Swinput can fake mouse and keyboard input using the Linux Input System.
The swinput modules read from a device and fake hardware events (mouse motions, keyboard input, etc). Swinput presents status on the proc filesystem. As of May 2006 only kernel 2.6 is supported.
1 Building and installing
tar zxvf swinput-0.5.tar.gz
make
make install (as root)
If you are using devfs you are finished with building and installation. Otherwise you have to create the devices manually;
mknod /dev/swmouse c 10 $(grep swmouse /proc/misc | awk '{print $1}') mknod /dev/swkeybd c 10 $(grep swkeybd /proc/misc | awk '{print $1}')
2 Mouse Usage
By writing to /dev/swmouse you can fake 'mouse input'. The following syntax is used
Option Interpretation
u nr Moves the mouse up <nr> pixels d nr Moves the mouse down <nr> pixels l nr Moves the mouse left <nr> pixels r nr Moves the mouse right <nr> pixels x nr Moves the mouse to x position=<nr> (untested) y nr Moves the mouse to y position=<nr> (untested)
3 Keyboard Usage
By writing to /dev/swkeybd you can fake 'keyboard input'. The following syntax is used
Option Interpretation --------- --------------------------------- str The string 'str' is typed by the faked keyboard [Fx] The key Fx (e.g F2) is pressed. x can be 1-20 [KEY_BACKSPACE] Backspace is typed [KEY_ENTER] Enter is typed [KEY_SPACE] Space is typed [KEY_COMMA] , is typed [KEY_DOT] . is typed [KEY_LEFT] Left (arrow) key is typed [KEY_RIGHT] Right (arrow) key is typed [KEY_DOWN] Down (arrow) key is typed [KEY_UP] Up (arrow) key is typed
4 Usage staticstics
In the proc tree (/proc) you'll find usage statistics.
4.1 swmouse usage statistics
If you read /proc/swmouse (e.g. by typing cat /proc/swmouse) you get the following information:
swmouse:u:d:l:r:x:y
- where
- u means the number of pixels we've moved up so far d means the number of pixels we've moved down so far l means the number of pixels we've moved left so far r means the number of pixels we've moved right so far x means the number of times we've moved to a fix x position y means the number of times we've moved to a fix y position
You can zero the statistics counters by writing zero to the proc file (e.g echo "0" > /dev/swmouse)
4.2 swkeybd usage statistics
If you read /proc/swkeybd (e.g. by typing cat /proc/swkeybd) you get the following information:
swkeybd:p:r:s_p:s_r
- where
- p means the number of key presses so far r means the number of key releases so far s_p means the number of shift key presses so far s_r means the number of shift key releases so far
You can set the statistics counters to zero by writing zero to the proc file (e.g echo "0" > /dev/swkeybd)
5 Examples
echo "u 10" > /dev/swmouse
Moves the pointer up 10 pixels
echo "d 123" > /dev/swmouse
Moves the pointer down 123 pixels
echo "ls -l [ENTER]" > /dev/swkeybd
Types 'ls -l' followed by enter
.. so you should see a file/dir listing if you have as your focus a terminal emulator or a console.