Tablet mode detection and setup scripts for linux

What it does

It uses libinput debug-events to detect switches to normal and tablet mode, and executes commands for switching into that mode, which are specified in a config file. Generally you would put there commands to disable/enable a keyboard/touchpad/trackpoint, show/hide an on-screen keyboard, toggle some desktop environment panels, and the like.

Supported devices

All devices that have a tablet mode switch supported by libinput. As far as I understand this is a standard mechanism for this functionality nowadays. Tested devices:

• ThinkPad X1 Yoga Gen2 (it was developed for it)
• Thinkpad X1 Yoga Gen3
• Thinkpad X1 Yoga Gen4
• Samsung Galaxy Book Flex2 5G

If it works on your device, please tell me and I'll add it to the list (or just submit a pull request yourself).

Installation

1. Add your user to the input group (sudo gpasswd --add username input) and relogin to apply group membership.
2. Install ruby and stdbuf (most likely you already have them preinstalled)
3. Clone this repo somewhere, and optionally symlink watch_tablet into any directory in your $PATH
4. Copy a config file into ~/.config/watch_tablet.yml
5. Adjust the config (see below)
6. Test it by running watch_tablet in a terminal and flipping your laptop to tablet and back. You should see commands from the config being executed. Press Ctrl+C to terminate it.
7. After you confirmed that everything works, add watch_tablet & to your ~/.xinitrc
8. Restart your desktop session and enjoy

Arch Linux

If you have an Arch-based distribution, you can install it using this AUR package

Configuration

input_device is a path to the device that provides the tablet mode switch. To find it you may run stdbuf -oL libinput debug-events|grep switch and notice something like event4 in the leftmost column. That would correspond to /dev/input/event4. Device numbers may be unstable across reboots, so you may consider doing ls -lh /dev/input/by-path and finding a symlink to that device. For X1 Yoga Gen2 it's /dev/input/by-path/platform-thinkpad_acpi-event.

modes.laptop, modes.tablet - this contain commands that will be executed when mode changes. Most likely this will contain xinput enable and xinput disable commands to enable/disable kb/touchpad/trackpoint (just run xinput to look them up). You may use any other commands to adjust your desktop environment (e.g. hide or show additional panels, increase button size, hide/show onscreen keyboard etc.)

Example:

input_device: /dev/input/by-path/platform-thinkpad_acpi-event
modes:
  laptop:
    # - xinput enable "Wacom Pen and multitouch sensor Finger"
    - xinput enable "AT Translated Set 2 keyboard"
    - xinput enable "SynPS/2 Synaptics TouchPad"
    - xinput enable "TPPS/2 IBM TrackPoint"
  tablet:
    # - xinput disable "Wacom Pen and multitouch sensor Finger"
    - xinput disable "AT Translated Set 2 keyboard"
    - xinput disable "SynPS/2 Synaptics TouchPad"
    - xinput disable "TPPS/2 IBM TrackPoint"