IMWheel(1)IMWheel(1)NAMEimwheel - a mouse wheel and stick interpreter for X Windows
SYNOPSISimwheel [ options ]
DESCRIPTION
IMWheel is a universal mouse wheel and mouse stick translator for the X
Windows System. Using either a special version of gpm and it's
/dev/gpmwheel FIFO, or the support for a ZAxis on the mouse built into
some servers, such as XFree86. Utilizing the input from gpm or X Win‐
dows, imwheel translates mouse wheel and mouse stick actions into key‐
board events using the XTest extension to X. Use xdpyinfo for informa‐
tion on the supported extensions in your X server.
COMMAND LINE OPTIONS
Available command line options are as follows:
-4, --flip-buttons
Flips the mouse buttons so that 4 is 5 and 5 is 4, reversing the
Up and Down actions. This would make 4 buttons somewhat useful!
This is the similar to using "-b 54678", see the -b option. See
also xmodmap(1).
-b, --buttons button-spec
Remap buttons in button-spec to interpreted wheel/thumb input.
Also limits the button grab to the specified buttons when using
the ZAxis method. (see "X WINDOWS ZAXIS METHOD" below) the but‐
ton-spec may specify any of up to five buttons. the button-spec
is decoded in the following order for wheel input:
Index Interpreted As Button Number
1 Wheel Up 4
2 Wheel Down 5
3 Wheel Left 6
4 Wheel Right 7
5 Thumb Button 1 8
6 Thumb Button 2 9
A button-spec of "45" will limit the grabbed buttons for only
wheel up and down.
A button-spec of "67" may be useful to use actual buttons 6 and
7 as wheel up and down, and limit the grab to only those two
buttons.
A button-spec of "0" turns off any defined mapping, thus allow‐
ing for skips in the button-spec for something that doesn't
exist on your mouse.
A button-spec of "45006" may be for normal wheel up/down and a
thumb button 1, but no horizontal wheel axis.
The default button-spec is "456789".
See also xmodmap(1).
-c, --config
Popup to configuration helper window imediately.
See also CONFIGURATION HELPER
-D, --debug
Show all possible debug info while running. This spits out alot
and I also suggest using the -d option to prevent imwheel from
detaching from the controlling terminal.
-d, --detach
Actually this does the opposite of it's name, it prevents
detachment from the controlling terminal. (no daemon...) Con‐
trol-C stops, etc...
-f, --focus
Forces the X event subwindow to be used instead of the original
hack that would replace the subwindow in the X event with a
probed focus query (XGetInputFocus). This should fix some com‐
patability problems with some window managers, such as window
maker, and perhaps enlightenment. If nothing seems to be work‐
ing right, try toggling this on or off...
-g, --focus-events
Disable the use of focus events for button grabs. If your
@Excluded windows are not regrabbing the mouse buttons when
exited, try toggling this on or off...
-h, --help
Short help on options plus version/author info.
-k, --kill
Attempts to kill old imwheel (useful only for --wheel-fifo
method.) Pidfile must be created for this to work (no -p or
--pid option on the previous imwheel invocation). Process IDs
are tested using /proc/${pid}/status Name: field ?= imwheel. If
/proc is not mounted then this fails everytime! Otherwise, this
ensures that the wrong process is not killed.
-p, --pid
Don't write a pid file for gpmwheel FIFO method. This is the
only method that uses the pid file. XGrab doesn't need it, so
it just issues a warning about starting multiple imwheels on the
same display. Some people really prefer this, especially when
they are not using a SUID root imwheel executable.
-q, --quit
Quit imwheel before entering event loop. Usful in killing an
imwheel running in gpmwheel FIFO mode after exiting XWindows, if
you're using pid files that is.
Example: `imwheel -k -q' = kill and quit (option order doesn't
matter)
-s, --sensitivity sum-min
(Stick mice, Wheel FIFO method only)
like -t only this sets a minimum total amount of movment of the
stick or marble, before any action is taken. This works good
with the Marble type devices. This should be a multiple of the
threshhold as given by the -t option. The default is 0, meaning
that there is no sensitivity testing, all input spawns an event.
