Linux - NewbieThis Linux forum is for members that are new to Linux.
Just starting out and have a question?
If it is not in the man pages or the how-to's this is the place!
Notices
Welcome to LinuxQuestions.org, a friendly and active Linux Community.
You are currently viewing LQ as a guest. By joining our community you will have the ability to post topics, receive our newsletter, use the advanced search, subscribe to threads and access many other special features. Registration is quick, simple and absolutely free. Join our community today!
Note that registered members see fewer ads, and ContentLink is completely disabled once you log in.
If you have any problems with the registration process or your account login, please contact us. If you need to reset your password, click here.
Having a problem logging in? Please visit this page to clear all LQ-related cookies.
Get a virtual cloud desktop with the Linux distro that you want in less than five minutes with Shells! With over 10 pre-installed distros to choose from, the worry-free installation life is here! Whether you are a digital nomad or just looking for flexibility, Shells can put your Linux machine on the device that you want to use.
Exclusive for LQ members, get up to 45% off per month. Click here for more info.
I have a centos 6 desktop machine that is playing a video in firefox. If I tap the keyboard space bar while it's playing I can pause and continue the video at will. The video will also pause and continue with a mouse click if the pointer is on the image.
However I need to simulate this key tap from another machine using a command in an ssh terminal. Is it possible to control the video this way from another machine?
I've tried xdotool but I can't get it to work, it doesn't do anything via an ssh console, maybe I'm doing something wrong but I can't get any support on it.
Is there any other method whereby I could send keystroke commands to the machine playing the video and thereby control the playback of the video? thanks for any help.
no, it's not specifically firefox I want to control. I could play a video in vlc, or in mplayer, or in another browser so it's a global kind of control I need.
so you don't want to just control firefox, but to control your whole xsession? If so I guess you need some sort of remote desktop. However this would be rather clunky. Perhaps if you could give the bigger picture about what you are trying to achieve someone might be able to suggest an alternative approach.
evo2 thankyou for that tip, export DISPLAY=:0.0 did the trick and now xdotool is typing things into a terminal window over remote ssh. I'm still a fumbling newbie with it but at least I have some action now.
LinuxQuestions.org is looking for people interested in writing
Editorials, Articles, Reviews, and more. If you'd like to contribute
content, let us know.