Playing with xbindkeys

sudo apt-get install xbindkeys
sudo apt-get install xautomation
sudo apt-get install xvkbd

• xautomation is needed for xte
• typing text xvkbd: utility the actually does the "typing"

xbindkeys starts when the system starts. a reboot loads the new configuration out of .xbindkeysrc

It is supposed to be possible to kill and restart the xbindkeys dameon with:

killall xbindkeys && xbindkeys

• restarts xbindkeys on xterm non-priv user
• will not restart xbindkeys from remote shell (makes sense, it is tied to the xterm)

Stop the daemom:

pkill -f xbindkeys

now the xbindkeys daemon has stopped.

from the xconsole type:

xbindkeys -n

The n means nodaemon. You can see xbindkeys errors when testing your .xbindkeysrc file.

Launch Firefox with Ctrl + f

"firefox"
 control + f

Launch xterm when mouse button 3 is clicked

"xterm"
 b:3

The first mouse button (left) is called b:1, the second (right) b:3

xte can also be used to simulate mouse clicks. Below is an example.

"xte 'mouseclick 1' 'keydown Control_L' 'key v' 'keyup Control_L' 'key F2'"
b:2 + Release

---

• Example: Press F1 will play a sound and simulate a left mouse click/release

"xte 'mouseclick 1' & /usr/bin/aplay ~/leftclick.wav"
m:0x10 + c:67

Auto start xbindkeys

The file

/etc/X11/Xsession.d/98xbindkeys

is created when you install xbindkeys.

xbindkeys is automatically started if you have an .xbindkeysrc in your home directory or in a system directoryt such as /etc

In 98xbindkeys you can find it starts xbindkeys if he user (or system) has a config for it AND does NOT Have a .xbindkeys.noauto in his homedir.

If you place a file named ".xbindkeys.noauto" in your home directory then xbindkeys won't automatically start up with your x session.

touch ~/.xbindkeys.noauto

related pages

• Multimedia Key Mapping in Mythbuntu using xmodmap
• Playing with xbindkeys
• Multimedia Keys
• USB Device Diagnostics in Linux