When I was looking at the ZSA's customizable keyboard: Plank EZ page - mouse emulation the keyboard on the firmware (hardware level), I was inspired. Maybe it's possible to emulate the mouse on the keyboard on the software level?
The way 1: xbindkeys and xdotool: failed
First, what I tried is the way to use the xbindkeys and xdotool.
On Fedora, the installation is like this.
$ sudo dnf install xbindkeys $ sudo dnf install xdotool
Especially if you want to see the key symbols used in the the xbindkeys, and see the head files /usr/include/X11/keysym.h and /usr/include/X11/keysymdef.h, you can also to install the following RPM package too.
$ sudo dnf install xorg-x11-proto-devel
However the following setting doesn't work. I don't know why. Perhaps the xbindkeys process doesn't run? Also having to logout and login the window manager to update the config is inconvenient.
.xbindkeysrc
$ cat ~/.xbindkeysrc # https://askubuntu.com/questions/455762/xbindkeys-wont-work-properly # Install xbindkeys and xdotool. # Left click. # "xset r off; xdotool click --clearmodifiers 1; xset r on" # "sleep 0.2 & xdotool click --delay 15 1" "xdotool click 1" Alt + n # Right click. "xdotool click 3" Alt + m # Direction: down "xdotool mousemove_relative 0 -1" Alt + j # Direction: up "xdotool mousemove_relative 0 1" Alt + k
Updated: I need to run xbindkeys command as a deamon process. See this document. To reload the change on real time, run xbindkeys --poll-rc. To make the change permanent, set xbindkeys in xprofile or xinitrc file.
The way 2: .config/i3/config and xdotool: ok
The 2nd way is to use the i3 config's keymapping. It's also convenient to update the config by super+shift+r. So, here is the config.
First I set the $mod2 as Alt keys.
.config/i3/config
# Assign modifier keys. # $ xmodmap -pm # Mod4: Super set $mod Mod4 # Mod1: Alt set $mod2 Mod1
Now here is the remaining part of the config. Mouse click: left, right, mouse direction: up, down, left, right, diagonal, mouse drag & drop are available by this config. One thing I couldn't do is the drag & drop works with the real mouse, trackpad, trackpoint, but doesn't work with the mouse directions emulation on the keyboard.
# Mouse emulation # click: left, right. direction: up, down, left, right # ttps://www.reddit.com/r/i3wm/comments/ltjoaa/tip_mouse_emulation_using_hjkl/ # click: left bindsym $mod2+f exec "xdotool click 1" # click: drag & drop. # https://askubuntu.com/questions/725701/is-there-a-way-to-mimic-click-and-drag-using-the-keyboard bindsym $mod2+s exec "xdotool mousedown 1" bindsym $mod2+d exec "xdotool mouseup 1" # click: right bindsym $mod2+g exec "xdotool click 3" # diretion: up, down, left, right, diagonal # The diagonal follows the nethack's one. # https://nethackwiki.com/wiki/Direction bindsym $mod2+k exec "xdotool mousemove_relative -- 0 -30" bindsym $mod2+j exec "xdotool mousemove_relative -- 0 30" bindsym $mod2+h exec "xdotool mousemove_relative -- -30 0" bindsym $mod2+l exec "xdotool mousemove_relative -- 30 0" bindsym $mod2+y exec "xdotool mousemove_relative -- -30 -30" bindsym $mod2+u exec "xdotool mousemove_relative -- 30 -30" bindsym $mod2+b exec "xdotool mousemove_relative -- -30 30" bindsym $mod2+n exec "xdotool mousemove_relative -- 30 30" # direction: up, down, left, right, diagonal - bigger steps bindsym $mod2+shift+k exec "xdotool mousemove_relative -- 0 -100" bindsym $mod2+shift+j exec "xdotool mousemove_relative -- 0 100" bindsym $mod2+shift+h exec "xdotool mousemove_relative -- -100 0" bindsym $mod2+shift+l exec "xdotool mousemove_relative -- 100 0" bindsym $mod2+shift+y exec "xdotool mousemove_relative -- -100 -100" bindsym $mod2+shift+u exec "xdotool mousemove_relative -- 100 -100" bindsym $mod2+shift+b exec "xdotool mousemove_relative -- -100 100" bindsym $mod2+shift+n exec "xdotool mousemove_relative -- 100 100" # direction: up down left right, diagonal - smaller steps bindsym $mod2+ctrl+k exec "xdotool mousemove_relative -- 0 -2" bindsym $mod2+ctrl+j exec "xdotool mousemove_relative -- 0 2" bindsym $mod2+ctrl+h exec "xdotool mousemove_relative -- -2 0" bindsym $mod2+ctrl+l exec "xdotool mousemove_relative -- 2 0" bindsym $mod2+ctrl+y exec "xdotool mousemove_relative -- -2 -2" bindsym $mod2+ctrl+u exec "xdotool mousemove_relative -- 2 -2" bindsym $mod2+ctrl+b exec "xdotool mousemove_relative -- -2 2" bindsym $mod2+ctrl+n exec "xdotool mousemove_relative -- 2 2"
