Reporting bugs

A new bug can be filed here: https://gitlab.freedesktop.org/libinput/libinput/issues/new

Hint

libinput has lots of users but very few developers. It is in your own interest to follow the steps here precisely to ensure your bug can be dealt with efficiently.

When reporting bugs against libinput, you will need:

Stay technical, on-topic, and keep the description concise.

Obtaining the libinput version

If your libinput version is older than the current stable branch, please try the latest version. If you run a distribution-provided libinput, use the package manager to get the full package name and version of libinput, e.g.

  • rpm -q libinput
  • dpkg -s libinput10

If you run a self-compiled version of libinput provide the git commit you have built or the tarball name.

As a last resort, use libinput --version

Reproducing bugs

Try to identify the bug by reproducing it reliably. Bugs without a reliable reproducer will have lowest priority. The more specific a bug description and reproducer is, the easier it is to fix.

Try to replicate the series of events that lead to the bug being triggered. Narrow it down until you have a reliable sequence that can trigger the bug. For the vast majority of bugs you should not take longer than 5 seconds or three interactions (clicks, touches, taps, …) with the device to reproduce. If it takes longer than that, you can narrow it down further.

Once you can reproduce it, use the libinput debug-events helper tool:

$> libinput debug-events --verbose

The output is textual and can help identify whether the bug is in libinput at all. Note that any configuration options you have set must be specified on the commandline, see the libinput debug-events man page. Use the --verbose flag to get more information about how libinput processes events.

If the bug cannot be reproduced with the libinput debug-events helper, even with the correct configuration options set, it is likely not a bug in libinput.

libinput configuration settings

libinput has a number of device-specific default configuration settings that may differ from the ones your desktop environment picks by default. You may have changed some options in a settings panel or in an the xorg.conf snippet yourself.

You must provide these options in the bug report, otherwise a developer reproducing the issue may not be able to do so.

If you are on X11, the current settings can be can be obtained with xinput list-props "your device name". Use xinput list to obtain the device name.

If you are on Wayland, provide a manual summary of the options you have changed from the default (e.g. “I enabled tap-to-click”).

Reporting touchpad bugs

When you file a bug, please attach the following information:

  • a virtual description of your input device, see libinput record and libinput replay. This is the most important piece of information, do not forget it!
  • the output from udevadm info, see udev information for the device.
  • the vendor model number of your laptop (e.g. “Lenovo Thinkpad T440s”)
  • and the content of /sys/class/dmi/id/modalias.
  • run the touchpad-edge-detector tool (provided by libevdev) and verify that the ranges and sizes it prints match the touchpad (up to 5mm difference is ok)

If you are reporting a bug related to button event generation:

Reporting mouse bugs

When you file a bug, please attach the following information:

If the bug is related to the speed of the mouse:

  • the resolution of the mouse as specified by the vendor (in DPI)
  • the output of the mouse-dpi-tool (provided by libevdev)

Reporting keyboard bugs

Is your bug related to a keyboard layout? libinput does not handle keyboard layouts and merely forwards the physical key events. File the bug with your desktop environment instead (e.g. GNOME, KDE, …), that’s most likely where the issue is.

When you file a bug, please attach the following information:

Reporting trackpoint bugs

When you file a bug, please attach the following information:

  • a virtual description of your input device, see libinput record and libinput replay. This is the most important piece of information, do not forget it!

  • the vendor model number of the device (e.g. “Logitech M325”)

  • the output from udevadm info, see udev information for the device.

  • the sensitivity of the trackpoint if it exists (adjust the event node number as needed):

    $ cat /sys/class/input/event17/device/device/sensitivity

All other devices

When you file a bug, please attach the following information:

  • a virtual description of your input device, see libinput record and libinput replay. This is the most important piece of information, do not forget it!
  • the vendor model number of the device (e.g. “Sony Plastation3 controller”)

udev information for the device

In many cases, we require the udev properties assigned to the device to verify whether device-specific quirks were applied. This can be obtained with udevadm info /sys/class/input/eventX, with the correct event node for your device. An example output is below:

$ udevadm info /sys/class/input/event4
P: /devices/platform/i8042/serio1/input/input5/event4
N: input/event4
E: DEVNAME=/dev/input/event4
E: DEVPATH=/devices/platform/i8042/serio1/input/input5/event4
E: EVDEV_ABS_00=::41
E: EVDEV_ABS_01=::37
E: EVDEV_ABS_35=::41
E: EVDEV_ABS_36=::37
E: ID_INPUT=1
E: ID_INPUT_HEIGHT_MM=66
E: ID_INPUT_TOUCHPAD=1
E: ID_INPUT_WIDTH_MM=97
E: MAJOR=13
E: MINOR=68
E: SUBSYSTEM=input
E: USEC_INITIALIZED=5463031

Recording devices with evemu

Warning

Where available, the libinput record and libinput replay tools should be used instead of evemu

evemu-record records the device capabilities together with the event stream from the kernel. On our side, this allows us to recreate a virtual device identical to your device and re-play the event sequence, hopefully triggering the same bug.

evemu-record takes a /dev/input/eventX event node, but without arguments it will simply show the list of devices and let you select:

