[Kde-accessibility] Mouse emulation on/off

[rampsonc at comcast.net]

Bill,
 I'm using Mandriva 2005 LE on P4 2.8 platform. It runs the latest KDE (3.3 or is it 3.4?). When I use the shift-alt-numlock combo, the mousekeys are activated. When I THEN hit the NumLock key, NOTHING HAPPENS i.e. The mousekeys are still "held" by the keypad. The ONLY way to stop the keypad keys from moving the cursor around is to press the shift-alt-numlock combo.

This behavior is independent of VMWARE and the underlying Windoze software - I don't activate mousekeys under VMware/Windoze.

I don't understand the two-tier mousekey behavior that you are describing. If you "activate" mousekeys by the shift-alt-numlock combo, then JUST pressing Numlock does what? Turns off mousekeys - but its still on? What's the difference between using shift-alt-numlock and JUST numlock to toggle - if the behavior is the same? It makes no sense to me that 2 different key combos do the same thing.

Anyway, I do NOT see the behavior you described under my Linux. Once shift-alt-numlock is pressed, NOTHING but that same combo will switch off the mousekey behavior.

=Hi Chris:

=On reading your message again, and confirming some things here, I am 
=confused.  On Windows XP, NumLock alone doesn't activate MouseKeys.  The 
=default on Windows is the SAME as what you reported for KDE - Left Alt, 
=Left Shift, NumLock, to turn MouseKeys on.

=So there is some misunderstanding going on here.  The Linux/XKB behavior 
=with respect to turning MouseKeys on and off is the SAME.

=What seems to be different may be the way MouseKeys works, once enabled, 
=when NumLock is then turned off; this part may be controlled by your XKB 
=keyboard map.  On _my_ system, when I turn MouseKeys on, if I turn 
=NumLock off, the number pad functions as "normal" arrow keys.  When 
=NumLock is on (and MouseKeys is still on), then I get mouse movement 
=instead of numbers.  This appears to be exactly the same as WIndow XP, 
=and the behavior you are requesting.

=However, realize that you are comparing apples to oranges - since the 
=applications your friend is using under Linux are not the same binaries 
=as under Windows, the issue you are experiencing may be 
=applications-based.  Can you confirm which X keysyms the application in 
=question is listening to?  Is it possible that the application is broken 
=and is listening for keycodes rather than keysyms, as it should?

=regards

=Bill


chris wrote:

> Thanks Bill. I appreciate your response. It was, however inadequate. As with ALL \
> things Open Source, I googled and read and googled and read and now I know FAR MORE \
> than I ever wanted to know about XKB! Your simple explanation below belies the \
> complexity in implementation.  
> The simple xmodmap command does not work with XK_Pointer_Enablekeys. You need to \
> DIVE DEEP in XKB and modify a keyboard layout - but with no useful examples, it is \
> difficult. 
> I NEED a step-by-step for modifying the Shift+Alt+NumLock combo into JUST using the \
> NumLock key. Since I have 17 years of experience in *NIX, I will have NO problem \
> following directions. Thanks to all in advance. 
> -Hi Chris:
> 
> -The key sequence associated with MouseKeys isn't determined by KDE.  
> -MouseKeys is a feature provided by the XKB X Server extension.  A fair 
> -bit of thought went into the "usual" choice of keybinding used.
> 
> -The exact key sequence used is actually determined by the xkb keyboard 
> -map that you're using.  There is a special X KeySym, 
> -XK_Pointer_EnableKeys.  The "de facto standard" for this according to 
> -the XKB documentation is Shift+Alt+NumLock.  It shouldn't matter whether 
> -the shift and alt keys are the left or right=hand ones, as long as they 
> -generate the correct keysyms (possibly your right Alt key is mapped to 
> -something other than 'Alt' ?).
> 
> -You probably can imagine why making NumLock alone provide MouseKeys is 
> -not a good default choice for all users, and thus why it isn't defined 
> -in that way in the standard XKB keymaps.  It is possible to 
> -hack^H^H^H^Hmodify your keymap so that the XKB_Pointer_EnableKeys maps 
> -to some other physical keycode sequence.  Alternatively, you can write a 
> -utility to programmatically turn on the XKB MouseKeys Control (see 
> -section 10.5.1 of the XKB manual - google for XKBlib.pdf).
> 
> -regards
> 
> -Bill
> 
> 
> -chris wrote
> 
> 
> 
> > I am a systems admin and am trying to convert my handicapped friend from Windoze \
> > to \ Linux. In using KDE, he has found some Access features lacking. 
> > The story is thus - In Windoze, you can turn the mouse keys on by using the Num \
> > Lock key. In KDE you need to use Left-Shift, Left-Alt, Num Lock. This is \
> > unacceptable for the following reason; 
> > When playing games (using VMWare workstation 5 and Windoze XP), he needs to \
> > switch \ between mouse keys and keypad in real time. Key pads are used for \
> > movement of game \ pieces (in this case Ultima Online), and he may need to move \
> > in a hurry!   He is a quadrapelegic, and has use of ONLY his right hand - so the \
> > left side of his \ keyboard is not very accessible. 
> > Q: How can I get the KDE Mouse emulation to work EXACTLY like the Windoze mouse \
> > keys i.e. JUST using the Num Lock key? 
> > Thanks everyone!
> > 
> > --
> > Chris Rampson