Public bug reported:
For owners of Wacom
pen-and-touch tablets, the absence of X11 session option removes the only
remaining way to disable the touch/finger
surface while keeping the stylus, because GNOME has never implemented a Wayland
equivalent.
By absence, I mean that Ubuntu 26.04 ships no X11 session at all.
This is a capability regression on upgrade:
- Under X11 this was `xsetwacom set "<device> Finger touch" Touch off`. That
tool sets
a property on the `xf86-input-wacom` X input driver. With no X session, there
is no
driver, so the command silently does nothing. Note `xsetwacom` is still
installed and
on `PATH`, so it fails confusingly rather than being absent — users get no
signal
that the mechanism is gone.
- GNOME has no replacement. `org.gnome.desktop.peripherals.tablet`, the schema
mutter
and Settings actually read, has only `area`, `keep-aspect`, `left-handed`,
`mapping`,
`output` — no touch key. The legacy
`org.gnome.settings-daemon.peripherals.wacom`
schema does have a `touch` key but it is orphaned: no gnome-settings-daemon
wacom
plugin is installed, and `gnome-control-center` references only the modern
schemas.
Writing it is a silent no-op.
- The Settings Wacom panel exposes no touch control.
The practical effect is that palm and hand contact on the touch surface
generates
spurious pointer events and gestures while drawing, with no supported way to
stop it.
## Why this matters more on Ubuntu than upstream
Upstream GNOME users on other distributions can still select an Xorg session
and use
`xsetwacom`. On Ubuntu 26.04 that escape hatch has been removed, so Ubuntu
users are
the ones with no option at all. The upstream gap and the Xorg removal are
individually
defensible; the combination is what produces the regression.
## Only working workaround
Removing the device from libinput's view with a udev rule:
```
ACTION=="add|change", SUBSYSTEM=="input", KERNEL=="event[0-9]*", \
ATTRS{name}=="Wacom Bamboo 2FG 4x5 Finger", ENV{LIBINPUT_IGNORE_DEVICE}="1"
```
This works, but is not a reasonable answer for general users: it needs root, it
is
static (re-enabling requires editing the rule and replugging, since libinput
only
evaluates the flag when a device is added), the device name must be hard-coded,
and
Settings remains unaware of it. On this tablet the Finger and Pad share one USB
interface and one parent HID device, so a rule matching on
`idVendor`/`idProduct`
disables the ExpressKeys too — an easy trap for anyone following generic advice.
## Requested
Ubuntu cannot fix the schema gap alone, but could:
1. Track the upstream issue and carry the fix once it lands.
2. Failing that, note it as a known regression in the 26.04 release notes, since
affected users currently have no way to discover that the capability is
simply gone.
3. Consider shipping a supported toggle in the interim.
## Upstream
https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/gnome-control-center/-/issues/3793
"Unable to disable 'touch' on a 'pen & touch' wacom device"
Previously bugzilla.gnome.org bug 752039 under the same title, closed
RESOLVED/OBSOLETE on 2021-06-09 during the bugzilla shutdown with a request to
refile
on GitLab; #3793 is that refiling.
## System
- Ubuntu 26.04 LTS, GNOME Shell 50.1, Wayland (no Xorg session available)
- mutter 50.1-0ubuntu2.2
- gnome-control-center 1:50.3-0ubuntu0.1
- gsettings-desktop-schemas 50.0-1ubuntu2
- libinput 1.31.1-1ubuntu1.1
- gnome-session 50.1-0ubuntu0.1
- kernel 7.0.0-29-generic
- Device: Wacom Bamboo Pen & Touch, CTH-460, USB 056a:00d1, exposing
"Wacom Bamboo 2FG 4x5 Pen" / "... Finger" / "... Pad"
** Affects: gnome-control-center (Ubuntu)
Importance: Undecided
Status: New
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https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/2163283
Title:
Xorg session removed in 26.04 leaves no way to disable Wacom tablet
touch
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