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Can I disable internal keyboard/trackpad on MBP?

Hint allows me to disable internal KB but still use an external KB

XnavxeMiyyep 's un/load AppleUSBTopCase.kext hint works fine for my purpose, with only a minor issue.

My application: For learning purposes I use an external keyboard with foreign script symbols, which I put on top of my MacBook Pro (Late 2006 with Mac OS X 10.6.8), and during this, I want to avoid accidental keystrokes on the internal keyboard coming from the pressure on the above keyboard.

It would be fine if Apple themselves would provide such a setting in the System Preferences, as they already do for "Ignore internal trackpad if external mouse/trackpad is connected".

Un/loading the internal keyboard driver with kext(un)load works fine. I receive the same error messages as other user's reported, but nevertheless it works: The internal keyboard is now disabled, while the external on top still works.

The only minor bug which remains for me, but which can be handled if you take care: If I re-load the internal keyboard driver, up to the last 9 keystrokes from the internal keyboard are suddenly inserted into the currently focused application. This seems to be a keyboard buffer issue. So if you are re-loading the internal driver, be sure to be in an insensitive application, to avoid triggering an undesired command.

Related informations:

KeyboardCleanTool disables ALL keyboard input, meaning keystrokes from both the external and the internal keyboard are ignored.
If you restart it, there are no remaining keystrokes from the buffer. This is nicely implemented, I guess in the backend, the app takes care of any remaining keystrokes in the buffer, and intercepts them.
Perfectly for people who want to disable the internal (and external) keyboard(s), but unsuited for those who want to disable the internal, but continue on the external keyboard.

A hardware alternative to my "enabled external on top of disabled internal keyboard":
 
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How to set up keys on External USB Keyboard

Nappa said:
Thanks. I had the same problem and this worked.
I got the same error messages as the posters above, but it still seems to disable the keyboard just fine.

One problem I have now is that although everything else works on my external (some bulky and crappy HP keyboard, this is just a temporary solution, getting a new MBP as soon as I have money) there is no volume buttons. "Scroll Lock" and "Pause" work as dimming and brighting up the screen but I tried every button and nothing controls the volume. Is there a way to bind these to the F buttons for example?

I used to use the ones on the internal, as they were one of the few buttons that still worked.

Strangely the F8-F12 seem to use Exposé and Dashboard, but F1-F7 don't do anything/work as F-buttons. This makes me believe it could be done.

e. never mind, I realized I could use spark to map it to any button combination
Click to expand...

Wait, I finally figured out how to disable the Internal keyboard, so I can set my External USB keyboard on top of it and not randomly push buttons, but I'm having this same problem now. How Can I set up my External keyboards Fn buttons to take care of volume and brightness? as this user above said, some of the keys work for Expose and Spaces, but that's it, and I don't take advantage of those anyway because I'm too MacBook Illiterate :p

What does he mean by "I could use Spark to map it to any button"? What is Spark?
 
Easy solution

I too had a spill on my laptop causing a few letters to not work or randomly press themselves. I purchased an external keyboard with a built in trackpad.

I was able to disable my trackpad and most of the keyboard keys by doing the following:

1. Go into System Preferences
2. Select Universal Access
3. Click Mouse & Trackpad
4. Turn Mouse keys on
5. I enable "Press option key 5 times to turn Mouse Keys on or off"
6. Click ignore trackpad when mouse keys is on
7. Enable access for assistive devices

Doing the above turned off most of the letter keys but still allowed the music control keys at the top of my keyboard to still work.
 
Last edited:
Uhhh, simply rename the kext file. No need to delete, no need to backup. Works in 10.8.2. ;)
 
jlabes said:
Andreas Hegenberg, of BetterTouchTool fame, has released an app which will disable the built-in keyboard so you can clean it, I expect it would do the job. It's called KeyboardCleanTool, and can be downloaded from http://blog.boastr.net/
Click to expand...

...will disabled both internal and external keyboard,

The other commands below work a charm. The disable command may throw a bit of a fit ( cannot unload error) but it still works. the enable options works too. ....lazy me just created a simple shell script for each, and ....waallah !

  1. disable KB>>: sudo kextunload /System/Library/Extensions/AppleUSBTopCase.kext/Contents/PlugIns/AppleUSBTCKeyboard.kext
  2. enable KB>>: sudo kextload /System/Library/Extensions/AppleUSBTopCase.kext/Contents/PlugIns/AppleUSBTCKeyboard.kext
 
XnavxeMiyyep said:
To disable the Macbook keyboard, type (or copy and paste) the following into terminal:

Code: 
sudo kextunload /System/Library/Extensions/AppleUSBTopCase.kext/Contents/PlugIns/AppleUSBTCKeyboard.kext/

To re-enable it, type (or copy and paste) the following into terminal (if copying and pasting, don't forget to copy a linebreak to make the command work):

Code: 
sudo kextload /System/Library/Extensions/AppleUSBTopCase.kext/Contents/PlugIns/AppleUSBTCKeyboard.kext/

External keyboards will still work.