See the -t option also. (see "STICK SENSITIVITY SETTINGS"
below)
-t, --threshhold minimum-pressure
Used with gpm only and then only with recognized stick mice.
stick mice send a pressure value ranging from 0(no pressure) to
7(hard push). This sets the minimum required pressure for input
to be registered. Setting it to zero will cause realtime stick‐
ing, which is usually too much action for X to keep up. (max
rate i saw was 100 events a second!). Once input is registered,
it is summed up per axis, and then it must equal or exceed the
sensitivity setting to pass as an input. See the -s option
also, for sensitivity.
The default is 2, to avoid slight presses on the 90-degree
direction of the intended while still getting to the intended
direction. Setting this to 7 is insane, because it requires the
user to push as hard as possible everytime they want something
to happen! However it may not be so insane for people using
trackballs for input, as they may spin much faster per sample...
(see "STICK SENSITIVITY SETTINGS" below)
-W, --wheel-fifo fifo
Use the gpm/jamd wheel fifo instead of XGrabMouse. See GPM/JAMD
WHEEL FIFO METHOD section. This method allows only one X dis‐
play to be used. This is required for the gpm method to work.
This method only works with the imwheel version of gpm and with
jamd. To find out if you are running the imwheel version of gpm
use the following command and look for "(imwheel)" in the title:
gpm -v
fifo names the named pipe (FIFO) created by gpm. It defaults to
"/dev/gpmwheel" (for --wheel-fifo only). The FIFO must exist
before running imwheel in this mode. using jamd requires you to
name the correct fifo because it doesn't use /dev/gpmwheel, but
rather one of the /dev/jam_imwheel:0.0 named fifos created by
jamd's imwheel module.
@Exclude commands in the rc file are unused in this mode.
-X, --display display
Use XServer at a specified display in standard X form. Using
this option is usful for multiple displays in the X Window ZAxis
Method.
-x, --transpose
This swaps the X and Y axis of movement for stick input from a
wheel-fifo.
X WINDOWS ZAXIS METHOD
This method is the only method that works with multiple X displays,
using multiple imwheels. Use multiple imwheels by either setting the
DISPLAY environment variable before running each imwheel, or use the -X
or --display options to specify a different display for each imwheel.
Running multiple imwheels on the same display is not recommended, but
is allowed, and may cause strange things to happen while using the
stick or wheel.
Edit the XF86Config and add/edit the following lines in the
"Pointer"(XFree86 3.3) or "InputDevice"(XFree86 4.x) section:
1 axis (vertical wheel):
(XFree86 3.3)
Buttons 5
ZAxisMapping 4 5
(XFree86 4.x)
Option "Buttons" "5"
Option "ZAxisMapping" "4 5"
2 axis (1 stick or 2 perpendicular wheels):
(XFree86 3.3)
Buttons 7
ZAxisMapping 4 5 6 7
(XFree86 4.x)
Option "Buttons" "7"
Option "ZAxisMapping" "4 5 6 7"
The Buttons option may be greater than stated above if you have thumb
buttons, or other extras that qualify as buttons.
Make sure your Protocol is set to either "IMPS/2" for a PS/2 mouse or
for serial mice set it to "IntelliMouse" or "Auto". This is for Intel‐
liMouse compatible mice, other protocols may be required for other
mice. Then while running X Windows run imwheel without the --wheel-
fifo or -W options.
NOTE
The @Exclude command must be used for clients that either use the ZAxis
for themselves and have no keyboard translations to cause the same
desired effect. The @Exclude command must also be added for any client
requiring mouse and/or mouse button grabs and that don't specify spe‐
cific buttons to grab. These clients fail when they try to grab the
mouse because the buttons 4 and 5 are already grabbed by imwheel. XV
is an example of a client that requires these types of grabs to suc‐
ceed. KDE clients use the ZAxis for their own purposes. The supplied
imwheelrc included and exclusion for XV already. See the IMWheelRC
section for more information.
