btnx: Send keyboard and mouse combination events with mouse buttons

[blazoner]

On another note, maybe future releases could include support for multiple button presses, like L+R buttons = Middle button.

I can't currently program, but I think I could lay out some usable logic for that. If you're interested, I'll give it a shot.


BTW, I love what you've accomplished so far!

[Depressed Man]

Hmm it's stuck in read-only mode so I can't edit the config. How do I get it out of read only mode..it says root owns it. (sorry I'm still new to Linux..so there's probably some command to temporary take over the file that I don't know)

[tregnaward]

i'm running 7.04
and when i ran ls /dev/input, i got

by-id event0 event3 event5 event9 mouse0 ts0 uinput
by-path event1 event4 event6 mice mouse1 ts1

[daou]

If I move the mouse side to side with my fingers no where near the scroll wheel (holding the back of the mouse at pad-level), firefox jumps a page forward.
It doesn't happen all the time, but enough to start bugging the crap out of me .

Ok, sounds like your MX Revo is borderline broken. I can shake my mouse pretty hard and the wheel won't go side to side by itself. You should probably try to get a replacement.

but my buttons are behaving as if the button event type is 0, instead of 1. (Pressing the thumb-wheel in either direction goes forward or backward respectively, but releasing the thumb-wheel does the same action again, for a net effect of going forward or backward twice.)

It's the other way around. The event type is supposed to be 0 for the the thumb wheel events. When a button is type=1, it sends both the pressed and released events simultaneously. So when you press the thumb wheel and type=1, it sends a press and release signal. When you release the thumb wheel, it sends the press and release signals again. So you get two events.

More replies later...

[blazoner]

Thanks! That did the trick.

Maybe instead of this:

#	type: the type of event the button sends. If type is 0,
#	pressing the button sends a button down signal and
#	releasing it sends a release signal. If type = 1, clicking
#	the button send both press and release signals simultaneously.
#	This usually necessary for mouse wheel events.

You could say this:

#	type: the type of event the button sends.
#	(Preset for your specific mouse buttons.)
#	If pressing the button sends a button press signal and
#	releasing it sends a release signal, the type is 0.
#	If pressing the button sends both press and release signals
#	simultaneously, the type is 1.
#	-This is usually necessary for mouse wheel events.

Since the type is dependent on the button events, and not the other way around.

[daou]

Hmm it's stuck in read-only mode so I can't edit the config. How do I get it out of read only mode..it says root owns it. (sorry I'm still new to Linux..so there's probably some command to temporary take over the file that I don't know)

run

sudo gedit /etc/btnx/btnx_config

The sudo is needed so you get root (or superuser) privileges, because the btnx_config file is write protected and owned by root. This is because btnx can only be run by root.

On another note, maybe future releases could include support for multiple button presses, like L+R buttons = Middle button.

I can't currently program, but I think I could lay out some usable logic for that. If you're interested, I'll give it a shot.


BTW, I love what you've accomplished so far!

Thanks, I'm glad you like it. What you propose is doable. It would require a significant amount of change and complexity to the event parsing and handling. Not impossible, but time consuming. I'll keep it in mind and once I have the time, I might implement something like it.

You could say this:
...
Since the type is dependent on the button events, and not the other way around.

Good point. I'll change it. Thanks for the improvement ideas.

i'm running 7.04
and when i ran ls /dev/input, i got Quote:
by-id event0 event3 event5 event9 mouse0 ts0 uinput
by-path event1 event4 event6 mice mouse1 ts1

Strange. You have the event files in the correct location but for some reason btnx cannot find it. What mouse are you using?

Please send me the output of your /proc/bus/input/devices file. It will help me diagnose the problem. You can use this command to view that file in gedit:

cat /proc/bus/input/devices > /tmp/devices_output; gedit /tmp/devices_output

my mouse gives event1, but when I attempt to use
Code:
$ sudo cat /dev/input/event1 | hexdump
in terminal, I get no response at all from my system.

I'm new to Linux. Is there some extra component I need to be able to perform a hexdump? If not, what's my next step?

I've noticed that this might be a problem with some mice (ones using PS/2 connector). But I would suspect the MX600 uses USB. You should have hexdump installed by default so this shouldnt be the problem. You can test it by giving the command:

$ echo "hello" | hexdump

If you get output like "0000000 6568 6c6c 0a6f" then hexdump should be working fine. The only other thing I can think of is that its not sending events to that event handler. Try doing that part where you list each event handler in /dev/input with the command:

ls /dev/input

And do the

sudo cat /dev/input/event | hexdump

command for each event file in that directory (event0, event1, etc.). Move your mouse and press its buttons everytime you do the hexdump. Then check your /proc/bus/input/devices for the section that matches that event. Hopefully one of the event files is outputting your mouse events, otherwise there is a bigger problem.

[bornakke]

Minor issue:

Btnx worked out of the box, which was a great relief after being use to useing the old complicated way - so thank you very much

Well there is one thing that I can't seem to figure out. I'm use to useing the windows key (Super key), as my beryl shortcut. And since my I uses my mouse to the same shorthcut i would be nice to assign a button to let say windowskey+ left... But where is the key, can't seem to find it in the event file... but it probably simply have another name. Have tried to finde it via. xev, but it returns another key number.

Hope somebody are able to help me out with a solution... seems like a simple problem, but I have allready used 2-3 hours on it!

Best regards
Tobias

[daou]

Btnx worked out of the box, which was a great relief after being use to useing the old complicated way - so thank you very much

Well there is one thing that I can't seem to figure out. I'm use to useing the windows key (Super key), as my beryl shortcut. And since my I uses my mouse to the same shorthcut i would be nice to assign a button to let say windowskey+ left... But where is the key, can't seem to find it in the event file... but it probably simply have another name. Have tried to finde it via. xev, but it returns another key number.

Hope somebody are able to help me out with a solution... seems like a simple problem, but I have allready used 2-3 hours on it!

No problem. I'm glad I didn't spend the time coding this application for general use for nothing. Actually, about 90% of the program is just so other people can use it and configure it without editing source code .

The key you are looking for, the Start (or Super, or Windows, etc) is KEY_LEFTMETA

For some reason, the Gnome keyboard shortcuts tool doesn't recognize it as a modifier key (meaning you can only use it by itself, not as a combination with another key). But in Beryl it should work.

[Depressed Man]

The string doesn't seem to work for me.. after I type it in it asks me for my password which I type in. After a while it brings me back to the $ for its next command. It doesn't load gedit or do anything else. And if I type in gedit /etc/btnx/btnx_config after that it's still read only.

[daou]

The string doesn't seem to work for me.. after I type it in it asks me for my password which I type in. After a while it brings me back to the $ for its next command. It doesn't load gedit or do anything else. And if I type in gedit /etc/btnx/btnx_config after that it's still read only.

Are you sure you have root privileges on the computer? It's your computer, right?

If you are having trouble with gedit try it with nano

sudo nano /etc/btnx/btnx_config

Ctrl-O saves the file, Ctrl-X quits