[SOLVED] Using Keyboard key as Mouse Button (in this order)

kopatops · 05-07-2010, 06:35 AM

Hi,

*The Why:*
The mouse buttons on my machine are frustratingly loud, unreliable and hard to press down. (the touchpad thingy that *moves* the mouse works great though)

*The What*
I would like to map a certain (unused) keyboard key I have, to do the job that the left mouse button does (i.e. the opposite of what tons of mouse-keyboard mapping programs do).

I'm open for suggestions on how to accomplish this, but I would prefer using xmodmap, possibly in conjunction with xdotool. Thus, I need someway to map events as follows: (button1=leftmouse; keycode123=keyboard key alternative)

KeyPress 123 ---> ButtonPress Button 1
Keyrelease 123 ---> ButtonRelease Button 1

Compiz is also a great way to map stuff to xdotool commands, but it doesn't handle separate KeyDown/KeyUp event.

Would really like some suggestions from the community! tnx!

sploot · 05-09-2010, 10:36 AM

Have you looked into xmodmap? It allows you to remap keys, I dont know if it will allow you to use your mouse buttons though.

MTK358 · 05-09-2010, 11:20 AM

Why not get a new mouse?

Or are you talking about a built-in laptop touchpad?

SaintDanBert · 05-09-2010, 12:10 PM

Along these same lines, is there a unversal list of scancodes and keycodes and X11 friends (like the ASCII and UNICODE lists) that all vendors are supposed to respect?

What is the best way to get a list of all of these codes that are in current, active use on my computer?

~~~ 0;-Dan

sploot · 05-09-2010, 12:21 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by SaintDanBert

Along these same lines, is there a unversal list of scancodes and keycodes and X11 friends (like the ASCII and UNICODE lists) that all vendors are supposed to respect?

What is the best way to get a list of all of these codes that are in current, active use on my computer?

~~~ 0;-Dan

To find particular keycodes, use

Code:

xev

If you want to know which codes to use for special buttons, look at [code]/usr/share/X11/SKeysymDB[code] To see which codes are currently mapped to what on your machine, look at xmodmap and the keymap you have installed.

kopatops · 05-09-2010, 01:10 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by sploot

Have you looked into xmodmap? It allows you to remap keys, I dont know if it will allow you to use your mouse buttons though.

Yup, I use xmodmap for other stuff. Not sure about press/release events though.

I found this cool daemon:
actkbd

It might just be the solution. I'll post back if I accomplish anything with this.

kopatops · 05-09-2010, 01:12 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by MTK358

Why not get a new mouse?

Or are you talking about a built-in laptop touchpad?

Yes, I'm talking about the touchpad buttons. Forgot to mention that.

kopatops · 05-09-2010, 05:09 PM

Yes, actkbd solved it for me.
A how-to that may help:

1) Disable (as far as X is concerned) key 123 with xmodmap

Code:

xmodmap -e 123 ""

#(rough description)

This is probably not necessary if you figure out how to "grab" the event with actkbd. I did not. If the key is mapped to any symbol by X (in my case the 'section' symbol, what on earth?!) and it is not grabbed, then it will still produce that symbol as well as the mouse event. This is not desireable.

2) Map 123 keypress/keyrelease to xdotool mousedown/mouseup

Code:

#File /etc/actkbd.conf

<keycode ("123")> :key : :xdotool mousedown 1
<keycode ("123")> :rel : :xdotool mouseup 1

# NOTE!! <keycode ("123")> is not the keycode reported by xev. You may find the code to use with actkbd by running
# sudo actkbd -s
# and press the physical key on you keyboard.

#NOTE!! LOL
#Also I found that the daemon stole my keyboard interface sometimes, making it impossible to communicate with the #machine, including killing the daemon. It helped a lot to run a watchdog script to 'killall actkbd' after a 20 second #timeout, until everyting is set up ok. But those who know how to use this daemon correctly probably don't need to bother with this

3) Start actkbd daemon

Code:

sudo actkbd -D

Key 123 now behaves exactly as left mouse button (although a lot more accessible, quiet and easy to press!)
Success!

EDIT: This is a very ugly how-to. If I can help with anything, please let me know.