GXinput - GUI for XInput settings

[jolund]

The new Xorg in jaunty changes a lot about how to config your input devices, and there is not yet very good tools for it. Mostly you have to use xinput and manual .fdi hacking.

I got tired of fiddling with the commandline xinput to make special settings on my input devices, so I decided to write my own UI for it, which exposes all the hidden xinput settings. I use this to enable middle mouse wheel emulation on my x300 amongst others.

Here is a link:
http://dev.vostok6.net/gxinput

Mercurial repo at

http://hg.vostok6.net/gxinput

Planned additions is generation of fdi rules and xinput commandlines.
Comments, suggestions? Or event better, anyone wants to help add more stuff to the program?

[Merlin2001]

Hello Joakim,

since I've been trying to disable the track stick (that's broken and making the mouse do funny things) on my Dell Latitude D800, I'm really interested in GXinput but am stuck trying to figure out how to run it.
I'm new to Ubuntu and haven't built a binary yet, which seems is necessary for GXinput to work - could you give me brief instructions on how to get GXinput to work?

I really appreciate the work you've done since I've spent quite some time searching for a way to easily disable the track stick (gsynaptics didn't work, mouse config dialog neither).

You could also just tell me the command to permanently disable the track stick (which I found out has id=7 using "xinput list") with xinput - then I would not need the GUI

Thanks in advance and greetings from Germany
Marcus Mangelsdorf

[hskoglund]

Hi, I'm also pretty new to Ubuntu and had the same problem with my Dell touchpad (ok it's working fine but I prefer it no to work), and xinput was the way to go for me.

You got the first step right, finding the number (7 in your case).

The command to disable your track stick should then be:

xinput set-int-prop 7 "Device Enabled" 8 0

This should work fine for you until the next reboot.
To get a lasting effect, I put my (similar) xinput command in the list of
System->Preferences->Startup Applications.

Also note that the number 7 can and will change (it happened to me, i.e.
one day the touchpad was back again!). To really nail it, you need to
substitute the digit 7 for the device name string in the command. For me,
that meant changing the command line:

xinput set-int-prop 5 "Device Enabled" 8 0
to

xinput set-int-prop "AlpsPS/2 ALPS GlidePoint" "Device Enabled" 8 0

Hopefully this will work for you too.
Rgrds Henry

[Merlin2001]

Hello Henry,

first of all: Thanks for your quick answer!
Since the thread was relatively old, I didn't really expect one from the original author, neither from somebody else

Your guide was really good and easy to follow, can you tell me where you found the information about the use of xinput? (or what I am doing by selecting "(..) 8 0"?)

It seems like the Track Stick is (somehow) disabled now, since it doesn't move the mouse anymore, but it still kind of "blocks" the use of the touchpad - meaning that when the Stick is touched (or better to say: the keyboard in general - that's why it's so annoying...) I can't move the mouse using the touchpad. Like if the signal would still be recognized (blocking the touchpad) but kept from moving the mouse pointer.

Since you were able to get me a giant step further - do you maybe have any ideas concerning my (new *g*) problem?

Thanks again for your support!
Marcus

[hskoglund]

To learn more about Xinput, for me it was mostly some trial-and-error.
Start by displaying all the properties for your device #7, like this:

xinput list-props 7

That property I mentioned before Device Enabled, or 98,
is maybe too heavy-handed, because, as you mentioned,
it disabled *all* of the functionality.

I mean you don't want to disable the touchpad, just the track stick. So perhaps you can try a different property to change, like "Stick Enabled" or similar. Look in the list.

Finally, about that (.. 8 0) settings, the 8 is just a guess (if 8 fails, then try 16 etc.)
0 here means turn off the functionality, i.e. turn off "Device Enabled".

Rgrds Henry

[Merlin2001]

Hi Henry,

thanks for your advice. I tried messing around with xinput a bit and (thanks to Keir Thomas' Ubuntu Pocket Guide) found out that

man xinput

gives at least minimal help

But still I can't get a satisfying result:
The output of

xinput list-props "DualPoint Stick"

is the following:

Device 'DualPoint Stick':
    Device Enabled (89):    0
    Evdev Reopen Attempts (225):    0
    Evdev Axis Inversion (264):    0, 0
    Evdev Axis Calibration (265):    
    Evdev Axes Swap (266):    0
    Evdev Middle Button Emulation (267):    2
    Evdev Middle Button Timeout (268):    50
    Evdev Wheel Emulation (269):    0
    Evdev Wheel Emulation Axes (270):    0, 0, 4, 5
    Evdev Wheel Emulation Inertia (271):    10
    Evdev Wheel Emulation Timeout (272):    200
    Evdev Wheel Emulation Button (273):    4
    Evdev Drag Lock Buttons (274):    0

where I manually set "Enabled" to 0 and "Reopen Attempts" to 0 (was 10).
(just to try if this has any influence on my problem *g*)

Unfortunately the problem is still unsolved though. The Touchpad is working (this is an extra device in xinput called "AlpsPS/2 ALPS DualPoint TouchPad") but randomly freezes if the Track Stick is touched (or I type on the keyboard)

May there be a way to completely "disconnect" (in a software way) the stick, maybe using the evdev driver or something?

In Windows there is a proprietary driver for the Touchpad/TrackStick combination where one can completely disable the TrackStick (because it does the same nonsense movement in Win when not disabled...)

Again, thanks for your answer and have a great week!
Marcus

[Cruxic]

Looks like a neat program, jolund. Any plans to add configuration options for the fancy new pointer acceleration code in X Server 1.6 (>=Jaunty)?

I'd be glad to help code this if you like.

[peddanet]

This site seems to be constantly down! Any Ideas how I can watch or download this project? Is it reliable, I did not find any other links to it! Is there a doc?

The new Xorg in jaunty changes a lot about how to config your input devices, and there is not yet very good tools for it. Mostly you have to use xinput and manual .fdi hacking.

I got tired of fiddling with the commandline xinput to make special settings on my input devices, so I decided to write my own UI for it, which exposes all the hidden xinput settings. I use this to enable middle mouse wheel emulation on my x300 amongst others.

Here is a link:
http://dev.vostok6.net/gxinput

Mercurial repo at

http://hg.vostok6.net/gxinput

Planned additions is generation of fdi rules and xinput commandlines.
Comments, suggestions? Or event better, anyone wants to help add more stuff to the program?

[GenPFault]

Archive.org has a copy.

[Crafty Kisses]

Haha thanks