Rotate mouse/cursor axes

[Jack Brown]

also bash script that you can call from Keyboard Shortcuts:

#!/bin/bash

# this script changes screen orientation, and also the touchpad orientation. uses xrandr and synclient commands.
# also used xserver-xorg-input-synptics patch from https://launchpad.net/~aapo-rantalainen/+archive/ppa-aaporantalainen

case $1 in
0)
  xrandr -o normal
  synclient Orientation=0 
  ;;
1)
  xrandr -o left
  synclient Orientation=1 
  ;;
2)
  xrandr -o inverted
  synclient Orientation=2 
  ;;
3)
  xrandr -o right
  synclient Orientation=3 
  ;;
*)
  echo "pass parameter 0-3"
  ;;
esac

save as a file (e.g. orientscreen.sh) somewhere in your home folder.

give it executable privileges from terminal
chmod +x orientscreen.sh

then in Keyboard Shortcuts
add custom shortcut
'normal orientation'
with
command:
/home/...[other folders]/orientscreen.sh 0

set keyboard shortcut to something like SUPER key + UpArrow

and so on for other orientations.

[aapo4]

I'm using package from my PPA (for Natty) and synclient touchpadoff=1 is working as expected.

Did you compiled patched driver for yourself? Try then compile same version (with same configuration) WITHOUT patch and check is touchpadoff=1 is working or not.

Just looking patch doesn't give any hints why touchpadoff is not working.

[Jack Brown]

Hi aapo,

thanks for replying.

used the xserver-xorg-input-synaptics_1.3.99+git20110116.0e27ce3a-0ubuntu12-b1_amd64.deb
from the ppa. 64bit.

wonder why it doesnt work. it used to work before i applied the patch.


are you supposed to modify anything else after applying the above patch?
the rotate for both screen and mouse works already though...

when i run synclient touchpadoff=1 on the terminal, there is no error message.

How do you go back to original version for testing? just apt-get purge and reinstall xserver-xorg-input-synaptics (from ubuntu and not from ppa)?

[aapo4]

How do you go back to original version for testing?

Check what is version on Ubuntu's repository:

apt-cache policy xserver-xorg-input-synaptics

Answer will be something like:

xserver-xorg-input-synaptics:
  Installed: 1.4.1-1ubuntu2-b2
  Candidate: 1.4.1-1ubuntu2-b2
  Version table:
 *** 1.4.1-1ubuntu2-b2 0
        500 http://ppa.launchpad.net/aapo-rantalainen/ppa-aaporantalainen/ubuntu/ oneiric/main amd64 Packages
        100 /var/lib/dpkg/status
     1.4.1-1ubuntu2 0
        500 http://fi.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ oneiric/main amd64 Packages

Which means: Currently installed version is 1.4.1-1ubuntu2-b2, it is also the newest version and it comes from http://ppa.launchpad.net/aapo-rantalainen/.
And there are version 1.4.1-1ubuntu2 from ubuntu.com.

Then install (downgrade) to that version

sudo apt-get install xserver-xorg-input-synaptics=1.4.1-1ubuntu2

(This can be done also with GUI tools: look for 'select version manually').

[aapo4]

Oneiric (11.10) version released:

http://cc.oulu.fi/~rantalai/synaptics/

[wolneykien]

Hi!

I've written a small utility that dynamically rotates the coordinate system of an XInput device monitoring the screen (output) orientation:

http://github.com/wolneykien/xrandr-align

May be you will find it interesting. If so, advertise it a little. Thanks.

[aapo4]

Hi!
utility that dynamically rotates the coordinate system of an XInput device monitoring the screen (output) orientation:

Sounds good. How it is used?

I can see that ALT Linux is already packed it:
http://sisyphus.ru/en/srpm/Sisyphus/xrandr-align

I get it compiled on Ubuntu:
git clone https://github.com/wolneykien/xrandr-align.git
apt-get install xutils-dev
./autogen.sh
./configure
make

When compiled, it produces 'xrandr-align' -binary. Then what?

Does upstream (xrandr) know about it? Seems to me that xrandr-align contains code from xrandr, but is not replacing it, but they are used together?

[wolneykien]

Sounds good. How it is used?

Run

xrandr-align monitor --input="My touchpad device"

and your touchpad will be rotated follow after screen rotations. It stays in the foreground listening for RandR events. To see the proper name of the input device use

xrandr-align list-input

New version supports the complement procedure too: it can rotate the screen follow the device rotations reported by a gravisensor (accelerometer) input device (can be found in some modern tablets).

In the new version there are scripts and desktop files to start the tools automatically. See the README file and manual pages for more information.

I can see that ALT Linux is already packed it:
http://sisyphus.ru/en/srpm/Sisyphus/xrandr-align

Yep, I'm working on it there.

I get it compiled on Ubuntu:
git clone https://github.com/wolneykien/xrandr-align.git
apt-get install xutils-dev
./autogen.sh
./configure
make

Good to hear that it builds fine.

When compiled, it produces 'xrandr-align' -binary. Then what?

Use it!

Does upstream (xrandr) know about it? Seems to me that xrandr-align contains code from xrandr, but is not replacing it, but they are used together?

I've post a message to the xorg-devel list: http://lists.x.org/archives/xorg-dev...ry/029321.html . No answer yet. Shouldn't I mail some people directly?

Yes, it uses some code from xinput and xrandr as mentioned in the copyright and authorship messages.

[aapo4]

Yes, it uses some code from xinput and xrandr

Could functionality of xrandr-align be merged to the xrandr? Then monitoring step can be skipped.

So it would be used something like this:
xrandr list-input
xrandr add --input="My touchpad device" #this writes to config file
xrandr -o left #rotates screen and check devices for config file

And then there can be permanent config files and files which are cleaned on boot.

[wolneykien]

Could functionality of xrandr-align be merged to the xrandr? Then monitoring step can be skipped.

So it would be used something like this:
xrandr list-input
xrandr add --input="My touchpad device" #this writes to config file
xrandr -o left #rotates screen and check devices for config file

And then there can be permanent config files and files which are cleaned on boot.

Is the `xrandr' the only program that can be used to interfacing with the RandR extension? Potentially, there may be various desktop applets for that purpose. Moreover, the touchscreen devices (aka tablet PCs) would have other means to automatically rotate the screen when the device itself is rotated. Thus, I see the "third-party monitoring" approach as relatively universal.

Support for configuration files is already added in version 0.3.2.