Two mices -> Two pointers

[kn4rF]

When you plug two mices the operating system let you use both, but both mices move the same pointer. Is it possible in some way to get a second pointer for the second mouse plugged in?

[jflaker]

When you plug two mices the operating system let you use both, but both mices move the same pointer. Is it possible in some way to get a second pointer for the second mouse plugged in?

In my experience, you can have as many keyboards and mice as you can physically connect...You will have a single mouse pointer and keyboard input will be limited to the active application's window.

Now...you can create a virtual machine with virtual box (not the Open Source Edition OSE...download from Sun.) and allow remote desktop to that system and work independently through another system or through your console......

I do that now with XP that can be remotely accessed from another system.

[kn4rF]

In my experience, you can have as many keyboards and mice as you can physically connect...You will have a single mouse pointer and keyboard input will be limited to the active application's window.

Now...you can create a virtual machine with virtual box (not the Open Source Edition OSE...download from Sun.) and allow remote desktop to that system and work independently through another system or through your console......

I do that now with XP that can be remotely accessed from another system.
I think we are doing different things: I don't need to remote access my machine, sometimes my pc (who has two monitors) is shared with another person; i have two mices and two keyboards and want to use one monitor, one mouse and one keyboard for me and one for him.

The idea of using the virtual machine is very smart, because you can disable or enable the input devices you want; I tried with WinXP on VirtualBox but there's a problem: when I disable one usb mouse, this mouse is disabled not only for the virtual machine but for the entire system..

[warp99]

You can have multiple mice inputs with multiple pointers. You need to setup up a Multi-Point X-Server (MPX) to do this. This is going to be included with Lucid (10.4) and it's already in the Alpha:

http://ubuntu10-04.blogspot.com/2010/01/mpx-multipointer-in-ubuntu-1004-lucid.html

So if you wait about a month you can have what your looking for with a supported release or run the alpha and have it right now without having to compile and rebuild X-Server in Karmic.

[kn4rF]

You can have multiple mice inputs with multiple pointers. You need to setup up a Multi-Point X-Server (MPX) to do this. This is going to be included with Lucid (10.4) and it's already in the Alpha:

http://ubuntu10-04.blogspot.com/2010/01/mpx-multipointer-in-ubuntu-1004-lucid.html

So if you wait about a month you can have what your looking for with a supported release or run the alpha and have it right now without having to compile and rebuild X-Server in Karmic.

Thank you, I already tried MPX with no success. There's also a lack of documentation. At this site (http://alec.mooo.com/mpx.php) I found a little howto which explains how to set multiple pointers.. But I don't get the same output as the hotwo's.

Howto's output


$ xinput list
⎡ Virtual core pointer id=2 [master pointer (3)]
⎜ ↳ Virtual core XTEST pointer id=4 [slave pointer (2)]
⎜ ↳ Touchpad id=6 [slave pointer (2)]
⎜ ↳ Mouse1 id=7 [slave pointer (2)]
⎜ ↳ Mouse1 id=9 [slave pointer (2)]
⎣ Virtual core keyboard id=3 [master keyboard (2)]
↳ Virtual core XTEST keyboard id=5 [slave keyboard (3)]
↳ Keyboard0 id=8 [slave keyboard (3)]
↳ Keyboard0 id=10 [slave keyboard (3)]


My output





fr4nk@debian:~$ xinput list
"Virtual core keyboard" id=0 [XKeyboard]
"Virtual core pointer" id=1 [XPointer]
"Keyboard0" id=2 [XExtensionKeyboard]
"Mouse0" id=3 [XExtensionPointer]



I don't get a structure..

[Zorael]

Try it from a Lucid live cd/usb.

$ xinput list
┌ Virtual core pointer id=2 [master pointer (3)]
│ ↳ Virtual core XTEST pointer id=4 [slave pointer (2)]
│ ↳ "SynPS/2 Synaptics TouchPad" id=12 [slave pointer (2)]
│ ↳ "Macintosh mouse button emulation" id=13 [slave pointer (2)]
└ Virtual core keyboard id=3 [master keyboard (2)]
↳ Virtual core XTEST keyboard id=5 [slave keyboard (3)]
↳ "Power Button" id=6 [slave keyboard (3)]
↳ "Video Bus" id=7 [slave keyboard (3)]
↳ "Power Button" id=8 [slave keyboard (3)]
↳ "Sleep Button" id=9 [slave keyboard (3)]
↳ "USB 2.0 Camera" id=10 [slave keyboard (3)]
↳ "AT Translated Set 2 keyboard" id=11 [slave keyboard (3)]

Daily live images: Ubuntu (http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/daily-live/current/), Kubuntu (http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/kubuntu/daily-live/current/), Ubuntu Netbook (http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/ubuntu-netbook/daily-live/current/), Kubuntu Netbook (http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/kubuntu-netbook/daily-live/current/), Xubuntu (http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/xubuntu/daily-live/current/).

You'll find Unetbootin (http://unetbootin.sourceforge.net/) in the repositories.

[warp99]

I just confirmed this in Lucid with a Live USB using a touchpad and a Microsoft mouse. It works pretty slick. :D

[Rhubarb]

Ooooooooooooooooooooh yay!

I'm so happy, I've been keeping an eye on MPX over the last few years, wondering how long long it'll take to find its way into more mainstream linux distros, and of course, into the main x.org tree.

Sure there's a lot of apps that don't support MPX just at the moment, but it's good to know that it's finally here :)

[warp99]

Sure there's a lot of apps that don't support MPX just at the moment, but it's good to know that it's finally here :)


I've been playing with MPX a little and it looks like if one pointer drops down a menu the other can't select that menu or choose anything from the list until the other pointer releases the menu. There's probably going to be some way to rectify this in the future but as of now it's the default behavior. One good thing is that if you unplug the mouse and plug it back in during your session it's recognized immediate as a separate pointer. :biggrin: