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281 lines
8.9 KiB
281 lines
8.9 KiB
.. include:: <isonum.txt>
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============
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Introduction
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============
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:Copyright: |copy| 1999-2001 Vojtech Pavlik <vojtech@ucw.cz> - Sponsored by SuSE
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Architecture
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============
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Input subsystem a collection of drivers that is designed to support
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all input devices under Linux. Most of the drivers reside in
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drivers/input, although quite a few live in drivers/hid and
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drivers/platform.
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The core of the input subsystem is the input module, which must be
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loaded before any other of the input modules - it serves as a way of
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communication between two groups of modules:
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Device drivers
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--------------
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These modules talk to the hardware (for example via USB), and provide
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events (keystrokes, mouse movements) to the input module.
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Event handlers
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--------------
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These modules get events from input core and pass them where needed
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via various interfaces - keystrokes to the kernel, mouse movements via
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a simulated PS/2 interface to GPM and X, and so on.
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Simple Usage
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============
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For the most usual configuration, with one USB mouse and one USB keyboard,
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you'll have to load the following modules (or have them built in to the
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kernel)::
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input
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mousedev
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usbcore
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uhci_hcd or ohci_hcd or ehci_hcd
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usbhid
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hid_generic
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After this, the USB keyboard will work straight away, and the USB mouse
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will be available as a character device on major 13, minor 63::
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crw-r--r-- 1 root root 13, 63 Mar 28 22:45 mice
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This device usually created automatically by the system. The commands
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to create it by hand are::
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cd /dev
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mkdir input
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mknod input/mice c 13 63
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After that you have to point GPM (the textmode mouse cut&paste tool) and
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XFree to this device to use it - GPM should be called like::
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gpm -t ps2 -m /dev/input/mice
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And in X::
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Section "Pointer"
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Protocol "ImPS/2"
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Device "/dev/input/mice"
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ZAxisMapping 4 5
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EndSection
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When you do all of the above, you can use your USB mouse and keyboard.
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Detailed Description
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====================
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Event handlers
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--------------
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Event handlers distribute the events from the devices to userspace and
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in-kernel consumers, as needed.
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evdev
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~~~~~
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``evdev`` is the generic input event interface. It passes the events
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generated in the kernel straight to the program, with timestamps. The
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event codes are the same on all architectures and are hardware
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independent.
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This is the preferred interface for userspace to consume user
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input, and all clients are encouraged to use it.
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See :ref:`event-interface` for notes on API.
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The devices are in /dev/input::
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crw-r--r-- 1 root root 13, 64 Apr 1 10:49 event0
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crw-r--r-- 1 root root 13, 65 Apr 1 10:50 event1
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crw-r--r-- 1 root root 13, 66 Apr 1 10:50 event2
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crw-r--r-- 1 root root 13, 67 Apr 1 10:50 event3
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...
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There are two ranges of minors: 64 through 95 is the static legacy
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range. If there are more than 32 input devices in a system, additional
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evdev nodes are created with minors starting with 256.
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keyboard
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~~~~~~~~
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``keyboard`` is in-kernel input handler ad is a part of VT code. It
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consumes keyboard keystrokes and handles user input for VT consoles.
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mousedev
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~~~~~~~~
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``mousedev`` is a hack to make legacy programs that use mouse input
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work. It takes events from either mice or digitizers/tablets and makes
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a PS/2-style (a la /dev/psaux) mouse device available to the
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userland.
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Mousedev devices in /dev/input (as shown above) are::
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crw-r--r-- 1 root root 13, 32 Mar 28 22:45 mouse0
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crw-r--r-- 1 root root 13, 33 Mar 29 00:41 mouse1
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crw-r--r-- 1 root root 13, 34 Mar 29 00:41 mouse2
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crw-r--r-- 1 root root 13, 35 Apr 1 10:50 mouse3
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...
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...
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crw-r--r-- 1 root root 13, 62 Apr 1 10:50 mouse30
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crw-r--r-- 1 root root 13, 63 Apr 1 10:50 mice
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Each ``mouse`` device is assigned to a single mouse or digitizer, except
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the last one - ``mice``. This single character device is shared by all
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mice and digitizers, and even if none are connected, the device is
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present. This is useful for hotplugging USB mice, so that older programs
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that do not handle hotplug can open the device even when no mice are
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present.
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CONFIG_INPUT_MOUSEDEV_SCREEN_[XY] in the kernel configuration are
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the size of your screen (in pixels) in XFree86. This is needed if you
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want to use your digitizer in X, because its movement is sent to X
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via a virtual PS/2 mouse and thus needs to be scaled
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accordingly. These values won't be used if you use a mouse only.
