comfortable-swipe/README.md

Comfortable Swipe (Ubuntu)

Comfortable, seamless, and fast 3-finger (and 4-finger) touchpad swipe gestures for Ubuntu 14.04 LTS and beyond. May work for other Linux distros that support libinput.

New in Version 1.1.0: Added mouse gestures, see #mouse-gestures-experimental

New in Version 1.2.0: Autostart now switched ON by default

Installation

1. Install git and g++

   sudo apt install git g++
   

2. Install libinput-tools and C libraries

   sudo apt install libinput-tools libconfuse-dev libxdo-dev
   

3. Clone this repository

   git clone https://github.com/Hikari9/comfortable-swipe.git --depth 1
   cd comfortable-swipe
   

4. Install

   bash install
   

5. You may delete the downloaded comfortable-swipe folder after installation.

How to Run

1. You'll need some group permissions to read touchpad input data. Run

   sudo gpasswd -a "$USER" "$(ls -l /dev/input/event* | awk '{print $4}' | head --line=1)"
   

2. Important: After inputing your sudo password, log out then log back in

3. Run

   comfortable-swipe start
   

4. (Optional) Automatically run on startup

   comfortable-swipe autostart on
   

5. You can check general program status

   $> comfortable-swipe status
   Autostart is ON
   Program is RUNNING
   

List of Commands

1. Program

   comfortable-swipe start
   comfortable-swipe stop
   comfortable-swipe restart
   comfortable-swipe status
   

2. Help / version

   comfortable-swipe --help
   comfortable-swipe --version
   

3. Autostart

   comfortable-swipe autostart [on|off|toggle|status|path]
   

4. Configurations

   # configuration value
   comfortable-swipe config get <KEY>
   comfortable-swipe config set <KEY> [=] <VALUE>
   
   # list all configurations
   comfortable-swipe config list [<pattern>]
   
   # remove configuration value
   comfortable-swipe config delete <KEY>
   
   

5. Configuration extras

   # show all possible configuration keys
   comfortable-swipe config keys
   
   # show path to config
   comfortable-swipe config path
   
   # open config file with editor
   comfortable-swipe config edit
   

6. (Advanced) Run program buffer

   ./my-custom-runner | comfortable-swipe buffer
   

Configuring Swipe Gestures

The default configuration file is located at ~/.config/comfortable-swipe.conf. Comfortable swipe makes use of keyboard shortcuts to perform swipes through xdotool.

Edit configurations by running:

gedit ~/.config/comfortable-swipe.conf

After making changes, make sure to restart the program:

comfortable-swipe restart

Note

: For v1.1.0 below, the configuration file is located at /usr/local/share/comfortable-swipe/comfortable-swipe.conf

Note

: You can locate your configuration by running comfortable-swipe config path

Configuration Reference

Key	Value	Example
left3	3-finger swipe left	ctrl+alt+Right
left4	4-finger swipe left	ctrl+alt+shift+Right
right3	3-finger swipe right	ctrl+alt+Left
right4	4-finger swipe right	ctrl+alt+shift+Left
up3	3-finger swipe up	ctrl+alt+Down
up4	4-finger swipe up	ctrl+alt+shift+Down
down3	3-finger swipe down	ctrl+alt+Up
down4	4-finger swipe down	ctrl+alt+shift+Up
thresmouse	mouse movement pixels that trigger a swipe (can be as large as 1000.0)	0.0, 240.0, 1000.0
mouse3	mouses a mouse button when 3 fingers are down	button1 (see Mouse Gestures)
mouse4	mouses a mouse button when 4 fingers are down	button1 (see Mouse Gestures

Taken from man xdotool:

Type a given keystroke. Examples being "alt+r", "Control_L+J", "ctrl+alt+n", "BackSpace".

Generally, any valid X Keysym string will work. Multiple keys are separated by '+'. Aliases exist for "alt", "ctrl", "shift", "super", and "meta" which all map to Foo_L, such as Alt_L and Control_L, etc.

In cases where your keyboard doesn't actually have the key you want to type, xdotool will automatically find an unused keycode and use that to type the key.

Refer to https://www.linux.org/threads/xdotool-keyboard.10528/ for a complete list of keycodes you can use.

Keyboard shortcuts

• Unity Keyboard Shortcuts
• GNOME Keyboard Shortcuts
• KDE Keyboard Shortcuts

Note

: You can check which desktop you are using with echo $DESKTOP_SESSION.

Example Configurations

This section includes some example configurations which you can use for your swipe experience.

