randyrossi / xkbdrelay

Relay one X display's keyboard and mouse events to another X display (XTEST extension required)

VERSION 1.0

NAME xkbdrelay - relay one X display's keyboard and mouse events to another X display

SYNTAX xkbdrelay <SENDER_DISPLAY> <RECEIVER_DISPLAY> [options]

SYNOPSIS

This program will allow you to send keyboard and mouse events
from a sender's X display into a receiver's X display.  It is useful
if you don't have a keyboard/mouse hooked up to a machine
on your network but want to control that machine from another
machine that does.

The program opens up a window on the sender's X display. 
As long as that window has focus, it will relay all keystrokes and
mouse movements to the specified receiver's X display.  Press the 
'Grab' button to grab the mouse so the pointer will not leave the
    bounds of the window (does not work in cygwin).  Press Cntrl-Alt
to release the mouse.  

NOTE: X11R6 or above is required as the XTEST extension is used.

RUNNING

When running xkbdrelay on your RECEIVER, make sure the X Server 
specified by SENDER_DISPLAY will allow remote connections 
(using xhost +), is listening on port 6000 and port 6000 is
accessible by RECEIVER.

When running xkbdrelay on your SENDER, make sure the X Server 
specified by RECEIVER_DISPLAY will allow remote connections 
(using xhost +), is listening on port 6000 and port 6000 is
accessible by SENDER.

Example:

./xkbdrelay computer_with_keyboard:0.0 no_keyboard_here:0.0

    NOTE:  The local ip address or loopback address (127.0.0.1) of
           the machine you are running xkbdrelay may not work if 
           that X server is not listening for incoming
           connections on port 6000.  In this case, use :0.0 instead.

Example:

./xkbdrelay :0.0 no_keyboard_here:0.0 (running on sender)

./xkbdrelay computer_with_keyboard:0.0 :0.0 (running on receiver)

A window should appear on your sender's display.  Make sure the window 
has focus.  All keystrokes and mouse movements will be sent from the 
sender to the receiver display.  Press 'Grab' button to keep 
the mouse from moving outside the window.  Press Cntrl-Alt to release 
the mouse.

OPTIONS

-grab		grab the mouse immediately when the program is run

-geometry <s>	standard X geometry string

TROUBLE SHOOTING

    You may have to enable incoming TCP connections on one of your
X servers (depending on which one is going to receive the incoming
connection).  By default, most systems disable this and re-enabling
it depends on which window manager you are using.  Here are
some common ways of enabling incoming TCP connections:

Edit the file: /etc/X11/xinit/xserverrc
	Remove the '-nolisten tcp' and reboot

Edit the file: /etc/gdm/gdm.schemas
	Change DisallowTCP from true to false and reboot

Edit the file: /etc/lightdm/lightdm.conf
	Add xserver-allow-tcp=true and reboot

If you receive DISPLAY connection errors, make sure you are
able to export your display to a remote X server.  Test this as
follows:

export DISPLAY=remote_machine:0.0
xclock

If you get a connection error, you most likely have to disable
the server access control restrictions on the remote machine:

xhost + <hostname>
or
xhost + (to enable any client to connect)

see xhost for more information on server access control.

ARGUMENTS

SENDER_DISPLAY
	The DISPLAY string indicating where to create a keystroke
	grabbing window.  It is of the form host:screen.  Use :0.0
	if you are running xkbdrelay on the sender machine.

RECEIVER_DISPLAY
	The DISPLAY string indicating where to send the keystrokes
	that are being grabbed from the grabbing window.  Use :0.0
	if you are running xkbdrelay on the receiver machine.

AUTHORS Randy Rossi - 2007 [e-mail]