Insta360 Link 2 integration for OBS and KDE

Hotkey and OBS integration on top of linkctl, so AI tracking and gimbal presets are a keypress rather than a terminal command.

Three pieces, usable independently:

Path	What it gives you
bin/linkctl-macro	A wrapper that makes linkctl safe to bind to a hotkey: finds the binary in a desktop session's sparse PATH, passes --force, and reports the result as a desktop notification.
kde/install-shortcuts.sh	Registers KDE Plasma global shortcuts, so the keys work from anywhere including under Wayland.
obs/obs-linkctl.lua	OBS hotkeys, buttons, and scene automation: a scene switch can set tracking or load a preset on its own.
plasmoid/	A Plasma 6 widget with a virtual joystick, zoom slider, and Home/Center/Tracking buttons.

Prerequisites

linkctl installed and working (linkctl status reports your camera), and a saved home preset:

linkctl preset save home     # point the camera where you want "home" first

Install

./kde/install-shortcuts.sh --dry-run    # review, changes nothing
./kde/install-shortcuts.sh

Default bindings, editable in the BINDINGS table at the top of that script:

Key	Action
Meta+Alt+T	toggle AI tracking
Meta+Alt+1	tracking on
Meta+Alt+0	tracking off
Meta+Alt+H	preset load home
Meta+Alt+C	recenter gimbal

Check them afterwards with ./kde/install-shortcuts.sh --list, which shows the registered key, the default from the desktop entry, and flags any value Plasma cannot parse. Or look in System Settings under Keyboard, Shortcuts, searching for "Insta360". Reverse the whole thing with --uninstall.

The entries are visible in the launcher by default, because Plasma skips NoDisplay services when building the Shortcuts list and they would otherwise not appear there at all. HIDE_FROM_MENU=1 ./kde/install-shortcuts.sh hides them at that cost.

Joystick widget

./plasmoid/install.sh

Then right-click a panel or the desktop, Add Widgets, and search for "Insta360". Pass --restart when reinstalling over a running copy, since Plasma otherwise keeps the old one loaded.

The joystick is a velocity control: how far you push sets how fast the camera moves, and it stops when you let go. Degrees per step, step interval, deadzone and axis inversion are all in the widget's settings, along with the linkctl path and an optional device.

It drives the gimbal with relative moves rather than absolute ones, because linkctl status reports no pan or tilt at all while the camera is idle, so there is no trustworthy position to aim from. Relative steps work either way and cannot drift out of sync, and linkctl clamps each one to the camera's own range, so holding the stick against a limit is harmless.

OBS

Tools, Scripts, +, then pick obs/obs-linkctl.lua.

Set the linkctl binary path if it is not on OBS's PATH, then bind the hotkeys under Settings, Hotkeys (search "Insta360").

Scene automation. Press Insert current scene names to prefill the mapping box, then give the scenes you care about an action:

Talking Head = tracking on
Overhead     = preset load overhead
Slides       = tracking off

The left side is the scene name, the right side is any linkctl arguments. Blank actions and # comments are ignored.

Startup action runs when OBS finishes loading, and defaults to preset load home. This is the setting worth keeping: the Link parks its gimbal facing down when idle, so launching OBS puts it back on its own.

Under Wayland, OBS's own hotkeys only fire while OBS has focus. That is an OBS limitation, and the reason the KDE shortcuts exist; install both and use the KDE ones for anything you need mid-stream.

Configuration

Optional, at ~/.config/linkctl-macro.conf (see linkctl-macro.conf.example):

LINKCTL=/usr/local/bin/linkctl   # if not on PATH
LINKCTL_DEVICE=/dev/video0       # pin the camera if you have more than one
LINKCTL_FORCE=1                  # 0 respects linkctl's idle-camera guard
LINKCTL_NOTIFY=always            # always | error | never

--force is on by default because a deliberate keypress means "do it now", including when nothing currently holds the camera open. That is exactly the case where the gimbal is parked facing down.

Testing without a camera

lua tests/test_obs_linkctl.lua          # pure helpers: quoting, parsing, commands
lua tests/test_obs_lifecycle.lua        # the OBS script against a mock OBS API
node tests/test_joystick_logic.js       # the widget's command building and parsing
bin/linkctl-macro --print tracking on   # show the command without running it
./kde/install-shortcuts.sh --dry-run    # show the KDE changes, apply nothing
./kde/install-shortcuts.sh --list       # diagnose what is actually registered
shellcheck bin/linkctl-macro kde/install-shortcuts.sh plasmoid/install.sh

The lifecycle suite drives the script the way OBS does, so it catches broken wiring (hotkeys not firing, scene actions not matching, the preset name being captured too early) without needing OBS or a camera.

Troubleshooting

Shortcut does nothing, and System Settings says "No default shortcuts". Run ./kde/install-shortcuts.sh --list. A _launch value containing commas is the Plasma 5 format: Plasma 6 passes that value straight to QKeySequence::fromString, so Meta+Alt+T,none,Some Name parses to nothing and binds no key. Re-running the installer rewrites it as a bare key sequence. Versions of this repo before that fix wrote the Plasma 5 form.

Shortcut still does nothing. Run the action directly: bin/linkctl-macro tracking on. A failure notification names the cause. If that works but the key does not, check for a conflict in System Settings, and confirm --list shows the entry as present.

tracking fails with exit 12. AI tracking is experimental in linkctl and goes through the camera's vendor extension unit. Pan, tilt, zoom and presets use standard UVC and are unaffected.

Permission denied (exit 6). Add yourself to the video group, or install the udev rule from linkctl's contrib/99-insta360-link.rules.

Nothing moves at all. The Link 2 rejects single-axis pan/tilt writes and needs both axes set in one VIDIOC_S_EXT_CTRLS call. linkctl does this correctly; raw v4l2-ctl needs --set-ctrl pan_absolute=0,tilt_absolute=0 as one argument.

Status

The Lua helpers and the shell scripts are tested offline, and the KDE installer is dry-runnable and reversible. None of it has been exercised against a live camera or a running Plasma session by the author of this commit, so treat the first run as the real test and use --dry-run first.