Automatically hide cursor and fullscreen app on startup in Labwc 0.8.4 (Raspberry Pi 5 OS Trixie)

[La-salaumandre]

Hi everyone,

I'm running Labwc 0.8.4 on Raspberry Pi OS Trixie Lite (Wayland) and I’m trying to achieve two things on startup:
🥇Automatically hide the mouse cursor.
🥈Launch my application in fullscreen (or maximized) mode without any manual keybind.
Here’s what I’ve tried so far:

• Adding directly in ~/.config/labwc/rc.xml → no effect (only works inside a <keybind> block).
• Using labwc-msg action HideCursor from a terminal → not found (it seems my Debian build doesn’t include labwc-msg).
• Running labwc-msg from autostart also fails since the binary isn’t installed.
• Tried setting margins and window placement via XML, but Labwc ignores these unless inside specific objects.

I’d prefer not to recompile Labwc just to get labwc-msg.
Is there any recommended or built-in way to:

• Hide the cursor automatically on startup, and
• Start an app (like foot or a kiosk app) in fullscreen mode?

Or is this something that can only be done through external tools like unclutter or wtype?
Thanks in advance for any suggestions or clarification!

System details:

• Raspberry Pi 5
• Raspberry Pi OS (Bookworm/Trixie Lite)
• Labwc 0.8.4 (from Debian repos)

Thanks

[La-salaumandre]

Another possibility would be to define the page creation point at the top left (0,0) for all executable openings. That solution would be great too!

[johanmalm]

For the cursor hiding, I suggest this methodology:

Add this to rc.xml:

<keybind key ="A-W-h">
  <action name="HideCursor"/>
</keybind>

Add this to autostart: wtype -M alt -M logo -P h

A similar approach would work for the fullscreen case with:

• https://labwc.github.io/labwc-actions.5.html#entry_action_name=execute_command=value
• https://labwc.github.io/labwc-actions.5.html#entry_action_name=togglefullscreen

[La-salaumandre]

OH thanks it works !

• Is it possible to have a cursor that is disabled by default, and that reactivates when you move it, and then disappears again after a certain period of inactivity (like on YouTube, for example)?
• Is it possible to define the opening position of a new window at the top left by default (x0, y0) as in X11?

Thanks

[johanmalm]

Is it possible to have a cursor that is disabled by default, and that reactivates when you move it

That's what the example above does.

and then disappears again after a certain period of inactivity

swayidle -w timeout 10 'wtype -M alt -M logo -P h'

Also, see: #3052

Is it possible to define the opening position of a new window at the top left by default (x0, y0) as in X11?

Yes, with window rules and the MoveTo action

See:

• https://labwc.github.io/labwc-config.5.html#window_rules
• https://labwc.github.io/labwc-actions.5.html#entry_action_name=moveto_x=_y=

[Granjow]

I cannot get that working on a Pi 4 with Trixie 64-bit and labwc 0.9.2-1+rpt4. The cursor just stays where it is, it does neither move nor hide. Also when typing the shortcuts manually with a keyboard connected to the Pi, nothing happens (that is also the reason for the many key bindings as the original A-W-h from #2633 does not work either).

My ~/.config/labwc/rc.xml is this:

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<labwc_config>
<keybind key="A-h">
  <action name="HideCursor" />
  <action name="WarpCursor" x="-1" y="-1" />
</keybind>
<keybind key="W-h">
  <action name="HideCursor" />
  <action name="WarpCursor" x="-1" y="-1" />
</keybind>
<keybind key="A-W-h">
  <action name="HideCursor" />
  <action name="WarpCursor" x="-1" y="-1" />
</keybind>
<keybind key="F6">
  <action name="HideCursor" />
  <action name="WarpCursor" x="-1" y="-1" />
</keybind>
</labwc_config>

My ~/.config/labwc/autostart – both echo statements are executed, and I don't get any error logs (I modified /usr/bin/labwc-pi to run exec /usr/bin/labwc --debug -m $@ 2>/tmp/labwc.log) for running wtype (yes, I have installed it).

echo "Hello World" > /tmp/hello-labwc
wtype -M alt -M logo h -m alt -m logo
echo "Okay bye" > /tmp/end-autostart

What is missing @johanmalm ? Any difference to your solution @La-salaumandre ?

Thanks for your help,
Simon

[johanmalm]

You might be missing the -P in the wtype command.

With the config above, what happens if you run wtype -M alt -P h from a terminal?

[Granjow]

Thanks for your reply, @johanmalm . It was not the issue, but re-checking with a fresh view allowed me to find the bug, which is that I did not put the keybindings into the keyboard section. So, the correct config is:

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<labwc_config>
<keyboard><!-- ← THIS WAS MISSING -->
<keybind key="A-W-h">
  <action name="HideCursor" />
  <action name="WarpCursor" x="-1" y="-1" />
</keybind>
</keyboard>
</labwc_config>