Slide three fingers to change the volume, remap any key, pick a color or copy text from anywhere on screen. Five small tools for Kubuntu and Ubuntu, each with its own switch.
Version 0.1.0 · 42 KB · Ubuntu 24.04 or newer
Why Knobu
Ubuntu is great at the big things. The everyday conveniences, like changing volume from the touchpad or making Caps Lock useful, usually mean a pile of scripts and config files. Knobu puts them in one app with one switch each.
Five tools
Every tool is a module with its own switch and its own settings page. Leave one off and it does nothing at all.
Volume at your fingertips. Slide smoothly as far as you want, up to your desktop's own maximum. Media control works with Spotify, browsers, VLC and any player that supports MPRIS.
Keys that do what you expect. Remap a single key everywhere, or change one shortcut and leave the rest alone. New keyboards are picked up when you plug them in.
No more sleeping downloads. Stay awake until you say so, or for a set time, without touching your power settings. Optionally keeps the screen on too.
Any pixel, copied. Click once and get HEX, RGB or HSL, with your recent colors kept. On KDE a magnifier shows exactly which pixel you are on.
Copy text you can't select. Drag over an error dialog, a video or an image. The text is copied when you let go, and you can check it before pasting.
How it works
One package, one permission, one switch. Apt pulls in everything else Knobu needs.
Download the latest .deb and install it with apt from the folder you saved it to.
sudo apt install ./knobu_*_all.debThis lets Knobu read your touchpad and keyboards. Log out and back in afterwards.
sudo usermod -aG input $USEROpen Knobu from the app menu, turn on the background service on the General page, then switch on your tools.
knobu enableSupported desktops
Knobu is honest about where it runs today. Found a problem on your desktop? Open an issue and mention your flavour and version.
Kubuntu, KDE Plasma 6
Every feature, including the volume popup and the Color Picker magnifier.
Ubuntu, GNOME
No volume popup or magnifier yet. Use four finger slides, since GNOME keeps three for itself.
Xubuntu, Lubuntu, Ubuntu MATE
Start at login and the screen tools still need work.
Yes. Knobu is free and open source software under the GNU GPL v3.0 or later. There is no account, no paid tier and no trial.
Ubuntu 24.04 or newer. Kubuntu with KDE Plasma 6 is fully supported, Ubuntu with GNOME is in beta, and Xubuntu, Lubuntu and Ubuntu MATE are planned.
Yes. Touchpad Gestures and Keyboard Manager work on both Wayland and X11, because Knobu reads the touchpad and keyboards directly instead of going through the display server.
Knobu reads your touchpad and keyboards to see gestures and key presses, and Ubuntu only allows that for members of the input group. Run sudo usermod -aG input $USER, then log out and back in. The package also installs the rule Keyboard Manager needs to create its virtual keyboard.
No. Knobu has no telemetry and makes no network requests. Your settings live in ~/.config/knobu/config.toml on your own computer.
No. Nothing starts automatically after install. Open Knobu from the app menu and turn on the background service on the General page. Each user turns it on for themselves.
Run knobu disable to stop the background service and remove it from login, then sudo apt remove knobu.
Linux turns a three finger tap into a middle click, which pastes selected text in some apps. If that gets in the way, move mute to the four finger tap in the Touchpad Gestures settings.
Yes. Both Super+Shift+C and Super+Shift+T can be changed in the settings app. Color Picker and Text Extractor are also in the app menu when you right click the Knobu icon.
Free, open source and easy to remove. Install it, try the gestures, keep what you like.
Version 0.1.0 · 42 KB · Ubuntu 24.04 or newer