Linux-Tech-Tips/Tutorials/plasma-touchpad-gestures.md

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How to add touchpad gestures on Arch Linux and KDE Plasma

Following this very old tutorial I wanted to see if I could create a touchpad gesture on Arch Linux and KDE Plasma 6. https://www.lorenzobettini.it/2017/02/touchpad-gestures-in-linux-kde-with-libinput-gestures/

My goal was to have a similar gesture to macOS's three finger swipe up to open so-called Mission Control, just like the application overview on Plasma (default shortcut is Meta+W).

  1. Install the libinput-gestures package from the AUR: https://aur.archlinux.org/packages/libinput-gestures (I use yay for that.
    # yay -S libinput-gesture
  2. Install xdotool to bind gestures to virtual key strokes and/or optionally wmctrl for libinput-gestures internal commands. # pacman -S xdotool wmctrl
  3. Add the current user to the input group: # gpasswd -a $USER input
  4. Start libinput-gestures and make it autostart at login: $ libinput-gestures-setup autostart start
  5. Copy the default config file to your $HOME. # cp /etc/libinput-gestures.conf ~/.config/libinput-gestures.conf
  6. Edit the file and add a gesture. For example the following: gesture swipe up 3 xdotool key super+w
  7. Restart libinput-gestures: $ libinput-gestures-setup restart
  8. Now when swiping up on your touchpad using three finger, xdotool is pressing the Super- or Meta-Key and "W", whih opens the application overview.