Handling weird input devices

[Giles Orr]

2009/1/31 Colin McGregor <colin.mc151-Re5JQEeQqe8AvxtiuMwx3w at public.gmane.org>:
> On 1/31/09, Giles Orr <gilesorr-Re5JQEeQqe8AvxtiuMwx3w at public.gmane.org> wrote:
>> The short version: I bought a Contour Shuttle Xpress
>> (http://www.contourdesign.com/shuttlepro/shuttlexpress.htm).  I'd like
>> to get it working (ie. be able to map all the buttons and dials to
>> functions of my choosing) with Debian testing (amd64).  Should I use
>> gizmod (which has never worked for me in the past) or the much more
>> ancient evrouter (which is much praised, but seems to have been
>> abandoned five years ago), or is there some other program or method
>> better suited to this?
>
> Question is, "Is this a an odd looking device that acts like something
> mundane like say a mouse?". I have a Silverstone LC-14 computer case
> that has a bunch of buttons on of the case front. Turns out the case
> looks to the motherboard like a standard USB keyboard. I've put notes
> on how to make the LC-14 case happy with the MythTV program here:
>
> http://www.mythtv.org/wiki/SilverstoneTek_LC14
>
> a tweaked .xmodmaprc file is almost all you need to make the LC14
> happy. Is your device just as simple?

As I mentioned further on, the "xev" command doesn't even see most of
the button presses on this device. And the events that xev can
identify on the Xpress, it identifies as mouse clicks.  I can't
distinguish them from a mouse click, so I can't xmodmap them to
another function.  gizmod in debug mode does see distinctive clicks
from the device, but gizmod and I aren't really on speaking terms:
it's my last choice (I'm just hoping it's not my _only_ choice).

>> The long version: Many years ago I bought a Griffin Powermate
>> (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Griffin_powermate) - essentially a large
>> knob, looks like it's from an old stereo.  Except that it attaches via
>> USB and glows blue.  At the time, the best choice to get it working
>> with Linux was powermated
>> (http://sourceforge.net/projects/powermated/) which is a bit of a pig
>> to set up, but works.  I adore the Powermate: when someone calls, I
>> don't have to find my music application (which desktop did I leave it
>> on?), I just poke the Powermate and it pauses (or restarts) the music.
>>  powermated is now deprecated in favour of the more generic gizmod
>> (http://gizmod.sourceforge.net/) which - in theory - can work with the
>> Powermate and any specialty buttons on weird keyboards or devices.
>> I've spent perhaps six hours over several days fighting with gizmod
>> (most recently about a year ago) and I found that in debug mode it
>> would acknowledge any push or twist on the Powermate correctly, but
>> nothing I did with the config files would actually make them _do_
>> anything.  That sent me back to powermated, but obviously that's not
>> going to work quite as well with a new device.  I've never tried
>> evrouter, and it seems unwise to start when it appears abandoned.  But
>> I'm less than inspired by gizmod too.  gizmod is available as a Debian
>> package, evrouter isn't.  xev shows most of the buttons on the Xpress
>> do nothing at all by default, and those that do something are hard to
>> map because they're indistinguishable from mouse button clicks.
>>
>> Does anyone have experience with gizmod or the Shuttle Xpress under
>> Linux?  Thanks.
>>
>> If I've failed to provide needed information, let me know.

-- 
Giles
http://www.gilesorr.com/
gilesorr-Re5JQEeQqe8AvxtiuMwx3w at public.gmane.org
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