Weird Remote Input requirement using three-finger-drag on wayland

[Retr0-Jaxon]

Link to previous issue: riley-martin#23 (comment)

after putting this in .kdl file

swipe direction="any" fingers=3 update="ydotool mousemove  -x $delta_x -y $delta_y" start="ydotool click -- 0x40" end="ydotool click -- 0x80"

three finger drag fail to work.

[Retr0-Jaxon]

Sep 12 20:36:06 EUREKA gestures[169128]: failed to connect socket `/run/user/1000/.ydotool_socket': No such file or directory
Sep 12 20:36:06 EUREKA gestures[169128]: Please check if ydotoold is running.

seem like ydotool.service run in sudo env and the gesture sevice cannot find it since it runs in user env

[Retr0-Jaxon]

try to run gestures in root mode but get:

Sep 12 21:05:06 EUREKA gestures[178245]: thread 'main' panicked at src/config.rs:27:72:
Sep 12 21:05:06 EUREKA gestures[178245]: called Result::unwrap() on an Err value: NotPresent
Sep 12 21:05:06 EUREKA gestures[178245]: note: run with RUST_BACKTRACE=1 environment variable to display a backtrace
Sep 12 21:05:06 EUREKA systemd[1]: gestures.service: Main process exited, code=exited, status=101/n/a

[Retr0-Jaxon]

I fix the problem by:
setting ydotool socket manually in ydotool.service like
ExecStart=/usr/bin/ydotoold --socket-path=/run/user/1000/.ydotool_socket
and sudo chmod 777 /run/user/1000/.ydotool_socket`

but the socket will regenerate every reboot so chmod is not really a solution

[Retr0-Jaxon]

@ferstar

[ferstar]

@Retr0-Jaxon Hi! The issue is caused by a permission mismatch between ydotoold and gestures services.

Root Cause

• ydotoold runs as a system service (root) → socket at /run/ydotool/.ydotool_socket (root-owned)
• gestures runs as a user service → cannot access root's socket

Complete Solution

1. Configure uinput Permissions (You've done this ✓)

# Create udev rule
sudo tee /etc/udev/rules.d/99-uinput.rules << 'EOF'
KERNEL=="uinput", MODE="0660", GROUP="uinput"
EOF

# Create group and add user
sudo groupadd -r uinput
sudo usermod -aG uinput $USER

# Reload udev rules
sudo udevadm control --reload-rules
sudo udevadm trigger

Log out and log back in for group changes to take effect.

2. Run ydotoold as User Service (Still needed)

# Stop system-level ydotool
sudo systemctl stop ydotool.service 2>/dev/null
sudo systemctl disable ydotool.service 2>/dev/null

# Create user-level service
mkdir -p ~/.config/systemd/user/
cat > ~/.config/systemd/user/ydotoold.service << 'EOF'
[Unit]
Description=ydotool daemon
Documentation=https://github.com/ReimuNotMoe/ydotool

[Service]
Type=simple
ExecStart=/usr/bin/ydotoold
Restart=on-failure

[Install]
WantedBy=default.target
EOF

# Enable and start
systemctl --user daemon-reload
systemctl --user enable --now ydotoold.service

# Verify
systemctl --user status ydotoold
ls -la $XDG_RUNTIME_DIR/.ydotool_socket

3. Use Simplified Configuration

The latest version supports a simplified syntax that handles ydotool automatically:

Old way (manual):

swipe direction="any" fingers=3 \
  start="ydotool click -- 0x40" \
  update="ydotool mousemove -x $delta_x -y $delta_y" \
  end="ydotool click -- 0x80"

New way (recommended):

swipe direction="any" fingers=3 mouse-up-delay=500 acceleration=20

Benefits:

• ✅ Timer-based delays (non-blocking)
• ✅ 60 FPS throttling (lower CPU usage)
• ✅ Same syntax as X11
• ✅ Automatic acceleration handling

4. Restart gestures

systemctl --user restart gestures.service
journalctl --user -u gestures -f  # Check logs

Verify

Test by dragging with 3 fingers on your trackpad. It should now move the cursor smoothly!

Let me know if this resolves your issue.

[Retr0-Jaxon]

it works ! it's perfect. thx.
Though i have questions about how to use official binaries of ydotool--i am using ydotool fetched using dnf and it works fine

gestures.service wont start unless i installed ydotool using dnf, saying: unexpected argument 'start'

[ferstar]

Haha, fair enough—if it works, no need to sweat the official vs. unofficial binaries! Glad the dnf setup's doing the trick for you on Fedora (which I can't test myself since I'm not on it).