Also pid files are not used for this method. Thus the -p and --pid
options have no effect, and are ignored.
GPM/JAMD WHEEL FIFO METHOD
This method is REQUIRED for any X Windows server without wheel mouse
support built in. This method will currently support mice as supported
through gpm or jamd.
In the Pointer section of your XF86Config (or the equivalent configura‐
tion file for your X server) change your mouse Protocol to be "Mous‐
eSystems" (or the equivelant...), also change the Device file that the
mouse is read from to "/dev/gpmdata", then restart X Windows if it is
running. jamd will replicate to /dev/jam_ps2:0.0 or some other devices
as well, make sure to use the right X Mouse protocol in this case, like
the jamd_ps2 device is X mouse protocol PS/2, and the jamd_imps2 device
is X mouse protocol IMPS/2.
Before starting X Windows (re)start gpm with the -W option. Make sure
you are using a supported wheel or stick mouse as stated in the gpm man
page.
After starting X Windows run imwheel as follows adding options as
desired:
for gpm you can use the following option to imwheel--wheel-fifo
jamd requires you specify the fifo name as one of the
/dev/jamd_imwheel:0.0 named fifos. Run
ls -al /dev/jam_imwheel*
to see what is available. In this example I would use
-W /dev/jam_imwheel:0.0
as the option to imwheel.
I usually add the -k option to kill off any old imwheel processes left
over, as imwheel doesn't exit with the server, but rather it will only
die if a wheel or stick action occurs when an X server is not con‐
nected, such as when X is dead or the DISPLAY environment variable is
setup wrong, or the -X or --display variables connected imwheel to a
now defunct X server.
gpm or jamd, and/or imwheel can be restarted at any time, imwheel can
sense when gpm of jamd is not there, and gpm nor jamd doesn't give a
hoot about imwheel being up or not.
NOTE
The @Exclude command has no bearing in this method, it is ignored. No
Focus change events are received in this method. Thus KDE and other
clients that support X based wheel events through the ZAxis are not
going to work except through normal imwheel keypress translation of
wheel and stick actions.
XV will function fine, as will any client that grabs the mouse and/or
mouse buttons. This mode doesn't use any grabs to function.
STICK SENSITIVITY SETTINGS
The -s and -t options specify a sensitivity and threshhold. each move‐
ment of a stick, or trackball, must equal or exceed the threshhold to
be added to the respective axis sum. In other words if you puch the
stick up hard enough to exceed the threshhold then the Y axis sum would
be increased by however much you pressed up.
Next the summed X and Y axis movement is each compared to the sensitiv‐
ity setting. If the sensitivity setting is equalled or exceeded, then
one imwheel event is spawned, thus after pressing up for a bit, the Y
sum exceeds the sensitivity and a wheel up event is interpreted by
imwheel into an action such as a PageUp key.
The sensitivity therefore must be greater than the threshhold for it to
have any bearing on the input. Pseudo code such as the following may
explain:
if(input >= threshhold)
sum = sum + input
if(sum >= sensitivity) {
do an imwheel action
sum = 0
}
IMWHEELRC
IMWheel uses, optionally, two configuration files. One called
/usr/local/etc/imwheelrc, which is used for everybody. The other is
$HOME/.imwheelrc, used only for one user. One is supplied and should
have been installed automatically in /etc/X11/imwheel/ if not also in
the installing users $HOME as well. All whitespace is ignored in the
files except for within the window names' double quotes.
The configuration file consists of window names and event translations
and/or imwheel commands that begin with an `@' (at) symbol. Each win‐
dow name starts a section that is it's configuration. The window names
a priortized as first come first served, so more generic matches should
always occur later in the configuration file.
Comments are started with a pound (#) and extend to the end of the
line.
IMWHEELRC WINDOW SECTION HEADERS
Window name section headers are actually one of four things:
Window Title
Window Class Name
Window Resource Name
(null) which matches "\(null\)" in the imwheelrc
Most of these are probe-able using fvwm2's FvwmIdent module or the con‐
figurator (see the CONFIGURATION HELPER section). Other window man‐
agers may have their own method of identifying windows' attributes.
