This is pre-alpha software, it's merely a PoC right now

gsetwacom is a commandline utility that changes tablet configuration in GNOME. It provides a CLI around the GSettings schemas that allows.

The name is a reference to the xsetwacom tool that provided a similar CLI for the xf86-input-wacom Xorg driver.

gsetwacom only works with GNOME as it uses GNOME's gsetting configuration storage mechanism. The ktabletconfig tool is a similar utility for KDE.

Table of Contents

• Installation
• Usage
• Architecture
• Limitations
• License

pip install git+https://github.com/whot/gsetwacom

gsetwacom splits its commands into a tablet and stylus group, commands typically follow this invocation:

$ gsetwacom tablet $tablet-vid-pid <subcommand>
$ gsetwacom stylus $stylus-serial <subcommand>

Where identifier is the vid/pid of the tablet or the serial of the stylus. For details on any command see gsetwacom --help or gsetwacom <command> --help.

Examples for tablet configuration:

$ gsetwacom list-tablets
devices:
- name: "HUION Huion Tablet_H641P Pen"
  usbid: "256C:0066"
- name: "Wacom Intuos Pro M Pen"
  usbid: "056A:0357"

$ gsetwacom tablet "056A:0357" show
settings:
  area: [0.0, 0.0, 0.0, 0.0]
  keep-aspect: true
  left-handed: false
  mapping: 'absolute'
  output: ['GSM', 'LG HDR 4K', '308NTXRBZ298', 'DP-1']

$ gsetwacom tablet "056A:0357" set-left-handed true
$ gsetwacom tablet "056A:0357" set-button-action A keybinding "<Control><Alt>t"
$ gsetwacom tablet "056A:0357" set-ring-action --direction=cw --mode=2 keybinding "x"

$ gsetwacom tablet "056A:0357" map-to-monitor --connector DP-1

And for stylus configuration:

settings:
  pressure-curve: [0, 38, 62, 100]
  eraser-pressure-curve: [0, 0, 100, 100]
  button-action: 'default'
  secondary-button-action: 'default'
  tertiary-button-action: 'default'

$ gsetwacom stylus 99800b93 set-button-action secondary back


# Huion styli don't have a serial number so we just specify the tablet vid/pid
$ gsetwacom stylus "0256C:0066" set-button-action primary middle

On a typical GNOME desktop there are two configuration stages: the GNOME configuration exposed graphically in GNOME Settings or GNOME Tweaks and the actual configuration applied to the libinput device (if Wayland) or the Xorg input device.

The GNOME configuration is defined in the gsettings-desktop-schemas in the format of "schemas" and "keys" and typically an abstraction of logical configuration ("Touchpad enabled: yes/no").

GNOME Settings/Tweaks change the keys in those schemas to the user-preferred values. Mutter reads those values and determines which device should be affected and converts those into the corresponding libinput API calls (if Wayland) or X input device property changes.

gsetwacom does the same: it changes the values for keys in those schemas, similar to how the gsettings commandline tool does it. gsetwacom can be thought of as a commandline-equivalent of the GNOME Settings Wacom panel.

Architecturally, this looks like this:

                                    /-- gsetwacom
[libinput|mutter] --- [gsettings]<-+--- GNOME Settings
                                    \-- GNOME Tweaks

Or in an Xorg-based setup:

[xf86-input-wacom] <-----+                               /-- gsetwacom
    [Xorg]                \---- mutter --- [gsettings]<-+--- GNOME Settings
                                                         \-- GNOME Tweaks

Note that mutter may support schemas, keys or value ranges that are not exposed by the GNOME Settings application. For example at the time of writing the pressure-curve configuration supported by mutter was more flexible than what GNOME Settings would allow the user to set it to.

gsetwacom may provide configuration options GNOME Settings does not but it cannot support configurations that are unsupported by mutter.

xsetwacom is a tool that writes directly to the xf86-input-wacom input device properties. It thus does what mutter does but unlike mutter it does not work for anything but the xf86-input-wacom driver.

                          /---- xsetwacom
[xf86-input-wacom] <-----+                               /-- gsetwacom
    [Xorg]                \---- mutter --- [gsettings]<-+--- GNOME Settings
                                                         \-- GNOME Tweaks

Because it bypasses mutter, xsetwacom is not aware of the GNOME configuration and will thus overwrite any other configuration. Likewise, xsetwacom configuration will be overwritten when mutter applies configuration based on the gsettings.

However, because xsetwwacom bypasses mutter it can support any configuration supported by the xf86-input-wacom driver.

xsetwaco cannot work under Wayland because it requires the xf86-input-wacom Xorg driver to manage the tablet device

Right now gsetwacom is a simple wrapper around dconf/gsettings. It does not verify whether configuration makes sense for your specific device. For example you will be able to configure the third ring or button Z on a device with no rings or buttons. The configuration will be written but it will never be read by mutter.

This is an inherent limitation of relocatable GSettings. To add this type of error checking gsetwacom would need to fetch information from other sources, e.g. libwacom. This is not currently implemented.

gsetwacom cannot detect a stylus serial number, external tools need to be used to find the serial number of a stylus. The gsetwacom list-styli tool currently uses the gnome-control-center (GNOME Settings) cache file for styli - this only works where GNOME Settings has "seen" the stylus before by bringing it into proximity above the GNOME Settings window.

gsetwacom is distributed under the terms of the MIT license.