Tablet Pad Help

Handle tablet-pad help requests and present the available button and mode labels.

The event is available when Mutter reports a tablet-pad help request.

Tablet-pad help

Subscribe to gnoblin.input.pad-help-requested to show help for a tablet pad whose configured button action is "help". Lua listeners receive the event directly. See Lua events for callback behavior.

The event contains:

• device: the current gnoblin.input.devices() record for the pad;
• monitor_id and output_names: optional stable target-monitor identity;
• buttons: zero-based button numbers with optional localized action labels and optional mode_group values;
• mode_groups: group numbers, each group's mode_count, and its switch_buttons;
• features: zero-based rings, strips, and dials with optional labels for clockwise, counterclockwise, up, or down actions;
• edition_mode: whether the request is for editing; button help currently sends false.

The event provides labels when available, but no image or popup. Draw and dismiss the overlay in your shell. Each help press sends a new event; without a listener, no overlay appears.

To inspect the labels in a session, save this as pad-help.lua and run gnoblinctl lua pad-help.lua:

gnoblin.events.once("gnoblin.input.pad-help-requested", function(event)
    for _, button in ipairs(event.buttons) do
        print(button.button, button.label or "")
    end

    for _, group in ipairs(event.mode_groups) do
        print("mode group", group.group, group.mode_count)
    end
end)

Press the configured pad help button while the listener is running. The console prints each button label and mode count; a shell can use the same fields to draw its own overlay.