btnx: Send keyboard and mouse combination events with mouse buttons

[po0f]

daou,

Don't know if I've said thank you for such a great program yet, so if I haven't: THANK YOU!

(Now that sucking up is complete...)

I have a feature request, feel free to shoot me down if you want: would it be possible to eventually get "profiles" integrated into btnx-config?

I have one configuration that I use solely for desktop use (lots of desktop switching and window manipulation commands mapped to the mouse), and one for gaming (*cough*WoW*cough*). As is, I have two separate config files, and just symlink the one I want to use to `/etc/btnx/btnx_config` and restart btnx when I switch "tasks".

Not too much of a hassle, but a simple menu to easier facilitate this would make me even happier. (Not much of a programmer here, but it doesn't sound like it would be /too/ hard to implement...)

Thanks in advance, whichever way you decide.

(And sorry if this has already been requested/denied.)

[Gigamo]

It seems you have not configured the mouse buttons to do anything. To configure buttons, select a key from the "Keycode" combobox/entry and set any (optional) modifier keys in the "Modifier #" comboboxes. For example, if button 4 is a thumb button and you want to use firefox back with it, do this:

Keycode: KEY_LEFT
Modifier 1: KEY_LEFTALT

Then restart btnx. By the way, you should name your buttons in a more intuitive way... like "Thumb button up" or similar so you can easily know which button you are editing.
Another example (for moving windows while holding a button over them):

Keycode: BTN_LEFT
Modifier 1: KEY_LEFTALT

If a Keycode starts with KEY_ it is a keyboard button. If it starts with BTN_ it is a mouse button. So the firefox example does a Alt+Left arrow combination. The second example does a Alt+Left mouse button combination.

EDIT: blazoner posted some useful key combos you can use: http://ubuntuforums.org/showpost.php...&postcount=550

Wow, thanks. Your program just made this mouse even more useful on Ubuntu than on Windows with proprietary software.

[blazoner]

Just an update:
I have twice sent emails to the author of revoco, asking about adding a "hybrid" mode, with switching between "auto" (speed sensitive) and "free" modes.

In theory, it should work like "manual", with a definable click between "auto" mode and "free" mode.

Unfortunately, I have yet to get a response from the author, and it looks as if little, if any, work is being done to maintain the sight.

I will let you all know when/if I get a response.

[daou]

daou,

Don't know if I've said thank you for such a great program yet, so if I haven't: THANK YOU!

(Now that sucking up is complete...)

I have a feature request, feel free to shoot me down if you want: would it be possible to eventually get "profiles" integrated into btnx-config?

I have one configuration that I use solely for desktop use (lots of desktop switching and window manipulation commands mapped to the mouse), and one for gaming (*cough*WoW*cough*). As is, I have two separate config files, and just symlink the one I want to use to `/etc/btnx/btnx_config` and restart btnx when I switch "tasks".

Not too much of a hassle, but a simple menu to easier facilitate this would make me even happier. (Not much of a programmer here, but it doesn't sound like it would be /too/ hard to implement...)

Thanks in advance, whichever way you decide.

(And sorry if this has already been requested/denied.)

Most of the functionality already exists for this. You can make multiple configurations and switch between them with a mouse button. You would need to dedicate a mouse button for this, however.

Configurations with different names can be started directly with btnx by calling "sudo btnx -b -c ConfigName" or via the init script with "sudo /etc/init.d/btnx start ConfigName". Note that you need to be root to do this, which makes automating it a bit difficult.

However, I started planning a btnx panel applet which would display the current configuration and allow the user to switch configurations with a menu on the applet. I still haven't decided whether I will make this. Possibly later, after I integrate btnx and btnx-config into a single package.

[daou]

Just an update:
I have twice sent emails to the author of revoco, asking about adding a "hybrid" mode, with switching between "auto" (speed sensitive) and "free" modes.

In theory, it should work like "manual", with a definable click between "auto" mode and "free" mode.

Unfortunately, I have yet to get a response from the author, and it looks as if little, if any, work is being done to maintain the sight.

I will let you all know when/if I get a response.

This could be done with btnx, instead of bundling it with revoco. I'm not sure if it's even possible to do it only with revoco because revoco takes advantage of the mouse's hardware properties and doesn't add any of its own functionality.

Perhaps something to put on my TODO list. However, there are a bunch of other things to get done for btnx before I can work on the feature.

[daou]

Is anyone using btnx successfully with hardy?

The button detection wizard doesn't seem to detect any of the buttons except for the scroll wheel up and down.

I'm using the latest svn with a MX Revolution

See this thread: http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=676386

OliW suggests using btnx because someone complains about evdev being broken. According to his account info, he is running Hardy. Try asking him if there is anything special that needs to be done. (I would also appreciate it if you could post back here if you learn something important).

[daou]

UPDATE 2: nope - same behaviour after making changes...

Did you check, after making the changes and booting, whether your changes were still intact in xorg.conf? For example, with Mandriva 2008, I had a lot of trouble getting btnx to work because it would autodetect and replace my xorg.conf edits (got around it by only changing a few bits, which didn't trigger an automatic replacement). Also, check your Xorg log to make sure that X is using the options you give. Sometimes it ignores things and uses other values.

[blazoner]

This could be done with btnx, instead of bundling it with revoco. I'm not sure if it's even possible to do it only with revoco because revoco takes advantage of the mouse's hardware properties and doesn't add any of its own functionality.

The only problem I see with doing this directly through btnx is that you would have to dedicate a button to doing it, and it would destroy my current functionality.
As far as if revoco can do it, if "free" mode and "click" mode can be combined to form "manual," then revoco should be able to allow for swapping between "free" mode and "auto."

Revoco v0.4 - Change the wheel behaviour of Logitech's MX-Revolution mouse.

Usage:
revoco free free spinning mode
revoco click click-to-click mode
revoco manual[=button[,button]] manual mode change via button
revoco auto[=speed[,speed]] automatic mode change (up, down)

Prefixing the mode with 'temp-' (i.e. temp-free) switches the mode
temporarily, otherwise it becomes the default mode after power up.

Button numbers:
0 previously set button 7 wheel left tilt
3 middle (wheel button) 8 wheel right tilt
4 rear thumb button 9 thumb wheel forward
5 front thumb button 11 thumb wheel backward
6 find button 13 thumb wheel pressed

[Gigamo]

First of all, another thank you for this great program. I have a very MINOR issue however:

Everytime after I reboot, I have to restart btnx (I just go sudo btnx-config -> Restart btnx button) just once to get all my MX Revolution functions back (revoco in particular). Don't know if this is a bug or not, just a minor issue that I don't really mind.

[daou]

The only problem I see with doing this directly through btnx is that you would have to dedicate a button to doing it, and it would destroy my current functionality.
As far as if revoco can do it, if "free" mode and "click" mode can be combined to form "manual," then revoco should be able to allow for swapping between "free" mode and "auto."

If you look at the code for revoco, you'll notice it is sending raw data over USB to the MX Revolution. All the options to revoco just change what data it sends to the MX Revo to set its wheel in a different state. These states are all predetermined by the MX hardware. The problem is, the MX Revolution doesn't have a hardware option for manual free->auto functionality. It does have an option for a manual free->click though, and this is what revoco is telling the mouse to do.