1. Switch workspace (horizontal)

   comfortable-swipe config set left3 = ctrl+alt+Right
   comfortable-swipe config set right3 = ctrl+alt+Left
   

2. Switch workspace (vertical)

   up3 = ctrl+alt+Down
   down3 = ctrl+alt+Up
   

   up3 = super+PgDown
   down3 = super+PgUp
   

3. Move window to workspace (horizontal)

   left4 = ctrl+alt+shift+Right
   right4 = ctrl+alt+shift+Left
   

4. Move window to workspace (vertical)

   up4 = ctrl+alt+shift+Down
   down4 = ctrl+alt+shift+Up
   

   up4 = super+shift+PgDown
   down4 = super+shift+PgUp
   

5. Move window to other monitor

   left4 = super+shift+Right
   right4 = super+shift+Left
   

6. Toggle workspace overview

   up3 = super+s
   

7. Show desktop

   down3 = super+d
   

   down3 = ctrl+super+d
   

   down3 = ctrl+alt+d
   

8. Snap windows to the left/right

   left3 = super+Left
   right3 = super+Right
   

9. Toggle maximize

   up3 = super+Up
   

10. Toggle minimize

    down3 = super+Down
    

11. Alt+Tab switch application (experimental)

    left3 = alt+Tab
    right3 = alt+shift+Tab
    

Mouse Gestures (Experimental)

You can also play around with mouse gestures during swipe. This enables certain mouse behaviour to trigger along with a 3/4-finger swipe.

Keys:

• mouse3 - for 3-finger mouse gestures
• mouse4 - for 4-finger mosue gestures
• hold3 (deprecated) - old equivalent of mouse3
• hold4 (deprecated) - old equivalent of mouse4

Possible Values:

• button1 - left click
• button2 - middle click
• button3 - right click
• button4 - wheel up (experimental)
• button5 - wheel down (experimental)
• move - just move the mouse cursor while fingers are down
• scroll - 3/4 finger natural scroll (no acceleration, very experimental)
• scroll_reverse - 3/4 finger reverse scroll (no acceleration, very experimental)

Examples:

• 3/4-finger drag

  mouse3 = button1
  

  mouse4 = button1
  

• 3/4-finger natural scroll

  mouse3 = scroll
  

  mouse4 = scroll
  

• 3/4-finger reverse scroll

  mouse3 = scroll_reverse
  

  mouse4 = scroll_reverse
  

• Move 3/4-fingers with the cursor

  mouse3 = move
  

  mouse4 = move
  

Note: Applying any mouse-mouse configuration may disable up/left/right/down behavior to avoid gesture conflicts. The logic of this will be improved in the future.

Debugging

You can check your touchpad driver by running

comfortable-swipe debug

This is an alias of libinput debug-events. This logs all gestures you make on your touchpad, along with other input-based events that can be captured by libinput.

A working swipe gesture will show the following:

$ comfortable-swipe debug
...
-event9   DEVICE_ADDED     TouchPad                     seat0 default group7  cap:pg  size 70x50mm tap(dl off) left scroll-nat scroll-2fg-edge click-buttonareas-clickfinger dwt-on
...
event9   GESTURE_SWIPE_BEGIN  +2.03s   3
 event9   GESTURE_SWIPE_UPDATE  +2.03s  3 -9.95/ 2.64 (-26.90/ 7.12 unaccelerated)
 event9   GESTURE_SWIPE_UPDATE  +2.03s  3 -10.44/ 3.19 (-28.22/ 8.62 unaccelerated)
 event9   GESTURE_SWIPE_UPDATE  +2.04s  3 -9.71/ 2.64 (-26.25/ 7.12 unaccelerated)
 event9   GESTURE_SWIPE_UPDATE  +2.05s  3 -8.98/ 2.64 (-24.28/ 7.12 unaccelerated)
 event9   GESTURE_SWIPE_UPDATE  +2.06s  3 -7.40/ 2.36 (-20.01/ 6.37 unaccelerated)
 event9   GESTURE_SWIPE_UPDATE  +2.06s  3 -6.31/ 2.50 (-17.06/ 6.75 unaccelerated)
 event9   GESTURE_SWIPE_UPDATE  +2.07s  3 -5.34/ 1.80 (-14.44/ 4.87 unaccelerated)
 event9   GESTURE_SWIPE_UPDATE  +2.08s  3 -4.61/ 2.08 (-12.47/ 5.62 unaccelerated)
 event9   GESTURE_SWIPE_UPDATE  +2.09s  3 -4.49/ 1.53 (-12.14/ 4.12 unaccelerated)
 event9   GESTURE_SWIPE_UPDATE  +2.09s  3 -4.01/ 1.25 (-10.83/ 3.37 unaccelerated)
 event9   GESTURE_SWIPE_UPDATE  +2.10s  3 -4.13/ 0.42 (-11.15/ 1.12 unaccelerated)
 event9   GESTURE_SWIPE_END  +2.11s     3
 ...

If you can see GESTURE_SWIPE_XXX in your output, that means your touchpad supports multi-touch swipe gestures.

Uninstall

Run the following script:

wget -qO - https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Hikari9/comfortable-swipe/master/uninstall | bash

Bug Reports

Search in Issues if the problem has already been solved.

Otherwise, create a new issue to report your bug.

Please include the output of the following:

1. lsb_release -a
2. g++ --version
3. ls -l /dev/input/event*
4. xinput list | grep touchpad -i
5. lsmod | grep hid
6. comfortable-swipe status
7. comfortable-swipe start (if you can run it)
8. comfortable-swipe debug (try swiping if you can see GESTURE_SWIPE_XXX)
9. cat $(comfortable-swipe config)