Ginn doesn't subscribe to gestures

[Henri Sundelin]

Ginn says "error subscribing to gestures" when trying to start it w/ stock wishes.xml , thus many multitouch gestures don't work.
Standard 4- and 3-finger system gestures work properly though.

Release: Ubuntu precise (development branch) amd64
ginn:
  Installed: 0.2.4-0ubuntu1
utouch:
  Installed: 1.2
libutouch-grail1:
  Installed: 3.0.5-0ubuntu1

--
$ ginn /usr/share/ginn/wishes.xml
ginn
 global
  wish
   action
    trigger
    key
  wish
   action
    trigger
    key
  wish
   action
    trigger
    key
  wish
   action
    trigger
    key
  wish
   action
    trigger
    key
  wish
   action
    trigger
    key
  wish
   action
    trigger
    key
  wish
   action
    trigger
    key
 applications
  application
   wish
    action
     trigger
     key
   wish
    action
     trigger
     key
   wish
    action
     trigger
     key
   wish
    action
     trigger
     key
   wish
    action
     trigger
     key
   wish
    action
     trigger
     key
  application
   wish
    action
     trigger
     key
   wish
    action
     trigger
     key
   wish
    action
     trigger
     key
   wish
    action
     trigger
     key
   wish
    action
     trigger
     key
   wish
    action
     trigger
     key
   wish
    action
     trigger
     key
   wish
    action
     trigger
     key
  application
   wish
    action
     trigger
     key
   wish
    action
     trigger
     key
  application
   wish
    action
     trigger
     button
   wish
    action
     trigger
     button
  application
   wish
    action
     trigger
     key
   wish
    action
     trigger
     key
   wish
    action
     trigger
     key
   wish
    action
     trigger
     key
   wish
    action
     trigger
     key
   wish
    action
     trigger
     key
  application
   wish
    action
     trigger
     key
   wish
    action
     trigger
     key
  application
   wish
    action
     trigger
     key
   wish
    action
     trigger
     key
   wish
    action
     trigger
     key
   wish
    action
     trigger
     key
Button : 4 Button : 5
error subscribing to gestures
--

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 12.04
Package: ginn 0.2.4-0ubuntu1
Uname: Linux 3.3.1 x86_64
ApportVersion: 2.0.1-0ubuntu4
Architecture: amd64
Date: Wed Apr 18 21:00:56 2012
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 12.04 LTS "Precise Pangolin" - Beta amd64 (20120301)
ProcEnviron:
 TERM=xterm
 PATH=(custom, user)
 LANG=en_US.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
SourcePackage: ginn
UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)
modified.conffile..etc.ginn.wishes.xml: [deleted]

[Mohamed IKBEL Boulabiar (boulabiar)]

I haven't yet tested it on Precise.
Have you got this error only lately or before ?

[Henri Sundelin (henri-sundelin)]

Lately - it worked right after when I installed the Beta 1 precise. It broke along the way when updates came in. (multitouch was quite seriously broken until yesterday's jupiter7 xorg fixes)

[Mohamed IKBEL Boulabiar (boulabiar)]

I've just tested it on Precise and it works fine.
You may are just trying to run 2 instances in the same time. (it will show
the same error you've posted)
try first to do a
$ killall ginn
then rerun it with you modifications

Otherwise please post more information about your device and install.
Thanks

[Henri Sundelin (henri-sundelin)]

I tried doing fresh update from precise-proposed, and the problem persists. There are no ginn processes running on background.

Notably however 3 and 4 finger system gestures work fine.

Device is samsung series 7 slate, utilizing Atmel hid-multitouch touchscreen device. Please let me know what kind of info you need.

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

Status changed to 'Confirmed' because the bug affects multiple users.

[Marius B. Kotsbak (mariusko)]

I also see this with the latest Precise updates.

[Gaz Davidson (garethdavidson)]

Same issue on Dell XPS L501X with "SynPS/2 Synaptics TouchPad", except I don't get any 4-finger gestures (my touchpad may not support that?)

