Bug 476368 - Output mapping of identical touchscreen devices doesn't remain after reboot
Summary: Output mapping of identical touchscreen devices doesn't remain after reboot
Status: CONFIRMED
Alias: None
Product: systemsettings
Classification: Applications
Component: kcm_touchscreen (other bugs)
Version First Reported In: 5.27.9
Platform: Arch Linux Linux
: NOR normal
Target Milestone: ---
Assignee: Plasma Bugs List
URL:
Keywords:
Depends on:
Blocks:
 
Reported: 2023-10-31 13:36 UTC by Niels Ruitenbeek
Modified: 2025-08-05 09:10 UTC (History)
2 users (show)

See Also:
Latest Commit:
Version Fixed In:
Sentry Crash Report:


Attachments
Output of 'sudo libinput list-devices' (3.63 KB, text/plain)
2023-10-31 14:57 UTC, Niels Ruitenbeek
Details
Output of 'udevadm info --attribute-walk' for one of the touch devices (8.08 KB, text/plain)
2023-11-02 07:28 UTC, Niels Ruitenbeek
Details

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Description Niels Ruitenbeek 2023-10-31 13:36:48 UTC
SUMMARY
When two identical touchscreen devices are connected, it is not possible to configure their output mappings properly due to them having the exact same name. Looking at ~/.config/kcminputrc, the problem seems to be that when the first touch input is configured, the configuration for the second touch input simply overwrites the first entry due to the identical device names.

Strangely enough, directly after the changes from the system settings are applied, everything seems fine. The problem occurs when the configuration is loaded after a reboot, where both touch inputs seem to be mapped to one display.

It seems like extra information is needed to uniquely identify identical touch input devices.


STEPS TO REPRODUCE
1. Have two identical touchscreen displays connected
2. Map each touch input to their corresponding display output (through trial and error because both devices have the same name)
3. Observe how the mappings seem to be correct
4. Reboot
5. Observe how the mappings are no longer correct

OBSERVED RESULT
Both touchscreen inputs are mapped to the same display output.

EXPECTED RESULT
The touchscreen inputs are mapped to their corresponding display output, as was the case before the reboot.
Comment 1 Nicolas Fella 2023-10-31 14:34:47 UTC
Can you please attach the output of "sudo libinput list-devices" when the two devices are connected?
Comment 2 Niels Ruitenbeek 2023-10-31 14:57:35 UTC
Created attachment 162765 [details]
Output of 'sudo libinput list-devices'
Comment 3 Niels Ruitenbeek 2023-10-31 14:58:32 UTC
(In reply to Nicolas Fella from comment #1)
> Can you please attach the output of "sudo libinput list-devices" when the
> two devices are connected?

I have added the output of that command in the attachments. In this case, the problem lies with the two 'ILITEK...' devices.
Comment 4 Niels Ruitenbeek 2023-10-31 15:18:43 UTC
Some version information about my system I forgot to add in the original report:

KDE Plasma Version: 5.27.9
KDE Frameworks Version: 5.111.0
Qt Version: 5.15.11
Kernel Version: 6.5.9-arch2-1 (64-bit)
Graphics Platform: Wayland
Comment 5 Nicolas Fella 2023-10-31 15:22:21 UTC
Thanks.

This is a tough one. Currently the identification is done via (USB?) vendor/product/name triple. I'm not sure what else we could use to identify a device that isn't inherently unstable/volatile
Comment 6 Niels Ruitenbeek 2023-10-31 15:31:57 UTC
(In reply to Nicolas Fella from comment #5)
> Thanks.
> 
> This is a tough one. Currently the identification is done via (USB?)
> vendor/product/name triple. I'm not sure what else we could use to identify
> a device that isn't inherently unstable/volatile

Would the USB port number be possible? That would of course change when the devices are plugged into different ports, but apart from that they should always remain the same.
Comment 7 Nate Graham 2023-11-01 19:55:07 UTC
Is there any way we could look at the serial number of the devices too, as an additional data point?
Comment 8 Niels Ruitenbeek 2023-11-02 07:27:07 UTC
(In reply to Nate Graham from comment #7)
> Is there any way we could look at the serial number of the devices too, as
> an additional data point?

I'm not sure if that would work, since udev at least doesn't show any Serial ID for my specific device. I will attach the output of 'udevadm info --attribute-walk' for one of the touch devices for reference.
Comment 9 Niels Ruitenbeek 2023-11-02 07:28:13 UTC
Created attachment 162815 [details]
Output of 'udevadm info --attribute-walk' for one of the touch devices
Comment 10 Niels Ruitenbeek 2023-12-11 07:28:12 UTC
One interesting thing is that the touch assignment does seem to work properly once the configuration is applied. The problems occur as soon is the computer is restarted and the configuration is loaded again as KDE starts.
This has me wondering: what happens when you click apply in System Settings that doesn't happen when the configuration is loaded at boot?
Comment 11 Niels Ruitenbeek 2025-08-05 09:10:57 UTC
I've tried this again today with the exact same hardware setup as in the original report and the issue still occurs in the exact same way.
The version information for today's setup:

Distro: Arch Linux (same as in the original bug report)
KDE Plasma Version: 6.4.3
KDE Frameworks Version: 6.16.0
Qt Version: 6.9.1
Kernel Version: 6.15.9-arch1-1 (64-bit)
Graphics Platform: Wayland