Each window name is matched as a regex string. Thus any window is
matched using the regex pattern ".*" as a window name. This pattern
should be the last section in your configuration file, or it will over‐
ride the other window configurations in the file for matched
wheel/stick actions.
There is one special header noted as "(null)" which matches windows
that have a null string in the three attributes. This makes it possi‐
ble to assign actions to even Quake3, which has no info for it's win‐
dow. Just make sure that you realize that the keys used should not be
keys that may conflict with other key actions in the game or applica‐
tion you are aiming to make work! The included imwheelrc file has a
"(null)" section included to demonstrate, and it should work with
Quake3.
Each window/class/resource name must be enclosed in double quotes (")
on a line by itself.
Inside each window section is any number of translation definitions or
commands. Each translation definition or command must be on a line by
itself. The window section doesn't have to be terminated, as it is
terminated by either starting another window section or the end of the
configuration file.
IMWHEELRC TRANSLATION DEFINITIONS
Mouse wheel/stick translations each take up a line after a window sec‐
tion has been started. Each argument is seperated by commas(,) white‐
space is ignored. KeySyms are used to specify the keyboard input and
outputs. pipes (|) are used to join multiple keys into one input/out‐
put. The format is as follows:
REQUIRED
The following arguments a required to make a minimum translation defi‐
nition.
Key Modifiers Input
X KeySyms joined by pipes that indicate the required keys
pressed when the mouse action is made in order for this transla‐
tion to be used. Alt, Meta, Control, and Shift keys are typical
modifiers, but are stated slightly different than just `Shift'
but rather `Shift_L' or `Shift_R', differentiating between left
and right shift keys. See the KeySyms section for more.
`None' is a special KeySym used by imwheel, it is used to indi‐
cate no modifiers. A blank entry is also acceptable in this
case, but less descriptive of what is going on! If `None' is
used then there can be no modifiers in use during the wheel
action. If the field is blank then any modifier will match, so
put these last in their window section.
Mouse Action Input
This is the input from the mouse wheel or stick. It is one of
the following and only one:
Up
Down
Left
Right
Thumb
These are self explanatory. If you have trouble use the config‐
urator!
Key Action Output
Out KeySyms are placed here. See KeySyms section for more on
all available KeySyms. Join KeySyms using pipes. Output keys
are pressed in order and released, in reverse order, only after
all have been pressed, likely making them all combined as in
`Control_L|C' which would be a `^C' (control-c) keypress.
OPTIONAL
The following options are optional, but to use one you must fill in all
the preceding arguments.
Output Repetitions
How many times should the Output KeySyms be pressed in a row.
Default is 1.
Delay Before KeyUp Event
How long in microseconds until we release all the Output KeySyms
in one Output Repetition.
Default is 0.
Delay Before Next KeyPress Event
How long in microseconds until we press the next the Output
KeySyms. Ths delay occurs after the Output KeySyms are
released.
Default is 0.
IMWHEELRC COMMANDS
Commands start with the `@' character. Commands are as follows:
@Exclude
Exclude this window from imwheel grabing mouse events. imwheel
will ungrab the mouse when these windows are entered and not
regrab the mouse until focus is changed to a non-excluded win‐
dow. This allows the ZAxis button events to pass through nor‐
mally and mouse grabs to succeed.
XV and KDE clients need this for the X Windows Method.
This command has no effect in the GPM Method. The mouse isn't
grabbed, nor are ZAxis button events created by the server.
@Repeat
Repeat the mouse button to the window. This cause a mouse button
to be generated in the current window. It does not use XSendE‐
vent so the mouse button presses are indistiguishable from the
real thing. This mode is not compatible with the XGrabButtons
method of imwheel, otherwise listed as the ZAxis Method in this
manpage.
Motions are mapped as follows:
Up is button 4
Down is button 5
Left is button 6
Right is button 7
Thumb1 is button 8
Thumb2 is button 9
@Priority=priority
Using this is allowed in each window/class/resource section.