$ sudo evemu-record > scroll.evemu
Available devices:
/dev/input/event0: Lid Switch
/dev/input/event1: Sleep Button
/dev/input/event2: Power Button
/dev/input/event3: AT Translated Set 2 keyboard
/dev/input/event4: SynPS/2 Synaptics TouchPad
/dev/input/event5: Video Bus
/dev/input/event6: ELAN Touchscreen
/dev/input/event10:        ThinkPad Extra Buttons
/dev/input/event11:        HDA Intel HDMI HDMI/DP,pcm=3
/dev/input/event12:        HDA Intel HDMI HDMI/DP,pcm=7
/dev/input/event13:        HDA Intel HDMI HDMI/DP,pcm=8
/dev/input/event14:        HDA Intel PCH Dock Mic
/dev/input/event15:        HDA Intel PCH Mic
/dev/input/event16:        HDA Intel PCH Dock Headphone
/dev/input/event17:        HDA Intel PCH Headphone
/dev/input/event18:        Integrated Camera
/dev/input/event19:        TPPS/2 IBM TrackPoint
Select the device event number [0-19]:

Select the device that triggers the issue, then reproduce the bug and Ctrl+C the process. The resulting recording, (“scroll.evemu” in this example) will contain the sequence required to reproduce the bug. If the bug fails to reproduce during recording, simply Ctrl+C and restart evemu-record. Always start the recording from a neutral state, i.e. without any buttons or keys down, with the position of the device in the neutral position, without touching the screen/touchpad.

Note

The longer the recording, the harder it is to identify the event sequence triggering the bug. Please keep the event sequence as short as possible.

To verify that the recording contains the bug, you can replay it on your device. For example, to replay the sequence recorded in the example above:

$ sudo evemu-play /dev/input/event4 < scroll.evemu

If the bug is triggered by replaying on your device, attach the recording to the bug report.

libinput does not affect the evemu recording. libinput and evemu talk directly to the kernel’s device nodes. An evemu recording is not influenced by the libinput version or whether a libinput context is currently active.

digraph stack { compound=true; rankdir="LR"; node [ shape="box"; ] kernel [label="Kernel"]; libinput; xserver [label="X Server"]; kernel -> libinput libinput -> xserver kernel -> evemu evemu -> stdout }

My bug was closed as fixed, what now?

libinput’s policy on closing bugs is: once the fix for a given bug is on git master, the bug is considered fixed and the gitlab issue will be closed accordingly.

Of course, unless you actually run git master, the bug will continue to affect you on your local machine. You are most likely running the distribution’s package and you will need to wait until the distribution has updated its package accordingly.

Warning

Do not re-open a bug just because it hasn’t trickled down to your distribution’s package version yet.

Whether the bug fix ends up in your distribution depends on a number of things. Any given bug fix may be cherry-picked into the current stable branch, depending on its severity, impact, and likelihood to cause regressions. Once cherry-picked it will land in the next stable branch release. These are usually a few weeks apart.

Warning

Do not re-open a bug because it wasn’t picked into a stable branch release or because your distribution didn’t update to the latest stable branch release.

Stable branches are usually discontinued when the next release comes out.

Your distribution may pick a patch up immediately and ship the fix even before the next stable branch update is released. For example, Fedora does this frequently.

Hint

If a bug needs to be fixed urgently, file a bug in your distribution’s bug tracker.

Patches on git master will end up in the next libinput release. Once your distribution updates to that release, your local libinput version will contain the fix.

Warning

Do not re-open a bug because your distribution didn’t update to the release.

You can always run libinput from git master (see libinput build instructions). Even while in development, libinput is very stable so this option isn’t as scary as it may sounds.

When is it ok to re-open a fixed bug?

Any time the bug was considered fixed but it turns out that the fix is insufficient and/or causes a regression.

However, if the regression is in behavior unrelated to the fix itself it is usually better to file a new bug to reduce the noise. For example, if a fix to improve tapping breaks two-finger scrolling behavior, you should file a new bug but reference the original bug.

Gitlab issue tracker tags

The gitlab issue tracker allows developers to add tags to bugs to classify them.

  • being worked on: someone is currently working on this feature. This tag is used for features that will take a long time to implement fully and prevents others from having to duplicate the work. Do reach out and ask if help and/or further testing is needed.
  • bug: issue is confirmed to be a bug
  • cantfix: for technical reasons, this bug cannot be fixed, or at least it cannot be fixed in libinput.
  • enhancement: this issue describes a future feature, not a bug.
  • help needed: this issue requires someone outside the libinput core developer team to implement it. It is unlikely to be implemented without someone stepping up to do the work. If you do see this tag, do ask for guidance on how to implement it.
  • hw issue: an issue that affects a specific device and is a hardware bug, not a software bug. Often these needs to be worked around in libinput but there are cases where a hw issue ends up as cantfix.
  • janitor: a cleanup task that does not substantially affect how libinput works. These are usually good bugs for newcomers to start on.
  • kernel: this issue is a kernel bug, not a libinput bug. Often closed as cantfix of wontfix as we wait for the kernel to address the issue instead.
  • needs triage: bug has not yet been confirmed by a core developer.
  • not our bug: the issue is in some other component of the stack and needs to be addressed there.
  • please test: a fix is available but not yet merged and should be tested by the reporter or others affected by the issue.
  • quirk: this is issue needs Device quirks to be fixed
  • regression: the issue is a regression to previous versions of libinput. These issues get priorities.
  • waiting on reporter: some more information is required from the reporter and the issue cannot be fixed until the issue has been provided. Where a bug is left in this state for too long, the bug will be closed as cantfix.
  • wontfix: this issue will not get fixed. This tag is usually assigned to feature requests that are outside the scope of libinput or would put an unreasonable maintenance burdern on the maintainers.

These tags are high-level categories only, always look for the comments in the issue to get further details.