I'm using xubuntu. While I'm physically capable of using a mouse, I'm developing a portable system, and the fewer peripherals I have to carry, the better.

As far as I can tell, the two options are keynav and the built in "accessibility" panel. Both of them are ruined by baffling design decisions.

Keynav


  • Has a "unique" control scheme. I've gotten to the point where I can get the cursor to where I want to go. Maybe if I practice for a few months, I'll be able to get it there faster than I would with normal mousekeys, but for now, it's slower.
  • The default keybindings are nonsensical, at least on an ANSI keyboard. However, this can at least be changed, so not too big of a deal

Final nail: I could deal with these problems if it weren't for one thing: the drag function. The normal workflow of keynav is "move the crosshairs to where you want the cursor to go, warp it to there, click". The need for the second step confused me, until I thought about the drag function. "Oh, ok, it's so that I can have the cursor in one place and the crosshair in another and push a button to drag between them, right?

Except, no. Unlike mouseclicks, which occur at the cursor position, dragging starts at the crosshair position. And it ends at the crosshair position. "Ok, no problem, I'll move the crosshair to the point where I want the drag to start, then hit the button to reset the crosshair and move it to where I want the drag to end." There's no button to reset the crosshair. This feature is unusable.

Accessibility Panel


  • There seems to be a bug where I need to disable and re-enable the feature every time I plug in my keyboard, or it won't work. I managed to figure out how to do this entirely through keyboard shortcuts, but it's not something that should be happening.
  • To make a mouse click, you press /,*, or - to select which kind of click you want, then hit 5 to make the click. What's point of having this be two steps? Why not just have the selector keys make the click, and 5 could be a 'repeat last click' if anyone really needs that feature?

Final nail: This program requires a working numpad. I can find no mention of any way to rebind the keys. That makes this program unusable for anyone without a full keyboard. I'm hoping that AutoHotKeys will present a solution, haven't gotten around to trying it, but an accessibility feature should not need this many workarounds.


I adopted an unusual workflow by choice. I feel sorry for the people who depend on these programs to function. So someone please develop better solutions, or increase the visiblity of any that already exist. Thanks for listening, and sorry if my frustration showed.