Could this have something to do with the problem?:

$ sudo mtview /dev/input/event8
error: could not grab the device

[bnw (1i1g6)]

On my MacBook Pro 7.1 running unity I get the "error subscribing to gestures". Ginn also is not running when I try to launch it. Interestingly enough though, ginn seems to work with gnome-shell. You get output as follows when you perform a gesture

...
Gesture type 2 updated
 attr device id=34896
 attr timestamp=3078509
 attr root window id=894
 attr event window id=894
 attr child window id=894
 attr focus x=551.000000
 attr focus y=199.000000
 attr gesture name=<unknown>
 attr touches=4
 attr boundingbox x1=-4124.000000
 attr boundingbox y1=2436.000000
 attr boundingbox x2=2753.000000
 attr boundingbox y2=5274.000000
 attr centroid x=0.000000
 attr centroid y=0.000000
 attr angle=0.163566
 attr angle delta=-0.007977
 attr angular velocity=-0.001140
 attr touch 0 id=161.000000
 attr touch 0 x=-2908.000000
 attr touch 0 y=2816.000000
 attr touch 1 id=162.000000
 attr touch 1 x=-4124.000000
 attr touch 1 y=5274.000000
 attr touch 2 id=163.000000
 attr touch 2 x=-860.000000
 attr touch 2 y=2436.000000
 attr touch 3 id=164.000000
 attr touch 3 x=1633.000000
 attr touch 3 y=3594.000000
 --ActiveApp
Gesture type 0 finished
 --ActiveApp
Gesture type 1 finished
 --ActiveApp
Gesture type 2 finished
 --ActiveApp
...

However, nothing actually happens.

[Maat Ghandi (natty-brew)]

I can confirm everything said here exactly describes my experience on a thinkpad x220 tablet running 12.04. The only gestures that appear to work are "pinch" zoom and 2-finger scroll (by work I mean the intended action is performed). Added wishes do not appear to work. No instance of ginn is running, and I get the error

Button : 4 Button : 5
error subscribing to gestures

when I try to run Ginn.

[Stephen Yu (bulica2006)]

I have the same problem with ginn on Ubuntu 12.04 Precise and my notebook is ACER Aspire 5749G

Button : 4 Button : 5
error subscribing to gestures

[Ivan (ivan-babkin-q)]

I have the same problem as well with 12.04: ThinkPad E425 with
synaptics: Touchpad model: 1, fw: 7.5, id: 0x1e0b1, caps: 0xd000b3/0x340000/0xa0400

[Igor Zavorotkin (ivzave)]

Same problems, Ubuntu 12.04, Gigabyte T1005P netbook with Ideacom IDC 6650 touch screen. Looks like touchegg doesn't work too, so it isn't probably ginn issue (all worked in 11.10). Any patch or workaround?

[Marciano Siniscalchi (msiniscalchi)]

Same here, on 12.10 running beta 1 on an Early 2008 iMac. I'm using the Magic Trackpad.

[James Nelson (ajaxian)]

Ginn says "error when subscribing to gestures" because there is already an instance of ginn running.

Try sudo killall ginn before running it, and you should be okay.

If it still does not work, try following the instructions here: http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1419833

There's lots of great advice there, both of the first two posts worked for me.

[Marciano Siniscalchi (msiniscalchi)]

That doesn't help---ginn is not already running. I did dig a bit deeper though:

1. The standard Unity gestures (two-finger tap, two-finger scrolling,
three-finger tap) *do* work. So, whatever problem the people in the
thread you linked were having, they are solved by now, at least for me
and on my hardware.

2. Unity plays a role in this story. If I launch the Gnome Shell
instead of Unity, I *can* run ginn (i.e. I don't get an error message
at all, and gestures are at least recognized). It is only under Unity
that ginn errors out.