Also, I know this is a necrobump, but I haven't seen this solution anywhere online, and this thread had a lot of views.
Click to expand...


I did this but then it asks for my password and I cant even type anything into this line. I also tried copying password in but it didn't work.
 
why does my keyboard still work?

I couldn't unload AppleUSBTCKeyboard.kext so I deleted it by running

sudo rm -rf /System/Library/Extensions/AppleUSBTopCase.kext/Contents/PlugIns/AppleUSBTCKeyboard.kext

and it's gone; confirmed this using both ls and kextstat.

But my keyboard still works! Or, almost works-- the shift key remains stuck.

How can this be?!
 
loconno said:
I couldn't unload AppleUSBTCKeyboard.kext so I deleted it by running

sudo rm -rf /System/Library/Extensions/AppleUSBTopCase.kext/Contents/PlugIns/AppleUSBTCKeyboard.kext

and it's gone; confirmed this using both ls and kextstat.

But my keyboard still works! Or, almost works-- the shift key remains stuck.

How can this be?!
Click to expand...

I have the same problem with the Shift Key Remaining pressed down lol! I dont know how or why, I physically removed the keeys as well.
 
Help! My macbook air keyboard turned off randomly. The last things I did where resize the chrome window and hit on of the arrow keys multiple times. However the mac was in a steamy environment, so I wonder if that could have given it water damage?

However the keys still work for such things as booting into safe mode, recovery mode, and pram reset. Just not when its booted up. So can it be a hardware issue? I have restored, erased my hard drive, redownloaded Mountain lion, Mavericks, and Yosemite. Nothing works. I have also tried the resets, unloading/loading the kexts named in this thread, and turning off bluetooth.

I think the error must be in some part of the OS that can't be easily deleted, or replaced through a restore. Or else a REALLY weird hardware failure. Please help me!
 
Terminal command not working anymore

Hello,

I've been using this terminal command for the past time to avoid random keystrokes after a liquid spill. It worked until now. Instead of getting the usual "(kernel) Can't unload kext com.apple …“ with the internal keyboard actually being turned off, this morning I get:

"(kernel) Kext com.apple.driver.AppleUSBTCKeyboard not found for unload request.
Failed to unload com.apple.driver.AppleUSBTCKeyboard - (libkern/kext) not found."

And indeed the internal keyboard is not turned off. I checked the file and it is still there. Anybody an idea what is going wrong?

Klaas
 
XnavxeMiyyep said:
To disable the Macbook keyboard, type (or copy and paste) the following into terminal:

Code: 
sudo kextunload /System/Library/Extensions/AppleUSBTopCase.kext/Contents/PlugIns/AppleUSBTCKeyboard.kext/

To re-enable it, type (or copy and paste) the following into terminal (if copying and pasting, don't forget to copy a linebreak to make the command work):

Code: 
sudo kextload /System/Library/Extensions/AppleUSBTopCase.kext/Contents/PlugIns/AppleUSBTCKeyboard.kext/

External keyboards will still work.

Also, I know this is a necrobump, but I haven't seen this solution anywhere online, and this thread had a lot of views.
Click to expand...

THANK YOU SO SO VERY MUCH!!
IT WORKED A CHARM AND WORKED THE VERY FIRST GO!!
OMG I HAVE BEEN TRYING TO FIND A SOLUTION TO THIS FOR 2 YEARS, AS I ALWAYS CLEAN MY MACBOOK PRO AND THE KEYBOARD WHEN IT IS ON AND END UP PRESSING SO MANY KEYS IN THE PROCESS AND IT CHANGES SETTINGS, ETC, ETC, IN THE PROCESS!! BUT NOW I WILL NO LONGER HAVE THIS PROBLEM THANKS TO YOU AND YOUR ANSWER!!

This worked a charm XnavxeMiyyep, it worked straight away with no issues or errors coming up and I also had no issues with the Password when it prompted me to enter my Password!! Thank you so so very much for all of your help, you're an absolute Champ!! I have been trying to figure it out myself ever since getting my MacBook Pro but never figured it out, even with the Keyboard Shortcuts in System Preferences it didn't work and each time I tried and still failed, I just gave up without even thinking to Search Online lol due to be so frustrated that I couldn't work it out myself and just gave up each time lol!! But tonight I thought to myself, "Why don't I first try Searching "How to" in Spotlight" and it came up with 3 different answers from 3 different sites, I opened each site but before even reading any of them, I Goggle Searched "How to Disable MacBook Pro Keyboard?" and the first thing to come up was "How to Turn Off My Keyboard on My MacBook Pro - Apple Support" which I clicked into and looked at straight away, even with the other Tabs open that I still hadn't read... But because the first thing to come up after I Goggle Searched my question was the "Apple Support Forum", so I didn't even bother with the other Tabs because I always find the solution to all, if any, problems I have with my MacBook Pro on the "Apple Support Forum"!!

