Touchpad not working while pressing 'typing' keys after 16.10 upgrade

I recently upgraded to 16.10 from 16.04 and now the touchpad stops responding while a keyboard key is pressed. These keys exclude the functional keys such as alt, super, ctrl, shift, Fn keys, etc.

On running xinput list, I get

⎡ Virtual core pointer id=2 [master pointer (3)]
⎜ ↳ Virtual core XTEST pointer id=4 [slave pointer (2)]
⎜ ↳ DLLC6B2:00 06CB:75BF Touchpad id=11 [slave pointer (2)]
⎜ ↳ SynPS/2 Synaptics TouchPad 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)] ↳ Power Button id=8 [slave keyboard (3)] ↳ Sleep Button id=9 [slave keyboard (3)] ↳ Integrated_Webcam_HD id=10 [slave keyboard (3)] ↳ AT Translated Set 2 keyboard id=12 [slave keyboard (3)] ↳ Dell WMI hotkeys id=14 [slave keyboard (3)] ↳ DELL Wireless hotkeys id=15 [slave keyboard (3)]

I have tried disabling SynPS/2 Synaptics TouchPad in a desperate attempt but to no avail. Output of gsettings list-recursively | grep touch:

org.gnome.settings-daemon.plugins.media-keys.custom-keybindings.touchpad-indicator binding ''
org.gnome.settings-daemon.plugins.media-keys.custom-keybindings.touchpad-indicator command '/usr/bin/python3 /opt/
org.gnome.settings-daemon.plugins.media-keys.custom-keybindings.touchpad-indicator name 'Touchpad indicator'
org.gnome.shell.keyboard keyboard-type 'touch'
org.gnome.settings-daemon.peripherals.touchscreen orientation-lock false
org.gnome.desktop.peripherals.touchpad send-events 'enabled'
org.gnome.desktop.peripherals.touchpad natural-scroll true
org.gnome.desktop.peripherals.touchpad tap-to-click true
org.gnome.desktop.peripherals.touchpad left-handed 'mouse'
org.gnome.desktop.peripherals.touchpad click-method 'fingers'
org.gnome.desktop.peripherals.touchpad speed 0.38938053097345127
org.gnome.desktop.peripherals.touchpad scroll-method 'two-finger-scrolling'
org.gnome.desktop.peripherals.touchpad edge-scrolling-enabled true
org.gnome.desktop.peripherals.touchscreen display ['', '', '']
org.gnome.desktop.peripherals.touchpad send-events 'enabled'
org.gnome.desktop.peripherals.touchpad natural-scroll true
org.gnome.desktop.peripherals.touchpad tap-to-click true
org.gnome.desktop.peripherals.touchpad left-handed 'mouse'
org.gnome.desktop.peripherals.touchpad click-method 'fingers'
org.gnome.desktop.peripherals.touchpad speed 0.38938053097345127
org.gnome.desktop.peripherals.touchpad scroll-method 'two-finger-scrolling'
org.gnome.desktop.peripherals.touchpad edge-scrolling-enabled true
com.ubuntu.touch.sound incoming-call-sound '/usr/share/sounds/ubuntu/ringtones/Ubuntu.ogg'
com.ubuntu.touch.sound incoming-message-sound '/usr/share/sounds/ubuntu/notifications/Xylo.ogg'
com.ubuntu.touch.sound silent-mode false
org.gnome.shell.keyboard keyboard-type 'touch'
com.ubuntu.touch.network flight-mode false
com.ubuntu.touch.network gps true
com.ubuntu.touch.system auto-brightness false
com.ubuntu.touch.system brightness 80
com.ubuntu.touch.system orientation-lock 'none'
com.ubuntu.touch.system rotation-lock false
com.ubuntu.touch.system brightness-needs-hardware-default true
com.ubuntu.touch.system activity-timeout uint32 60
com.ubuntu.touch.system fingerprint-names @a{ss} {}
com.ubuntu.touch.system dim-timeout uint32 45
org.gnome.settings-daemon.peripherals.touchscreen orientation-lock false

I googled for hours. There looks to have been a setting for disabling the touchpad while typing in earlier versions but I never had those enabled in the past. This problem started as soon as I upgraded to 16.10. The problem is it's getting in the way of what litle gaming I did on Linux. Please help.

