made it an executable with chmod. The problem is that when I click apply, and then click back on it to define the keystroke, it re-opens the dialogue. I cannot define new keys. (It says disabled on the right column of the entry).

I have also tried xbindkeys, which almost constantly crashes. I'd prefer the system settings, if I can set the shortcut.

I'd appreciate if anyone can help. Thanks.