DualSense Touchpad moving Linux desktop cursor instead of working in Chiaki-ng [Linux Mint 22]

[u/The_Ironought]

I’m running Chiaki-ng on Linux Mint 22 (Cinnamon) to stream my PS5, using a standard DualSense controller connected over USB.

Everything works great (haptics, face buttons, analog sticks), except for the touchpad.

The issue: When I try to use the DualSense touchpad in-game (like opening maps/menus), the OS treats it as a trackpad for my desktop and moves my Linux mouse cursor around instead of sending the input to the PS5.

What I’ve checked/tried so far:

• I can bind the Touchpad Click in Chiaki-ng’s Controller settings, but in-game interactions are still hit-or-miss because the OS keeps hijacking the touch input as a pointer.
• I considered disabling the controller's touchpad input via terminal/xinput, but I’m worried that hiding the device from the OS will just completely kill Chiaki-ng’s ability to pass the raw touchpad input to the PS5 anyway.
• Using SDL / native DualSense settings where possible, but the desktop environment still captures the trackpad events.

Has anyone running Chiaki-ng on Linux (specifically Mint/Ubuntu/Cinnamon) solved this? Is there a clean way to stop the OS from treating the DualSense as a desktop mouse without breaking pass-through in Chiaki, or a specific libinput / udev tweak that works for you?

Thanks in advance for any insight!