EDIT

xinput list-props 13
Device 'SynPS/2 Synaptics TouchPad': Device Enabled (139): 0 Coordinate Transformation Matrix (141): 1.000000, 0.000000, 0.000000, 0.000000, 1.000000, 0.000000, 0.000000, 0.000000, 1.000000 libinput Tapping Enabled (277): 1 libinput Tapping Enabled Default (278): 0 libinput Tapping Drag Enabled (279): 1 libinput Tapping Drag Enabled Default (280): 1 libinput Tapping Drag Lock Enabled (281): 0 libinput Tapping Drag Lock Enabled Default (282): 0 libinput Accel Speed (283): 0.389381 libinput Accel Speed Default (284): 0.000000 libinput Natural Scrolling Enabled (285): 1 libinput Natural Scrolling Enabled Default (286): 0 libinput Send Events Modes Available (261): 1, 1 libinput Send Events Mode Enabled (262): 0, 0 libinput Send Events Mode Enabled Default (263): 0, 0 libinput Left Handed Enabled (287): 0 libinput Left Handed Enabled Default (288): 0 libinput Scroll Methods Available (289): 1, 1, 0 libinput Scroll Method Enabled (290): 1, 0, 0 libinput Scroll Method Enabled Default (291): 1, 0, 0 libinput Click Methods Available (292): 1, 1 libinput Click Method Enabled (293): 0, 1 libinput Click Method Enabled Default (294): 1, 0 libinput Middle Emulation Enabled (295): 0 libinput Middle Emulation Enabled Default (296): 0 libinput Disable While Typing Enabled (297): 1 libinput Disable While Typing Enabled Default (298): 1 Device Node (264): "/dev/input/event5" Device Product ID (265): 2, 7 libinput Drag Lock Buttons (299): <no items> libinput Horizonal Scroll Enabled (266): 1
xinput list-props 11
Device 'DLLC6B2:00 06CB:75BF Touchpad': Device Enabled (139): 1 Coordinate Transformation Matrix (141): 1.000000, 0.000000, 0.000000, 0.000000, 1.000000, 0.000000, 0.000000, 0.000000, 1.000000 libinput Tapping Enabled (277): 1 libinput Tapping Enabled Default (278): 0 libinput Tapping Drag Enabled (279): 1 libinput Tapping Drag Enabled Default (280): 1 libinput Tapping Drag Lock Enabled (281): 0 libinput Tapping Drag Lock Enabled Default (282): 0 libinput Accel Speed (283): 0.389381 libinput Accel Speed Default (284): 0.000000 libinput Natural Scrolling Enabled (285): 1 libinput Natural Scrolling Enabled Default (286): 0 libinput Send Events Modes Available (261): 1, 1 libinput Send Events Mode Enabled (262): 0, 0 libinput Send Events Mode Enabled Default (263): 0, 0 libinput Left Handed Enabled (287): 0 libinput Left Handed Enabled Default (288): 0 libinput Scroll Methods Available (289): 1, 1, 0 libinput Scroll Method Enabled (290): 1, 0, 0 libinput Scroll Method Enabled Default (291): 1, 0, 0 libinput Click Methods Available (292): 1, 1 libinput Click Method Enabled (293): 0, 1 libinput Click Method Enabled Default (294): 1, 0 libinput Middle Emulation Enabled (295): 0 libinput Middle Emulation Enabled Default (296): 0 libinput Disable While Typing Enabled (297): 1 libinput Disable While Typing Enabled Default (298): 1 Device Node (264): "/dev/input/event14" Device Product ID (265): 1739, 30143 libinput Drag Lock Buttons (299): <no items> libinput Horizonal Scroll Enabled (266): 1

I see the problem is the libinput Disable While Typing Enabled (297) property. So, I just set that with set-prop?

2 Answers

While @Pilot6's answer works well for Xorg, it won't do anything to a system running Wayland.

If anyone else is having this problem on Ubuntu 17.10+, or when running Wayland on any version, here's a way to solve it.

Specifically, running:

gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.peripherals.touchpad disable-while-typing false

will instruct Gnome to tell libinput to disable disable-while-typing.

I found this from /u/Eingaica's post on reddit.

If using Ubuntu 16.04 or earlier, or if using Xorg, I would recommend following Pilot6's answer to this question.

After the upgrade libinput is installed. You can disable this feature this way. Run in a terminal

sudo -H gedit /usr/share/X11/xorg.conf.d/60-libinput.conf

and add to the touchpad section after Driver "libinput"

 Option "DisableWhileTyping" "false"

Save the file and restart the session or reboot.

Another way to solve this is to uninstall xserver-xorg-input-libinput. That will revert everything as it was in 16.04 using xorg-synaptics.