Ubuntu – How to use the phone or tablet as mousepad

iphonemousenexus-7remote

I just set up my Ubuntu desktop to use our living room TV as a monitor, and I would like to be able to use either my iPhone or Nexus 7 tablet as a mousepad/keyboard for controlling it from the couch. With Mac/Windows there were plenty of apps that did this, what do I need to do this using Ubuntu? And just to be clear I am NOT looking for a Remote Desktop on my phone/tablet, I want to use them as a mouse and keyboard. Thanks!

Best Answer

I use remotedroid. You just need to install the client on your tablet, and then connect to the local IP of your running server. It sends mouse movements, left and right click and typing. The server doesn't even need installation, is a simple .jar archive. To run it:

java -jar /path/to/RemoteDroidServer.jar

Here you can download the server (the client is in the market):

http://www.remotedroid.net/

Related Solutions

Ubuntu – How to a gamepad control THE mouse

Following Grumbel's answer, I tried *xboxdrv solution with the support of this website and especially this page:

Install xboxdrv 0.8.2 from Ubuntu Software Center.

Install also uinput and joydev if needed. I did it this way:
```
sudo modprobe uinput
sudo modprobe joydev
```

Need to know the event of the gamepad:

Launch udevadm monitor --udev and then plug the game pad:

$ udevadm monitor --udev
monitor will print the received events for:
UDEV - the event which udev sends out after rule processing

UDEV  [6722.377700] add      /devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:1d.3/usb5/5-1 (usb)
UDEV  [6722.383264] add      /devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:1d.3/usb5/5-1/5-1:1.0 (usb)
UDEV  [6722.383333] add      /devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:1d.3/usb5/5-1/5-1:1.0/0003:046D:C218.0003 (hid)
UDEV  [6722.383389] add      /devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:1d.3/usb5/5-1/5-1:1.0/0003:046D:C218.0003/hidraw/hidraw1 (hidraw)
UDEV  [6722.387123] add      /devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:1d.3/usb5/5-1/5-1:1.0/input/input10 (input)
UDEV  [6722.399284] add      /devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:1d.3/usb5/5-1/5-1:1.0/input/input10/event8 (input)
UDEV  [6722.412128] add      /devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:1d.3/usb5/5-1/5-1:1.0/input/input10/js0 (input)

I conclude that my gamepad's event is /dev/input/event8

Display names of every key, axis, button of the gamepad.

The idea is to launch xboxdrv and test every button and note the result on paper.

$ sudo xboxdrv --evdev /dev/input/event8 --evdev-debug
Your Xbox/Xbox360 controller should now be available as:
/dev/input/js1
/dev/input/event9
Press Ctrl-c to quit, use '--silent' to suppress the event output
EV_ABS ABS_X 128
EV_ABS ABS_Y 128
...

In my case the result is:

Set the config file

Create an xboxdrv-mouse.ini file to set X Y axis and left and right mouse button.

Here I set gamepad buttons 2 for left mouse button and 3 for right mouse button:

[xboxdrv]
evdev=/dev/input/event8
silent=true

[evdev-absmap]
ABS_X=x1
ABS_Y=y1

[ui-axismap]
x1=REL_X:10
y1=REL_Y:-10

[evdev-keymap]
BTN_THUMB=a
BTN_THUMB2=b

[ui-buttonmap]
a=BTN_LEFT
b=BTN_RIGHT

# EOF #

Note that value for REl_X and REL_Y seems to define the speed of the mouse, and by defining a negative value it inverts the axis (see here for REL_Y)

Another example with more button definition

[xboxdrv]
evdev=/dev/input/event8
silent=true

[evdev-absmap]
ABS_X=x1
ABS_Y=y1
ABS_HAT0X=x2
ABS_HAT0Y=y2

[ui-axismap]
x1=REL_X:10
y1=REL_Y:-10
x2=KEY_LEFT:KEY_RIGHT
y2=KEY_DOWN:KEY_UP

[evdev-keymap]
BTN_TRIGGER=x
BTN_TOP=y
BTN_THUMB=a
BTN_THUMB2=b
BTN_PINKIE=rt
BTN_BASE2=rb
BTN_TOP2=lt
BTN_BASE=lb
BTN_BASE3=back
BTN_BASE4=start

[ui-buttonmap]
x=KEY_KPENTER
y=KEY_SPACE
a=BTN_LEFT
b=BTN_RIGHT
rt=KEY_KP8
rb=KEY_KP2
lt=KEY_KP6
lb=KEY_KP4
back=KEY_LEFTSHIFT
start=KEY_RIGHTCTRL

# EOF #

Launch it
```
sudo xboxdrv --config xboxdrv-mouse.ini
```
To avoid launching it with sudo, create a udev rule.

CONCLUSION

It works fine, it's the best solution for me.

Ubuntu – How to configure a Logitech M705 to use stepless scrolling

This is currently the best solution I found, although I think at this time, its smooth scrolling feature is not yet useable. In future, native, driver-based solutions have to be made to support mice and touchpads which support smooth scrolling. Especially on a desktop system like Ubuntu.

Solaar

There is an application called Solaar which offers many possibilities to unifying-devices from Logitech, like battery status, pairing options (awesome!) and smooth scrolling. Unfortunately, smooth scrolling does not work that great; it does not scroll as smoothly as on OS X, and it only scrolls the last active window, not the mouse-overed window (tested on 13.04). But it's in every way a useful application and its smooth scrolling feature is something I hope gets improved with future updates.

Homepage: http://pwr.github.io/Solaar/

Installation

Open a Terminal via the Unity dash or CTRL+ALT+T and paste in the following lines:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:daniel.pavel/solaar
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install solaar

Usage

Start Solaar via the Unity dash, for example.
If you see a popup recommending to replug the unifying-receiver, do it.
There should appear a tray icon looking like a battery. If you open it and click on a device, you'll see information about your devices.
On the right of the entry for your mouse should be a settings icon. Click it and a "smooth scrolling" option should appear.
Try it, it's easy to disable again in case it does not work for you.
If you experience problems like the horizontal scrolling does not work, try replugging the receiver again.