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Is it possible to completely disable the built-in keyboard on a MacBook? No input should be possible from that keyboard when I connect an external keyboard. This is sort of possible with the trackpad and the mouse, is there an option (or indeed a hack!) to do the same with the built-in hardware?

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How about some of the solutions suggested in this similar superuser question? – binarybob Oct 14 '12 at 18:40
I started down the path of turning this into an applescript that would automatically toggle the internal keyboard on and off: sudo kextfind /System/Library/Extensions/AppleUSBTopCase.kext/Contents/PlugIns/AppleUSBTCKeybo‌​ard.kext/ 2> /tmp/keyboard-kext-out; if [ -s /tmp/keyboard-kext-out ]; then; echo "Kext is NOT loaded"; else; echo "Kext is loaded"; fi But I couldn't quite get it to work. Here's hoping that someone else with more motivation that me can pull that off. – timmfin Feb 6 at 18:19

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From Googling around, I found this page. It suggests that you unload a AppleUSBTCKeyboard.kext to disable keyboard:

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

This will prompt you for your password and then give some errors, but it does disable the built in keyboard (tested on my ML 10.8.2)

To re-enable the builtin keyboard, load the kext file again:

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

BTW, I noticed that this immediately prints all that was typed on the builtin keyboard, so be ready for this (in Terminal this should probably just output some text).

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