Bug 507820

Summary: Don't automatically turn on tablet mode/touch mode when connected to any external monitors
Product: [Plasma] kwin Reporter: Antheas Kapenekakis <antheas>
Component: generalAssignee: KWin default assignee <kwin-bugs-null>
Status: CONFIRMED ---    
Severity: wishlist CC: kde, nate
Priority: NOR    
Version First Reported In: 6.4.80   
Target Milestone: ---   
Platform: Other   
OS: Linux   
Latest Commit: Version Fixed/Implemented In:
Sentry Crash Report:

Description Antheas Kapenekakis 2025-08-03 17:29:07 UTC 
I am testing a tablet mode patch for the Asus ROG Z13. With this patch, when removing the keyboard of the device, it will emit a tablet mode event from its WMI hotkeys. The keyboard is removed, because the form factor is better this way for docked use. Other devices are similar too, such as flip laptops.

When I remove it, my docked monitor turns into touch mode, and increases its touch targets substantially. But it is not a touchscreen, so this results in a utility degradation.

To mitigate this, one of either two things could be implemented. 1) only apply touch mode to touchscreens, which still allows for usability benefits on the touchscreen or 2) add an option under "Touch mode -> Automatically enable as needed"  to disable touch mode while docked to an external display
Comment 1 Nate Graham 2025-08-08 17:20:41 UTC 
Yeah, touch mode is currently global, not per-screen.

Disabling it when there are external monitors is probably going to be the by far simpler approach compared to making it per-screen (which would entail effectively rewriting the feature from scratch). Let's consider that.