← Otto User GuideSettings

otto-settings edits Otto’s configuration while it is running, so you can change how the desktop behaves without hand-writing TOML and without restarting anything you don’t have to.

First version. The app covers a good share of the configuration and is meant for daily use, but not every option in otto_config.toml has a control yet. Anything missing is still editable by hand — see Configuration.

Opening it

Launch Settings from the Dock or the launcher, or run otto-settings.

What it edits

PaneCovers
GeneralLight or dark appearance, accent colour, interface font, GTK theme, desktop background colour and image, pointer and icon themes
DisplaysResolution, refresh rate, scale and arrangement of connected monitors
DockSize, position, auto-hide, magnification, icon colorization
KeyboardLayout and options, repeat rate, and the shortcut list
Trackpad & MouseTap to click, drag lock, natural scrolling, click method, scroll and pointer speed
SoundOutput and input devices and levels
PowerIdle, sleep and lid behaviour
Lock & LoginLocking, the greeter, and fingerprint unlock

How it works

The compositor owns the configuration file; the app is a D-Bus client. It reads the schema Otto publishes, sets values, and watches for changes — so a value you edit in the file by hand shows up in the app, and a value you change in the app is written back to the same file.

Most settings apply the moment you change them: the Dock’s size and behaviour, the touchpad and pointer options, appearance and accent colour. A few — the keyboard layout among them — are marked as needing a restart, and the app says so next to the control rather than pretending the change took.

Displays

The Displays pane probes the outputs that are actually connected, so the modes listed are the ones your monitor reports, not a guess. Arrangement, mode and scale are saved per display set, so unplugging and reconnecting the same monitors brings your layout back.

Shortcuts

The Keyboard pane lists the configured shortcuts and lets you add and remove them. It edits the same [keyboard_shortcuts] table the config file has, so anything you bind here is a normal entry you can also read and edit by hand.

From the keyboard

Every row is a Tab stop with a ring around it, and every control can be operated without a pointer — Space or Enter flips a switch, presses a button, opens a pop-up or starts editing a field; the arrows move a slider. A pop-up opens on its current value rather than cycling, because each value commits as soon as it is chosen. See Accessibility.

Two things still need the pointer: dragging screens around the arrangement diagram in the Displays pane, and the shortcut lines in the Keyboard pane.

Not there yet