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Mousedev will generate either PS/2, ImPS/2 (Microsoft IntelliMouse) or
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ExplorerPS/2 (IntelliMouse Explorer) protocols, depending on what the
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program reading the data wishes. You can set GPM and X to any of
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these. You'll need ImPS/2 if you want to make use of a wheel on a USB
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mouse and ExplorerPS/2 if you want to use extra (up to 5) buttons.
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joydev
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~~~~~~
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``joydev`` implements v0.x and v1.x Linux joystick API. See
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:ref:`joystick-api` for details.
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As soon as any joystick is connected, it can be accessed in /dev/input on::
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crw-r--r-- 1 root root 13, 0 Apr 1 10:50 js0
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crw-r--r-- 1 root root 13, 1 Apr 1 10:50 js1
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crw-r--r-- 1 root root 13, 2 Apr 1 10:50 js2
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crw-r--r-- 1 root root 13, 3 Apr 1 10:50 js3
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...
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And so on up to js31 in legacy range, and additional nodes with minors
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above 256 if there are more joystick devices.
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Device drivers
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--------------
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Device drivers are the modules that generate events.
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hid-generic
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~~~~~~~~~~~
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``hid-generic`` is one of the largest and most complex driver of the
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whole suite. It handles all HID devices, and because there is a very
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wide variety of them, and because the USB HID specification isn't
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simple, it needs to be this big.
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Currently, it handles USB mice, joysticks, gamepads, steering wheels
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keyboards, trackballs and digitizers.
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However, USB uses HID also for monitor controls, speaker controls, UPSs,
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LCDs and many other purposes.
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The monitor and speaker controls should be easy to add to the hid/input
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interface, but for the UPSs and LCDs it doesn't make much sense. For this,
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the hiddev interface was designed. See Documentation/hid/hiddev.txt
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for more information about it.
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The usage of the usbhid module is very simple, it takes no parameters,
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detects everything automatically and when a HID device is inserted, it
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detects it appropriately.
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However, because the devices vary wildly, you might happen to have a
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device that doesn't work well. In that case #define DEBUG at the beginning
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of hid-core.c and send me the syslog traces.
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usbmouse
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~~~~~~~~
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For embedded systems, for mice with broken HID descriptors and just any
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other use when the big usbhid wouldn't be a good choice, there is the
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usbmouse driver. It handles USB mice only. It uses a simpler HIDBP
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protocol. This also means the mice must support this simpler protocol. Not
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all do. If you don't have any strong reason to use this module, use usbhid
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instead.
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usbkbd
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~~~~~~
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Much like usbmouse, this module talks to keyboards with a simplified
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HIDBP protocol. It's smaller, but doesn't support any extra special keys.
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Use usbhid instead if there isn't any special reason to use this.
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psmouse
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~~~~~~~
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This is driver for all flavors of pointing devices using PS/2
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protocol, including Synaptics and ALPS touchpads, Intellimouse
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Explorer devices, Logitech PS/2 mice and so on.
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atkbd
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~~~~~
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This is driver for PS/2 (AT) keyboards.
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iforce
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~~~~~~
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A driver for I-Force joysticks and wheels, both over USB and RS232.
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It includes Force Feedback support now, even though Immersion
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Corp. considers the protocol a trade secret and won't disclose a word
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about it.
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Verifying if it works
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=====================
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Typing a couple keys on the keyboard should be enough to check that
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a keyboard works and is correctly connected to the kernel keyboard
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driver.
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Doing a ``cat /dev/input/mouse0`` (c, 13, 32) will verify that a mouse
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is also emulated; characters should appear if you move it.
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You can test the joystick emulation with the ``jstest`` utility,
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available in the joystick package (see :ref:`joystick-doc`).
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You can test the event devices with the ``evtest`` utility.
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.. _event-interface:
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Event interface
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===============
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You can use blocking and nonblocking reads, and also select() on the
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/dev/input/eventX devices, and you'll always get a whole number of input
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events on a read. Their layout is::
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struct input_event {
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struct timeval time;
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unsigned short type;
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unsigned short code;
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unsigned int value;
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};
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``time`` is the timestamp, it returns the time at which the event happened.
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Type is for example EV_REL for relative moment, EV_KEY for a keypress or
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release. More types are defined in include/uapi/linux/input-event-codes.h.
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``code`` is event code, for example REL_X or KEY_BACKSPACE, again a complete
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list is in include/uapi/linux/input-event-codes.h.
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``value`` is the value the event carries. Either a relative change for
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EV_REL, absolute new value for EV_ABS (joysticks ...), or 0 for EV_KEY for
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release, 1 for keypress and 2 for autorepeat.
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See :ref:`input-event-codes` for more information about various even codes.
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