The first Answer and Reply on the "Apple Support Forum" was someone who wrote "See" and added the link to this forum which was a question "Can I disable internal keyboard/trackpad on MBP?" and after the link it said "See Post 4" which happened to be your post here on this Forum with the Terminal Commands but just to be sure I continued reading all the other answers but gave up before going onto "Page 2" and came straight back to your Post and Answer and copied and pasted the command to turn off the keyboard in Terminal first and it worked fantastically without any issues or errors, etc!!

Silly me went had a Blonde Moment and tried to go write my reply to you and say thank you to you for your help about how this worked a charm for me AFTER first cleaning my keyboard AND THEN coming back to write my reply and say thank you to you for your help and I kept trying to type using my Keyboard and it wasn't working (Obviously lol) and kept thinking to myself "Why the hell isn't my Keyboard working?" and I kept trying to press every single Key but still nothing lol... So I opened up my Google Chrome which I didn't close but Minimised earlier and saw the Command Prompts to Turn On and Off The Keyboard, I started laughing to myself and called myself a name when I remembered that I had Disabled The Keyboard with the Command Prompts in Terminal and that I had to enter the second lot of Command Prompts in Terminal to Enable The Keyboard again lol!!

So there you have it, goes to show that both Command Prompts work a Charm due to me having a Blonde Moment haha!! So once again, thank you so so very much for your help with this and having the right answer and solution to this working a Charm, you have really helped me a lot as I always put my MacBook Pro on "Sleep" when I want to clean my Keyboard and whole MacBook Pro but as soon as I touch one of the keys, my MacBook Pro unlocks straight away and I continue cleaning but obviously press a thousand different keys in the process and once I am finished cleaning the Keyboard, realise that while I was cleaning the Keyboard and all those different Keys were being pressed in the process it had changed many of my settings on my MacBook Pro and also did some things I had no idea how to fix but luckily when pressing "Undo" it worked!! But now I will no longer have any of those issues or problems when wanting to clean my Keyboard, as I have the Command Prompts for Terminal to Disable and Enable the Keyboard which I have saved both Command Prompts for Terminal in My Notes and have labelled it "How to Turn Keyboard On and Off" and then separately Copied and Pasted each Command Prompt with The Headings "Disable Keyboard Command Prompts for Terminal" and Enable Keyboard Command Prompts for Terminal" and saved it, so I have both Command Prompts to Disable and Enable the Keyboard each time I need to clean my Keyboard or MacBook Pro!! So thank you, thank you, thank you, I really appreciate your help and the answer with this problem I have been trying to find a solution for, for 2 years lol. I will no longer have that problem again!! So once again, THANK YOU SO MUCH, MUCH APPRECIATED!! :D :D :D :D
 
markw10 said:
Unfortunately my MBP has a serious issue with it's keyboard. Some keys such as the 0 and I no longer work. I was able to use a external USB keyboard to get around this problem. I don't think the Trackpad is having problems but since I have a mouse I use that. The problem is sometimes some keys are sticking so I can be in the middle of a Word document and my a key will start repeating that I'm not typing so the external Keyboard doesn't help in that case.
Since my MBP is over a year old it's not under warranty. I went to the Apple Store today and they can replace the keyboard for $150 plus labor in addition to it. With the new MBP's just around the corner I want to wait and upgrade to that so honestly, I just want life support now for my MBP until then. Is there any way I can disable the built in keyboard and just use the external USB keyboard for now? Is there some type of setting in the preferences or even a program I can use? I would imagine I can open it up and maybe pull a plug but I want to avoid this and don't what else may stop working.
Click to expand...


well…. if you want to sell your MBP you will have to repair the keyboard.
I don´t know what type of MBP you own but IF it is worth enough you will lose more money if you sell it with a non-functional keyboard than with a NEW one. With a NEW one you will sell it for more than other ones.

So - if you get a new keyboard you will be happy and NOT be under pressure to buy a new MBP… AND you will at least get half of the price of the new keyboard back on the sale.
If you sell it with a broken keyboard you will get not very much….

Just my 2 cts...
 
markw10 said:
Unfortunately my MBP has a serious issue with it's keyboard. Some keys such as the 0 and I no longer work. I was able to use a external USB keyboard to get around this problem. I don't think the Trackpad is having problems but since I have a mouse I use that. The problem is sometimes some keys are sticking so I can be in the middle of a Word document and my a key will start repeating that I'm not typing so the external Keyboard doesn't help in that case.
Since my MBP is over a year old it's not under warranty. I went to the Apple Store today and they can replace the keyboard for $150 plus labor in addition to it. With the new MBP's just around the corner I want to wait and upgrade to that so honestly, I just want life support now for my MBP until then. Is there any way I can disable the built in keyboard and just use the external USB keyboard for now? Is there some type of setting in the preferences or even a program I can use? I would imagine I can open it up and maybe pull a plug but I want to avoid this and don't what else may stop working.
Click to expand...

- Install [Karabiner](https://pqrs.org/osx/karabiner/)
- Search for "disable" as seen in [this image](http://i.imgur.com/3QCoO5h.png)
- Check the corresponding box

[Reddit Source](https://www.reddit.com/r/Mechanical...e_know_how_to_disable_the_keyboard_of/ct8x74a)
 
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