KWin Gestures

Custom touchpad gestures for Plasma 6.

Tested on 6.1.5 and 6.2. X11 is not supported.

Installation

Building from source

Dependencies

[!NOTE] The dependencies were copied from another project. Not all of them are necessary.

• CMake
• Extra CMake Modules
• Plasma 6
• Qt 6
• KF6
• KWin development packages

Building

git clone https://github.com/taj-ny/kwin-gestures
cd kwin-gestures
mkdir build
cd build
cmake ../ -DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX=/usr
make
sudo make install

Remove the build directory when rebuilding the effect.

Usage

[!NOTE] If the effect stops working after a system upgrade, you will need to rebuild it.

1. Install the plugin.
2. Open the Desktop Effects page in System Settings.
3. Enable the Gestures effect in the Tools category.

Configuration

There is currently no configuration UI and it may be a while before it's added. For now, you need to manually modify the ~/.config/kwingesturesrc file. The format may change at any time until 1.0.0 is released.

Run qdbus org.kde.KWin /Effects org.kde.kwin.Effects.reconfigureEffect kwin_gestures or toggle the effect in system settings after updating the file.

Configuration file structure

• [Gestures]
  • [$device] (enum) - Which device to add this gesture for (Touchpad).
    
  • [$name] (string) - Unique name for the gesture.
    • Type (enum) - Hold, Pinch, Swipe
    • Fingers (int) - Number of fingers required to trigger this gesture.
      Sets MinimumFingers and MaximumFingers.
      Minimum value is 2 for hold and pinch gestures, 3 for swipe.
      Maximum value is 4.
    • MinimumFingers (int) - Minimum number of fingers required to trigger this gesture.
      See Fingers for accepted values.
    • MaximumFingers (int) - Maximum number of fingers required to trigger this gesture.
      See Fingers for accepted values.
    • TriggerWhenThresholdReached (bool) - Whether to trigger the gesture immediately after the specified threshold is reached.
      Default: false
    • WindowRegex (string) - A regular expression executed on the currently focused window's resource class and resource name. If a match is not found for either, the gesture will be skipped. This allows you to create gestures only for specific applications.
      Default: none
       
    • [Hold] - Configuration for hold gestures.
    • Threshold (int) - In milliseconds.
      Default: 0
    • [Pinch] - Configuration for pinch gestures.
    • Direction (enum) - Contracting, Expanding
    • Threshold (float) - Should be >= 1.0 for expanding gestures and =< 1.0 for contracting gestures.
      Default: 1.0
    • [Swipe] - Configuration for swipe gestures.
    • Direction (enum) - Left, Right, Up, Down
    • ThresholdX (int) - Threshold for the X axis in pixels.
      Only used if Direction is Left or Right.
      Default: 0
    • ThresholdY (int) - Threshold for the Y axis in pixels.
      Only used if Direction is Up or Down.
      Default: 0
       
    • [Actions] - What do to when the gesture is triggered. Actions are executed in order as they appear in the configuration file.
    • [$name] (string) - Unique name for the action.
      • Type (enum)
      • Command - Run a command.
      • GlobalShortcut - Invoke a global shortcut.
      • KeySequence - Send keystrokes.
         
      • [Command] - Configuration for the GlobalShortcut action.
      • Command (string) - The command to run.
      • [GlobalShortcut] - Configuration for the GlobalShortcut action.
      • Component (string) - Run qdbus org.kde.kglobalaccel for a list of available components. Components start with the /component/ prefix. Don't add the prefix here.
      • Shortcut (string) - See the ~/.config/kglobalshortcutsrc file for a list of available shortcuts. The group name (or similar) is the component and the key (everything before =) is the shortcut.
      • [KeySequence] - Configuration for the KeySequence action.
      • Sequence (string) - The key sequence to run. Case-sensitive. Invalid format will cause a crash (for now).
        Example: press LEFTCTRL,press T,release LEFTCTRL,release T. For the full list of keys see src/gestures/actions/keysequence.h.

Example

[Gestures][Touchpad][Lock Screen]
Type=Pinch
Fingers=2
TriggerWhenThresholdReached=true
WindowRegex=plasmashell

[Gestures][Touchpad][Lock Screen][Pinch]
Direction=Contracting
Threshold=0.9

[Gestures][Touchpad][Lock Screen][Actions][0]
Type=GlobalShortcut

[Gestures][Touchpad][Lock Screen][Actions][0][GlobalShortcut]
Component=ksmserver
Shortcut=Lock Session

[Gestures][Touchpad][Close Window]
Type=Pinch
Fingers=2
TriggerWhenThresholdReached=true

[Gestures][Touchpad][Close Window][Pinch]
Direction=Contracting
Threshold=0.9

[Gestures][Touchpad][Close Window][Actions][0]
Type=GlobalShortcut

[Gestures][Touchpad][Close Window][Actions][0][GlobalShortcut]
Component=kwin
Shortcut=Window Close

[Gestures][Touchpad][Yakuake]
Type=Swipe
Fingers=4
TriggerWhenThresholdReached=true

[Gestures][Touchpad][Yakuake][Swipe]
Direction=Down
ThresholdY=10

[Gestures][Touchpad][Yakuake][Actions][0]
Type=GlobalShortcut

[Gestures][Touchpad][Yakuake][Actions][0][GlobalShortcut]
Component=yakuake
Shortcut=toggle-window-state

[Gestures][Touchpad][Firefox Back]
Type=Swipe
Fingers=3
TriggerWhenThresholdReached=true
WindowRegex=firefox

[Gestures][Touchpad][Firefox Back][Swipe]
Direction=Left
ThresholdX=10

[Gestures][Touchpad][Firefox Back][Actions][0]
Type=KeySequence

[Gestures][Touchpad][Firefox Back][Actions][0][KeySequence]
Sequence=press LEFTCTRL,press LEFTBRACE,release LEFTCTRL,release LEFTBRACE

[Gestures][Touchpad][Firefox Forward]
Type=Swipe
Fingers=3
TriggerWhenThresholdReached=true
WindowRegex=firefox

[Gestures][Touchpad][Firefox Forward][Swipe]
Direction=Right
ThresholdX=10

[Gestures][Touchpad][Firefox Forward][Actions][0]
Type=KeySequence

[Gestures][Touchpad][Firefox Forward][Actions][0][KeySequence]
Sequence=press LEFTCTRL,press RIGHTBRACE,release LEFTCTRL,release RIGHTBRACE

[Gestures][Touchpad][Krunner]
Type=Hold
Fingers=2
TriggerWhenThresholdReached=true

[Gestures][Touchpad][Krunner][Hold]
Threshold=100

[Gestures][Touchpad][Krunner][Actions][0]
Type=GlobalShortcut

[Gestures][Touchpad][Krunner][Actions][0][GlobalShortcut]
Component=org_kde_krunner_desktop
Shortcut=_launch

Credits

• KWin