How to stop Xorg's mousekeys from timing out?

Oakems · 05-09-2009, 09:23 AM

Hi all, I'm using Puppy 4.2 Deeperthought and I'm trying to get Xorg's mousekeys to stop timing out (I have no mouse so this would be handy). I think I have the right file to edit, its conveniently named 'mousekeys' but I'm not sure which syntax to use and there's no mention inside the file of time-out or how long its been set to.

I'm getting a bit confused about the information I'm finding. It seems mousekeys is also a feature of XFree86 and AccessX, I thought these were part of Xorg, but they're talked about like they're not. At the top of the mousekeys file in Puppy it mentions Xorg so I'm guessing Puppy uses this, but Puppy also has XFree86 and AccessX in the same folder (I've looked inside both nothing about time out), and I can't find any information on editing Xorg's mousekeys. I'm guessing I'd have to add the option, but I'm not 100% where or how.

Any help appreciated.

David the H. · 05-09-2009, 02:48 PM

I did a search of apt and found the package xkbset. The description includes this:

Quote:

Description: Small utility to change the AccessX settings of XKEYBOARD

AccessX is a set of features within the XKEYBOARD extension of the
X Window System designed to make X more accessible to users with
disabilities. XKEYBOARD is present in X11R6.1 and later. AccessX features
are typically unknown, given that in many implementations no interface
is provided to utilize their functionality.

It goes on to list the various functions acessX has, including mousekeys, slowkeys, stickykeys, etc. So yes, it's a part of the X window system. FYI, XFREE86 was the version of X that most distros used for many years, but the project has since been forked due to licensing changes (among other factors) and Xorg has taken over as the standard version. Almost nobody uses xfree86 anymore except for legacy systems. But both should include accessX.

Not sure if xkbset will help you, but if you haven't tried it already, you might give it a shot. (xkbset homepage)

You can read more about the history and structure of the X Window System on Wikipedia.

Oakems · 05-10-2009, 03:34 PM

Thanks for the reply, xkbset sounds really good. I've given up trying to edit mousekeys manually, I can't find the right information.

I downloaded xkbset, but it didn't include any installation instructions. So I typed 'make' and it created some more files, I got no error messages so I'm guessing all went well. The problem is I'm not sure how to use it, it has a GUI but I can't get it to work, I've typed xkbset-gui in a terminal and I get "command not found." I've clicked on it and nothing happens. I've read the man page which I don't understand and it has no mention of the GUI or how to use it. I'm thinking maybe it has some missing dependencies but I'm not sure, is there a way to find out? There's nothing on that site or anywhere I've looked on how to use this.