Randomly switching between eraser and regular mode

[hoellwerth]

Describe the bug

I sometimes have the problem of random switching between the regular pen and the eraser mode when writing with my stylus. I'm not sure if this behaviour is caused by Rnote or my hardware. I have attached a video to emphasize my point, I think one can see the issue quite clearly. I suspect it has something to do with palm detection, because when I write without my palm lying on the screen, everything works like a charm.

To Reproduce

Steps to reproduce the behavior:

1. Write something
2. Wait
3. Randomly switching between eraser and regular mode

Expected behavior
Stay in regular mode, only switch when I want to. Also the writing is supposed to be uniform thickness when applying the same amount of force.

Console Output
Run the app in the terminal with flatpak --env=RUST_LOG=rnote=debug --env=RUST_BACKTRACE=1 run com.github.flxzt.rnote
and post the output.

Everytime the mode switches, the engine prints the following debug message:

'''
130.940997468s DEBUG rnote_engine::store: State has not changed, no need to record.
163.036097497s DEBUG rnote_engine::store: State has not changed, no need to record.
163.280088122s DEBUG rnote_engine::store: State has not changed, no need to record.
'''

Screenshots
The following video was not the same session as the one with the debug messages

Screencast.From.2026-01-10.21-50-28.mp4

Desktop (please complete the following information):

• OS: Fedora 43
• App Version: 0.13.1
• Installation Source: Flatpak
• Desktop Environment: Gnome 49
• Display Server: Wayland
• Input Source: On-Screen tablet

Additional context
Hardware is Minisforum V3 with the minisforum stylus

[Doublonmousse]

I think even if it doesn't switch the pen input isn't continuous (hence the very non uniform thickness throughout). Even if the pressure is set to the constant setting, I'm not sure it would look good.

Can you run with flatpak --env=RUST_LOG=rnote=trace --env=RUST_BACKTRACE=1 run com.github.flxzt.rnote and look for message of the type

 8.520784800s TRACE rnote::canvas::input: element=Element { pos: [[667.0, 387.9999694824219]], pressure: 0.5 } pen_state=Up modifier_keys={} pen_mode=None event_time_delta=0ns msg="handle pen event element"

In particular for pen_state=Up or Proximity events in the middle of what should be Down throughout.

Do you have similar issues on xournal or other application that could use pen input ?

Can you run libinput debug-events as well (so that we get the events seen by libinput/the compositor, and rule out gtk4 issues where input seen by rnote from gtk4 wouldn't match what is expected)