3. Even under Gnome Shell, though ginn recognizes the gestures (I see
the log output in the terminal), only some actually seem to work. For
instance, I successfully bound a four-finger tap to the Super key,
which in Gnome Shell presents the workspaces. However, I was unable to
bind three-finger drags up or down to next/prev workspace.

[Igor Zavorotkin (ivzave)]

The problem isn't solved for me. I have a touch screen which supports only two touches so can't say anything about three-and-more-finger gestures. I can confirm both ginn and touchegg worked fine in Oneiric but neither ginn nor touchegg work in Precise.

[Tomas Hayes (tomyo)]

Same for me: ginn outputs "error subscribing to gestures".
Using samsung np900x4c, ubuntu 12.10, unity and no instnces of ginn runnning.
unity gestures work fine also.

[Vlad Lesin (vlad-lesin)]

The same trouble is on macbook air 2012.

[Carl (hans730)]

same issue on 12.10, stock wishes.xml, samsung series 9 (np900x3c)

[Alex Heusingfeld (aheusingfeld)]

same issue on ubuntu-nexus7 with raring image.

[Hohle Frucht (hohle-frucht88)]

Hi I have 12.10 and when I'm triying to run ginn on my macbook pro gen 5,5 i get the same "error subscribing to gestures" as anybody else. The are no processes containing the word ginn running in the background and I also tried killall ginn. I use Unity like anybody ales. If further information is needed, I'm willing to provide the developers with whatever i can ;)
Tankyou guys

[Brandon Giesing (bdufy-brandon)]

Also happens on Ubuntu for Nexus 7

[Cyclops (songsofdistantearth)]

Same issue here: Ubuntu 12.10 on ASUS N56VM

[Hohle Frucht (hohle-frucht88)]

Hey Guys

Well this is not a bug fix, but a workaround if you want to use multiguestures on your pc. What I did was installing touchegg from here https://code.google.com/p/touchegg/wiki/Downloads?tm=2. If you use 12.10 or 12.4 you shudn't use the version from the softwarecenter because it is not up to date. Atleast it wasn't for me. So
1.) Compile touchegg and grafical interface if needed. Touchegg wiki will help.
2.) Unity does block all multitouch guestures so you have to deaktivate them and comple it again on your on. How this is done can be read here:
http://askubuntu.com/questions/57586/how-can-i-disable-arbitrary-default-multitouch-gestures-in-unity/90383#90383

After this everything workt perfectly but not with ginn though.

[leo.lsdb (leo-lsdb)]

same probleme here with quantal. so i can't use multitouch.

[pj (hpsjoshi+lauchpad)]

Same here on Ubuntu 13.04

[wouterla (wouter-lagerweij)]

Same issue here.
Fresh 13.04 install on a Asus zenbook u500vs.

wouter@wouter ~ $ geistest
Device 48720 added
        attr "device name" = "eGalax Inc. eGalaxTouch EXC7903-18v00_Test18-v19"
        attr "device id" = 48720
        attr "device touches" = 10
        attr "direct touch" = true
        attr "independent touch" = false
        attr "device X minimum" = 0.000000
        attr "device X maximum" = 4095.000000
        attr "device X resolution" = 12000.000000
        attr "device Y minimum" = 0.000000
        attr "device Y maximum" = 4095.000000
        attr "device Y resolution" = 21000.000000
Device 50496 added
        attr "device name" = "ETPS/2 Elantech Touchpad"
        attr "device id" = 50496
        attr "device touches" = 5
        attr "direct touch" = false
        attr "independent touch" = false
        attr "device X minimum" = 0.000000
        attr "device X maximum" = 3260.000000
        attr "device X resolution" = 32000.000000
        attr "device Y minimum" = 0.000000
        attr "device Y maximum" = 2119.000000
        attr "device Y resolution" = 32000.000000
error subscribing to gestures
error subscribing window 0x000000a8

[Matthew Walker (matt-g-d-walker)]

Bug confirmed in Saucy, on Acer Aspire S7-392.