Higher priority values take precedence over lower ones. Equal
priorities on sections make the imwheelrc file parsed from top
to bottom to find the first match. Thus @Priority can be used
to make the file search for matches out of order, then you dont
have to keep the entries in order if you so please. the sup‐
plied imwheelrc file contains extensive comments and examples of
the @Priority function.
The default priority for any new section is 0. The last @Prior‐
ity command in a section overrides all previous priorities for
that section. Thus each section has only one priority setting
in the end. Priorities are kept as an int, thus range from
INT_MAX to INT_MIN. (see /usr/include/limits.h for these values
on your system)
CONFIGURATION HELPER
IMWheel contains a semi-hidden configuration helper which can be
brought up by rolling/sticking up and down a few times in the root win‐
dow of the X server. Inside this window you can find out possible win‐
dow names to use in your imwheelrc file. Press on the mini-screen cap‐
ture to grab another window, including the root window (whole screen).
Mouse wheel and stick actions can be grabbed along with active modifier
keys on the keyboard. The mouse wheel/stick action is displayed and
the X KeySyms are displayed beneath it. All this information can be
directly entered into an imwheelrc as desired.
IMWheel can be restarted to read in a changed imwheelrc file or the
configurator can be canceled causing imwheel to resume oprations with‐
out reading the configuration file. To restart imwheel execs itself as
called by the user in the first place but adding the -R option to indi‐
cate to itself that this is a restarted imwheel. The -R is not for use
by the user, as it bypasses some configuration of imwheel.
KEYSYMS
The program expects combinations of keysyms to be used by using pipe(|)
characters to combine them together.
Example:
Alt_R|Shift_R
Means right alt and right shift together, not just either one or
the other! And not one after the other, they are both pressed
at the same time essentially.
For FIFO users, it is possible to send a real mouse button event, using
the special Button# syntax. An imwheelrc keysym of Button1 would send
a real Mouse button 1 (left mouse button) event. Mouse4 is what you'd
want for a MouseWheelUp type event. Mouse5 is what you want to Mouse‐
WheelDown event. Many applications will understand the meaning of
mouse button 4 and 5, but most don't go beyond that. So Mouse6 and
greater have no "standardized" meaning. The Button# syntax can be com‐
bined with regular keysyms, to send keys and mouse buttons at the same
time.
Example:
Shift_L|Button4
- meaning left shift and wheel up.
Button5
- meaning wheel down.
Other button to imwheel meaniful references:
KeySym IMWheel Input Real Mouse
-----------------------------
Button1 (none) Left Mouse Button
Button2 (none) Middle Mouse Button
Button3 (none) Right Mouse Button
Button4 Up Mouse Wheel Up
Button5 Down Mouse Wheel Down
Button6 Left Mouse Wheel Left
Button7 Right Mouse Wheel Right
Button8 Thumb1 Side Mouse Button 1 (left/up)
Button9 Thumb2 Side Mouse Button 2 (right/down)
Common Modifier Keysym names used in X:
Shift_L Shift_R
Control_L Control_R
Alt_L Alt_R
These are probably not currently assigned any keys, unless you xmodmap
them in:
Meta_L Meta_R (Actually, Sun keyboards have this...)
Super_L Super_R
Hyper_L Hyper_R
And here's some that you may use, and they are somewhere on your key‐
board:Here's where they were on my keyboard, again, this is not univer‐
sal. Use the xev program to test your own keys on your keyboard!
Caps_Lock = The Caps Lock key!
(This still turns on and off caps lock!)
Num_Lock = The Num Lock key!
(This is not good to use...
for the same reasons as Caps_Lock)
Multi_key = The Scroll Lock key!
(Go figure!)
Mode_switch = Right Alt...for me anyways.
(This mean I cannot use Alt_R)
The windows keys may not be assigned any KeySyms, but they will have
numbers. xmodmap can be used to assign them to a real KeySym.
To find keysym names for any keys available see the
/usr/include/X11/keysymdef.h file, and for any define in that file
remove the "XK_" for the usable KeySym name in the configuration file.
