🖱️ xinput-plus

Adjust your mouse or touchpad speed (very easy!)

This program is for Linux and allows you to change the pointer speed (mouse or touchpad cursor) graphically for use in X11 Window Managers such as: Openbox, JWM, iceWM, Fluxbox, and other minimalist window managers where there's no GUI program to do this, without having to type complicated commands. It's ideal if you use external keyboards that come with integrated touchpad keyboard, like the Logitech K400, or even for your laptop's touchpad if you feel the cursor moves too slowly.

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🎯 What is it for?

• ✅ Increase or decrease mouse or touchpad speed.
• ✅ Save configuration so it doesn't get lost when restarting.
• ✅ Works with devices like:
  • Keyboards with touchpad (e.g.: Logitech K400)
  • USB mice
  • Laptop touchpads

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🖥️ Requirements

Before using it, make sure you have the following installed on your Linux computer:

sudo apt install xinput git python3-pyqt6 libqt6svg6

1. ⚠️ This program only works on X11, not on Wayland.
2. It's only for X11 WM like Openbox, JWM, iceWM, Fluxbox, Xubuntu, etc
3. In 2025, for example in GNOME, KDE, before logging in you can select X11 to enter instead of Wayland.

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🚀 How to use the program

1st OPTION: Download the repository

At:

https://github.com/wachin/xinput-plus

click on the arrow-like dropdown in Code:

<> Code ▼

and click on:

Download ZIP

decompress it, and there inside the folder is the xinput-plus.py file.

or you can clone it:

2nd OPTION: Clone the repository

1.- Since we already have git installed, enter in a terminal in a folder where you have Linux programs:

git clone https://github.com/wachin/xinput-plus

2.- Give it execution permissions

It can be done by right-clicking in the file manager and in the "Permissions" tab verify that it's marked as executable

or from the terminal with:

chmod +x xinput-plus.py

Running with Launcher.sh

Make sure the Launcher.sh script is executable, in the file manager right-click on it and in the "Permissions" tab make sure "is executable" is checked

Double-click the Launcher.sh script and click Execute

👉 A window will open with two controls:

Running xinput-plus

1.- Open a terminal 2.- Go to the folder where the xinput-plus.py file is, or open a terminal there from your file manager 3.- Run the program with this command:

python3 xinput-plus.py

and it will open:

💡 On some Linux distributions you can right-click on the xinput-plus.py file and open with python.

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🎛️ How to use it

1. When opening the program.
2. In the left list, click on your device (for example: "Logitech K400").
3. Use the slider to change the speed:
   • ← Slower (down to -1.0)
   • → Faster (up to 1.0 by default)
4. Enable extended speed (optional): Check the box labeled "Enable extended speed (up to 2.0)" to allow the slider to go up to 2.0, which provides significantly faster cursor movement for devices like the Logitech K400. This mode uses the Coordinate Transformation Matrix to scale pointer movement beyond the standard range.
5. When you find the perfect speed, click "Save configuration".

✅ Done! The change applies instantly and is saved for next time. The program remembers whether extended speed mode is enabled for each device. After restarting your computer, open the program, select your device, and the saved settings (including extended speed mode) will be applied automatically.

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💾 Where is the configuration saved?

The program saves your settings in this file (don't delete it if you don't want to lose the configuration):

~/.config/xinput-plus.json

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Using the system Dark Theme (Qt6 + Kvantum)

xinput-plus is a PyQt6 app, so it follows your Qt6 theme. To use a dark theme system-wide via Kvantum:

Debian 12 (Bookworm)

1. Install Qt6 theming tools

sudo apt install qt6ct qt6-style-kvantum

2. Select the style in Qt6 Settings

• Open qt6ct → Appearance / Style → choose Kvantum.
• (Optional) Open Kvantum Manager and pick your favorite dark theme.

3. Restart xinput-plus No app changes are required—xinput-plus will automatically adopt the system dark theme.

Note (LXQt on Debian 12): As you observed, no environment variables were needed—LXQt already exposes the Qt6 platform theme correctly.

Other desktops / window managers

Some environments don’t expose the Qt6 platform theme by default. If the dark theme doesn’t apply after the steps above, set these environment variables (pick one place, e.g. your Launcher.sh, ~/.profile, or the app’s .desktop file):

export QT_QPA_PLATFORMTHEME=qt6ct
export QT_STYLE_OVERRIDE=kvantum

Then log out/in or restart the app.

Heads-up: qt5ct only affects Qt5 applications. For PyQt6/Qt6 apps like xinput-plus, you need qt6ct (and qt6-style-kvantum).

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🤓 How does it work internally?

It uses Linux commands with xinput to change the device speed in real time. For standard speed adjustments, it modifies the libinput Accel Speed property. For extended speed mode (up to 2.0), it uses the Coordinate Transformation Matrix to scale pointer movement, allowing higher sensitivity for devices that need it. The interface does everything for you!

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🛠️ Want to improve this program?

This code is made in Python with PyQt6, perfect for students who want to learn about:

• Graphical interfaces
• Linux automation
• Hardware control

Feel free to modify it, improve it, or use it in your projects!

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🛑 Troubleshooting

"Permission denied" errors when running the program

If the program not working when running from terminal you see errors like:

Failed to open /dev/input/eventX (Permission denied)

when running xinput-plus.py, it means your user lacks permission to access input devices. This is common in minimal Linux installations (e.g., Debian netinstall). To fix it:

1. Add your user to the input group:

sudo usermod -aG input $USER

Log out and back in, or reboot, to apply the change.

