Import keyboard layout ~and mouse appearance~ for each compositor

[stefonarch]

Users shouldn't end up with us layout by default in each LXQt wayland session.

I added the lxqt2labwcexporter script, which is tested now by several users. I've similar scripts for wayfire, kwin and sway. Probably having only one settingsexporter script is better at the end.

Cursor size and theme can be imported easily, so if cursor is changed by lxqt-config-appearance it will be considered at next login.

For keyboard layouts we have 2 options:

• read existing settings and import them
• use echo $LANG as fallback or directly if not configured already in the compositor.

[tsujan]

I may haven't understood it correctly, but US English is the default language everywhere. The user can change it, of course.

[stefonarch]

It's not, at each installation user set their keyboard as they like, there is no reason to confront them with an us keyboard on their existing installation and it can be achieved easily.
If you add a new user in LXQt he will also have the system language and not us.

The user can change it, of course.

If he tries to open lxqt-config-input not.

[stefonarch]

For pointer size and theme we have 2 options:

1. sync the env vars between session.conf and compositor at start
2. disable the "cursor" page on wayland and/or add a hint in lxqt-config-appearance about using compositor settings.

[tsujan]

I suggest 2 (adding a hint), because some users may have their own ways of setting up LXQt+Wayland. But, again, you have more experience in this area.

[stefonarch]

Maybe better as we ask for a restart anyway. The issue with syncing is that it should be biderictional, and we can't restart the compositor as labwc-tweaks or wcm do btw I don't see a cursor theme setting in wcm found it, under "input" there is a tab.

[marcusbritanicus]

On Wayland, clients are free to set their own cursors themes. The compositor's cursor theme will be used only when the client does not actively set the cursor theme. Therefore, this causes a problem (as usual) for us while setting these themes.

1. Compositor sets and uses the cursor theme where cursor theme is not explicitly set.
2. On GTK surfaces, the cursor theme set using .gtkrc or gsettings takes effect.
3. On Qt surfaces, the cursor theme set using qt platform plugin will take effect.
4. In some clients (not sure which - may be Qt6 or Gtk4), the cursor theme set in ~/.icons/default/index.theme will be used.

To have a consistent cursor theme, all these places need to be modified. I do not know the role of cursor-shape-v1 protocol in all this - if it will bring a means to set the uniform cursor shape.

[stefonarch]

I remember a nightmare with cursor changing. We have also the decorations of the compositor, so probably defining the cursor theme and size there is the best atm.

My import scripts work fine, but only if the user doesn't change the setting in the compositor and uses only lxqt-config-appearance - we can't assume this.

In the meantime I made lxqt/lxqt-config#1009

[marcusbritanicus]

We have also the decorations of the compositor, so probably defining the cursor theme and size there is the best atm.

My point is we have to do all of it! It's not sufficient to set the cursor theme and size in the compositor settings alone.

Your note in the UI misleading:

Note: Under Wayland, cursor theme and size are configured by the compositor instead.

I would suggest that we change it to

Note: Under Wayland, you will have to set the cursor theme and size in the compositor settings, in addition to the choice below.

PS: I do not know if we're using gsettings-qt to set the cursor themes/size for gtk3 apps as well. It would be nice if that's being done.

PPS: The last I checked, we're modifying the .gtkrc, and saving the cursor settings for lxqt-platform-plugin. So Qt and gtk2 apps should be quite fine.

[stefonarch]

I would suggest that we change it to

Note: Under Wayland, you will have to set the cursor theme and size in the compositor settings, in addition to the choice below.

That sounds reasonable. I looked also into wayfire and kwin now: under wayfire when using SSD (mandatory for Qt as its windows will shrink at each reopening otherwise) the decoration needs compositor settings for cursor. Kwin is fine without any own setting in ~/.config/kcminputrc, just restart is needed for Qt windows to apply.

So the text could be: Note: Under Wayland, you may have to set cursor theme and size also in the compositor settings, in addition to the choice below.

[tsujan]

I don't see why we should explain such problems in our GUIs. It's good to have concise hints, but protecting users from encountering issues here and there in this way is too much in my opinion.

Wayland is nice (it wasn't a year ago — to me at least), but do we want to mention its issues in GUIs?!

[stefonarch]

Well, for me that's a concise hint to avoid cursor changing over decorations. Users get there only one or a few time usually.

[stefonarch]

Playing with my account and labwc with no cursor settings I get the situation that Qt and labwc doesn't read cursor size (40 to test) neither from session.conf nor from ~/ .icons/default/index.theme, only the theme is adapted. Oh, and we update also ~/.Xresources...

To me it looks that labwc without any setting defaults to 24px cursor size also for Qt windows. labwc/labwc#945

[stefonarch]

On Wayland, clients are free to set their own cursors theme

@marcusbritanicus It looks like only the theme but not the size, true? In kwin I see the same as in labwc, theme gets adapted size not.