The path to this file may differ for you.
Remember, there's always the configurator. And xev will also help here
too!
WHEEL OR STICK AS MIDDLE BUTTON IN X
Configure the XF86Config without "Emulate3Buttons" and increase "But‐
tons" if it is 2 in the Ponter or InputDevice section. The wheel or
stick will act as a real middle button and the outer two buttons will
act as separate buttons (1 and 3), even when pressed together.
Of course if your wheel keeps clicking middle button while you're try‐
ing to use the wheel you may want to activate the Emulate3Buttons
option to disable the wheel button! And donn't forget to reduce the
Buttons argument to 2!
LEFTY BUTTON MAPPING IN X WINDOWS
For those of you lefties out there using method #1, the non-gpm method
this command may help you get the buttons set up correctly in XWindows
for both left handed and imwheel use.
xmodmap -e "pointer = 3 2 1 4 5"
or
xmodmap -e "pointer = 3 2 1 4 5 6 7"
etc...
xmodmap -e "pointer = 3 2 1 4 5 6 7 8 9"
NOTE: most of these are NOT going to work, because of all the limits in X.
add more numbers to the end of this line if you have more buttons!
BUGS
Of course...but most of the time it's just that you haven't read every‐
thing I've written here and in the files of the distribution itself.
Even then, you may be giving up too easily. Keep trying, it's not that
hard. I am always working on reducing strange behavior. This is still
a beta, as indicated by the leading 0 in the version number.
Real Bugs
imwheel doesn't get along with itself on the same X display or using
the same gpmwheel FIFO. - This will always be your fault :-/
Stick mice are still a pain in the butt to use. - This is the manufac‐
turer's fault. Or X Windows fault, for not having a method to easily
use such devices in all applications.
Keyboard focus isn't changed automatically to input keys into Window
mouse is over. This only occurs with Click-to-Focus type focus manag‐
ment in window managers. I use sloppy focus in fvwm2, which always
works for me. - Whose fault is this? (Switch focus modes and/or window
managers, or try the -f option on imwheel)
Configuration file is not validated for correctness nicely...although
it does get preparsed before the main program starts, thus stopping you
before you run with an invalid configuration file. I just have never
made a bad configuration file, so I guess I'll have to try and do that
to see what happens. Just don't make any mistakes and you'll be fine.
- This is my fault?! ;)
HOMEPAGE
http://jonatkins.org/imwheel
AUTHOR
Jonathan Atkins <jcatki@jonatkins.org>
FILES
$HOME/.imwheelrc
The users configuration file.
/usr/local/etc/imwheelrc
The global location for the configuration
file, it is always loaded. Overided by
the users configuration file.
/dev/gpmwheel
The default wheel FIFO from gpm, if used.
/dev/jam_imwheel:0.0 (or other numbers...)
A wheel FIFO from jamd, if used, must be specified.
jamd allows more than on FIFO, and thus allows more than
one instance of imwheel to be running on the same computer
when running imwheel on multiple displays
using the Wheel FIFO method.
/tmp/imwheel.pid
The public area for imwheel's pid file.
/var/run/imwheel.pid
The private area for imwheel's pid file.
SEE ALSOjamd(1)
Jon Atkins Mouse - a replacement/augmentation for/to gpm.
xwheel(1x)
The new replacement for imwheel. Uses jamd instead of gpm or ZAxis.
(may not be available yet)
xdpyinfo(1x)
X Display information, including extensions.
gpm(8)
General Purpose Mouse, imwheel edition required.
FvwmIdent(1x)
FVWM2's Identify module, for probing windows.
regex(7)
POSIX 1003.2 Regular Expressions.
xmodmap(1x)
Utility for modifying keymap & button mappings in X.
xev(1x)
Print contents of X events.
/usr/include/X11/keysymdef.h
X11 KeySym definitions.
/usr/include/limits.h
INT_MIN and INT_MAX definitions.
3rd Berkeley Distribution September 8 2002IMWheel(1)