2. Verify permissions: Check that /dev/input/event* files are accessible:

ls -l /dev/input/event*

They should have group input and permissions like

Restart

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Internationalization (i18n) Guide

This app supports translations with Qt .ts → .qm files. Follow these steps to add any language (Spanish shown as example).

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Requirements

• Qt Creator installed on your Linux OS
• PyQt6 dev tools (provides pylupdate6)
• dh-sequence-python3

sudo apt install pyqt6-dev-tools

• Qt Linguist & lrelease from Qt5 (work fine for app translations):

sudo apt install qttools5-dev-tools

• dh-sequence-python3 lo proporciona el paquete dh-python

sudo apt install dh-python

• Create the translations folder:

mkdir -p i18n

The app loads compiled files from ./i18n/ (same directory as xinput-plus.py), e.g. i18n/xinput-plus_es.qm.

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Spanish example (es)

1) Extract source strings → .ts

pylupdate6 --ts i18n/xinput-plus_es.ts xinput-plus.py

2) Translate with Qt Linguist

• From Qt Creator: right-click xinput-plus_es.ts → open with Linguist → translate → mark entries as Finished → Save.

• From terminal:

  linguist i18n/xinput-plus_es.ts

3) Compile .ts → .qm in i18n/

You can do this from the "Qt Linguist" tool from Qt Creator by clicking on "File - Distribute As" and saving as .qm, or from terminal:

# Use whichever lrelease exists on your system:
LREL=$(command -v lrelease-qt6 || command -v lrelease || echo /usr/lib/qt5/bin/lrelease)
$LREL i18n/xinput-plus_es.ts -qm i18n/xinput-plus_es.qm

4) Run the app in Spanish

python3 xinput-plus.py --lang=es

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Any other language

Replace the language code:

# French (fr)
pylupdate6 --ts i18n/xinput-plus_fr.ts xinput-plus.py
linguist i18n/xinput-plus_fr.ts
$LREL i18n/xinput-plus_fr.ts -qm i18n/xinput-plus_fr.qm
python3 xinput-plus.py --lang=fr

# Brazilian Portuguese (pt_BR)
pylupdate6 --ts i18n/xinput-plus_pt_BR.ts xinput-plus.py
linguist i18n/xinput-plus_pt_BR.ts
$LREL i18n/xinput-plus_pt_BR.ts -qm i18n/xinput-plus_pt_BR.qm
python3 xinput-plus.py --lang=pt_BR

File naming: the loader tries common patterns like xinput-plus_es.qm, xinput-plus_es_ES.qm, and xinput-plus_es-ES.qm. Putting xinput-plus_<lang>.qm inside ./i18n is sufficient.

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Here’s a ready-to-paste addition for your README.md. It extends the i18n section with filename requirements and safe placeholder translation guidance.

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Important notes for translations

1) Use the canonical filename when extracting strings

The extraction command assumes your main file is named xinput-plus.py:

pylupdate6 --ts i18n/xinput-plus_es.ts xinput-plus.py

• Do NOT change xinput-plus.py to another filename while developing the program. During development, new UI strings are added frequently; if you point pylupdate6 at some other file, those new strings won’t be picked up and won’t appear in the .ts for translation.
• If you really want to experiment with a differently named file (e.g., a versioned copy), do it in a separate folder and treat it as a separate exercise—not the one you use to develop and extract strings from.

If you must use multiple source files, pass all of them to pylupdate6:

pylupdate6 --ts i18n/xinput-plus_es.ts xinput-plus.py other_module.py optional_extras.py

This ensures every translatable string is included in the .ts.

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2) Translating safely in Qt Linguist (placeholders!)

When you open the .ts in Qt Linguist (Qt 5 Linguist), be careful with strings that include placeholders. You may translate only the normal words, not the placeholders inside braces.

Examples:

• Source:

  Device: {name} (id {id})
  

  ✅ Correct Spanish:

  Dispositivo: {name} (id {id})
  

(translate only “Device” → “Dispositivo”; keep {name} and {id} exactly as they are)

• Source:

  Device: {name}
  

  ✅ Correct Spanish:

  Dispositivo: {name}
  

• Source:

  Speed: {val:.2f}
  

  ✅ Correct Spanish:

  Velocidad: {val:.2f}
  

Never change the content inside { ... } (names, formats, punctuation). If you alter {name}, {id}, or {val:.2f}, the program won’t work correctly at runtime.

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3) Compile after translating

After updating translations in Linguist (and marking them as Finished), compile to .qm:

# pick whichever lrelease exists on your system
LREL=$(command -v lrelease-qt6 || command -v lrelease || echo /usr/lib/qt5/bin/lrelease)
$LREL i18n/xinput-plus_es.ts -qm i18n/xinput-plus_es.qm

or you can compile from Qt 5 Linguist

File - Distribute as...

and save example to: xinput-plus_es.qm

Then run the app:

python3 xinput-plus.py --lang=es

also you can launch in other languages, example:

python3 xinput-plus.py --lang=en

You should see Spanish UI and, on recent versions, a console line like:

[i18n] Loaded app translation: xinput-plus_es.qm

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Developer note

• Source strings in xinput-plus.py are wrapped in self.tr("…") so pylupdate6 can extract them.
• The app’s i18n loader keeps QTranslator references alive to avoid Python GC, ensuring translations apply from startup.

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🙌 About this program

Created by: Washington Indacochea Delgado License: GNU GPL3 (free and open source)

✨ Thanks for using xinput-plus!

For those who love X11 and minimalist window managers. 👀💙

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🌟 If it helped you, give it a star ⭐ on GitHub. It helps a lot!

God bless you