Is there work being done on this bug? It's now 3 releases old, and there has been no indication of progress for fixing it. As noted by others above, the problem seems to be an interaction with Unity.

It is probably a bad thing if Unity, a Canonical project, is interfering with Ginn, another Canonical project.

If ther person the bug is assigned to is overworked, I would like to offer my assistence in any way possible.

[Nevercom (nevercom)]

"error subscribing to gestures", same as others. Ubuntu 13.10 64 bit, Toshiba S55t-A5237 , Multi-touch touchpad and touch screen display (10 fingers).

[Cristiano Gavião (cvgaviao)]

Hello, I would like to know if is there any workaround for doing ginn to work with Ubuntu 13.10 64 bit ?

I tried just a simple example:
<ginn>
  <global>
  <!-- Windows control -->
    <wish gesture="Pinch" fingers="2">
      <action name="action1" when="update">
        <trigger prop="radius delta" min="-200" max="-40"/>
        <key modifier1="Alt_L">F10</key>
      </action>
    </wish>
    <wish gesture="Pinch" fingers="2">
      <action name="action1" when="update">
        <trigger prop="radius delta" min="40" max="200"/>
        <key modifier1="Alt_L">F10</key>
      </action>
    </wish>
  </global>
</ginn>

and got this:

    Gestures subscribed:
    Pinch,touch=2
    error subscribing to gestures

[A.Dingwell (metnix)]

Another confirmation here, 13.10 64-bit on the Thinkpad Yoga S1

[Wiktor Marchewka (wiktormarchewka)]

Another confirmation: 12.04 64-bit, Dell Vostro 3560

[amias (amias)]

another confirmation: 14.04 64bit , Dell inspiron 7737 ( multitouch touchscreen ID 04f3:020b Elan Microelectronics Corp.
and a multitouch synaptics touch pad )

happy to run tests or try experimental builds but not prepared to rebuild unity to remove multitouch

[Yusuf Güngör (yusuf2)]

Another confirmation: 12.04 64-bit, Acer R7

Please help :(

[Balazs Pere (perebal-sze)]

Another confirmation: 14.04 64-bit, ASUS X202E

[Leonardo Diaz (leoar58)]

Another confirmation: 14.04 64-bit, Sony Vaio Duo 13

[Leonardo Diaz (leoar58)]

Hello, I have same issue on my other tablet, the Acer Iconia Tab w500.
Ginn works well with gnome-shell in iconia w500 and in vaio duo 13 too.
I found following instructions,but it'is for unity-4.24.0, unity-5.24.0 and unity-6.8.0:
http://askubuntu.com/questions/57586/how-can-i-disable-arbitrary-default-multitouch-gestures-in-unity/90383#90383

unfortunately there is no instructions for patching actual version of unity:
leo@pavone-reale ~ $ unity --version
unity 7.2.1

[Jolyon (jt-b)]

Another confirmation: 15.04 64-bit, Toshiba Click 2 Pro

[Jolyon (jt-b)]

I got ginn to work by disabling Unity multi-touch gestures. This involved recompiling Unity following the guide here: https://ineed.coffee/1068/os-x-like-multitouch-gestures-for-macbook-pro-running-ubuntu-12-10/ (ignore all the mac and touchegg stuff - just follow the "Disable Unity built-in gestures" section).

It's a bit of a faff, but unity's built in multi-touch gestures are so deeply useless it's worth it. Ginn has crashed a couple of times 9though didn't hang the system), so needs an auto-restart script.

[richwillal (richwillal)]

Confirmation for 15.04 x86_64, Asus Q502

[richwillal (richwillal)]

I have confirmed that rebuilding Unity with the multi-touch functionality disabled does allow Ginn to work on Ubuntu 15.04 x86_64.

Method outlined here: http://askubuntu.com/questions/57586/how-can-i-disable-arbitrary-default-multitouch-gestures-in-unity/90383#90383

Also replicated the frequent crash.