Libinput 1.28 debuted today by Red Hat’s input expert Peter Hutterer. With this updated input handling library used by both Wayland and X.Org Server environments there is now support for three-finger drag on touchpads.
The main end-user feature with libinput 1.28 is enabling use of three-finger drag for touchpads. Libinput 1.28 also now properly tracks drawing tablet pressure range correctly on a per-tablet basis. Plus various bug fixes and other device-specific quirks added.
Among the device quirks added in libinput 1.28 are for the Apple Magic Trackpad v2 (2024), Dell Haptics Touchpad, Razer Blade 18 2024 keyboard, ThinkPad X9 15 Gen 1 Forcepad, Lenovo ThinkBook 14 G7+ IAH, and Dell laptops with Goodix touchpads.
Peter Hutterer wrote in the v1.28 release announcement:
“The big new feature in this release is three-finger drag for touchpads. When enabled three fingers down on the touchpad will logically hold the left mouse button down, any movement of the fingers then moves the pointer for a drag. For some users this is a more precise and easier-to-trigger interaction than e.g. tap-and-drag.
On tablets the pressure range is now correctly tracked per tablet. Previously moving the same physical stylus between two tablets with different pressure ranges caused the stylus to send incorrect pressure data.”