I like Gnome, but not having an option to change touchpad scrolling speed is really annoying. When browsing websites or reading code in an editor, everything just jumps around using the touchpad. It makes the whole experience frustrating.
The X11 solution that doesn’t work anymore
On X11, there was xinput, which made it easy to change the scroll speed. It was straightforward and just worked. However, on Wayland, xinput doesn’t work because it’s specifically designed for X11.
On Wayland, there is libinput that has Lua plugins that theoretically can be used to modify the scroll speed. But from my understanding, the plugins need to be enabled, and in the latest Debian 13, they are not. Maybe I’m wrong, but I couldn’t get it to work.
The solution: libinput-config
Fortunately, there’s a deprecated repo that still works: libinput-config. Yes, you need to compile it on your own (like a lot of stuff on Linux), but it gets the job done.
Here’s how to fix it:
Prerequisites
First, install the necessary dependencies:
sudo apt install meson libinput-dev
Clone the repository:
git clone https://gitlab.com/warningnonpotablewater/libinput-config.git
cd libinput-config
Configuration
Create the configuration file:
sudo vim /etc/libinput.conf
Here is my configuration for adjusting the scroll speed:
override-compositor=enabled
scroll-factor=0.8
scroll-factor-x=0.8
scroll-factor-y=0.8
A value less than 1.0 will slow down scrolling, while a value greater than 1.0 will speed it up. Feel free to experiment with these values to your liking.
Build and install
Now compile and install:
meson build
cd build
ninja
sudo ninja install
After installation, restart your session or reboot your system for the changes to take effect.
The scrolling experience is much better now, and I can finally read code and browse websites without feeling like I’m on a trampoline.