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
• Thinkpad X1 Yoga Gen6
• Thinkpad Yoga 11e Gen6
• Thinkpad X370 Yoga
• Lenovo IdeaPad Flex 5i Gen 7
• 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). To check if your device is supported, run stdbuf -oL libinput debug-events|grep switch, flip your laptop between normal and tablet mode, and see if it printed anything. If you don't see any switch events, your device will not work with these scripts.

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"