NAME¶
x2x - X to X connection
SYNTAX¶
x2x <[-to <DISPLAY>] | [-fromwin | -from <DISPLAY>]>
[options...]
DESCRIPTION¶
x2x allows the keyboard and mouse on one ("from") X display to be used
to control another ("to") X display. Since x2x uses the XTEST
extension, the "to" X display must support XTEST.
If x2x is built under Cygwin (on Windows XP or Windows 2000) then the -fromwin
option may be specified to allow the "from" display to be the
Windows desktop. (The Cygwin build also supports use of an X display for the
"from" screen). Use of -fromwin sets the default behaviour as if the
-big -west -capslockhack options had also been given.
In the default interface, x2x puts a window on the "from" display.
This window is labeled with the name of the "to" display. Keystrokes
typed into this window go to the window on the "to" display that has
the input focus. Clicking on the x2x window causes the mouse on the
"from" display to control the cursor on the "to" display.
Performing a subsequent multiple button click on the "to" display
returns control to the "from" display.
If the -fromwin, -north, -south, -east or -west options are specified on the
command line, x2x starts up with a different interface. When the mouse moves
to the top, bottom, east side or west side of the default screen on the
"from" display, the cursor slides over to the "to"
display. When the mouse returns to to side of the "to" display that
it entered, it slides back onto the "from" display.
Unless the -nosel option is specified, x2x relays X selections from one display
to the other. (If -fromwin is specified then the X selection is relayed to and
from the Windows clipboard as text strings).
Here are a few hints for eXcursion users (based on Intel version 2.1.309).
First, use the -big option. Second, in the control panel, under mouse, check
the box that enables "Automatically Capture Text on Button Up." X
selections will then automatically move into the Windows clipboard. As is the
case with all X applications running on 2.1.309 (including x2x), you will need
to do an extra mouse click after performing the X selection for this operation
to work. x2x is known to work poorly with eXcursion running on Windows 95,
probably due to the Windows 95 task scheduler. x2x does work well with
eXcursion running on Windows NT.
The hints for eXcursion are also valid for Exceed, with the exception that X
selections work better, as long as you are using x2x version 1.25 or later.
OPTIONS¶
Either the -to option or the -from option (or both) must be specified.
- -to display
- Indicates the ("to") display that is remotely controlled by the
"from" display. Default is equivalent to the default
display.
- -from display
- Indicates the ("from") display that remotely controls the
"to" display. Default is equivalent to the default display.
- -fromwin
- Available when x2x is built in the Cygwin environment. This option
indicates the ("from") display should be the Windows desktop. In
this case the "to" display must be specified with the -to
option. Setting this option forces -big and sets the default to -west
-capslockhack
The -fromwin option works best when Windows is configured for
focus-follows-mouse also known as X Mouse. This can be set using TweakUI
for Windows XP (on the Mouse/X-Mouse panel) or the XMouse2000 program for
Windows 2000. If Windows is set for its default behaviour x2x will attempt
to get the keyboard and mouse focus but may not succeed. (The Windows XP
TweakUI has a General/Focus option that can be unchecked to allow
applications to steal the focus.) If it fails the first try, x2x tries
quite hard to get the focus!
If the "to" display supports mouse buttons 4 and 5 then mouse
wheel events on the Windows side are translated to clicks of buttons 4 and
5 on the X display. This matches with XFree86 servers using Option
"ZAxisMapping" "4 5".
A link may be created on the Windows desktop to conveniently launch x2x.
Assuming cygwin is installed to C:\cygwin and x2x.exe is in /usr/X11R6/bin
then the link properties should be set to:
Target:
C:\cygwin\usr\X11R6\bin\run.exe /usr/X11R6/bin/x2x -fromwin -to somewhere:0.0 -east
Start In: C:\cygwin\usr\X11R6\bin
The "Start In" option is important to allow DLLs to be loaded and
C:\cygwin\bin must be on the Windows PATH to allow other DLLs to be
loaded. (If either of these are incorrect, launching the application tends
to silently fail.)
There are two magic key combinations activated by -fromwin:
RightAlt-Home: Forces the focus back to Windows without needing the mouse to
be moved. Useful when some popup window on the Windows side grabs the
mouse!
RightAlt-End: Exit x2x
- -north
- Slide off the north side of the "to" display onto the
"from" display.
- -south
- Slide off the south side of the "to" display onto the
"from" display.
- -east
- Slide off the east side of the "to" display onto the
"from" display.
- -west
- Slide off the west side of the "to" display onto the
"from" display.
- -font fontname
- The font used in the x2x window. (Overridden by -east or -west.)
- -geometry specification
- The X geometry specification for the x2x window. (Overridden by -north,
-south, -east or -west.)
- -wait
- Tells x2x to poll the "to" and "from" displays at
startup until they are ready. Useful for login scripts.
- -big
- Workaround for a bug in the cursor grab implementations of at least one X
server. Put a big window over the "from" display in order to
force the X server to track the cursor. (This option is forced by the
-fromwin option).
- -buttonblock
- If this option is enabled with -north, -south, -east or -west, the cursor
will not slide back onto the "from" display when one or more
mouse buttons are pressed.
- -buttonmap button# "KeySym ..."
- Map a mouse button to one or more keyboard events on the "to"
display. This is useful if you have a mouse with more buttons than the
remote X server can handle (e.g. a wheel mouse on a PC, merged with a
Sun/Sparc OpenWindows display).
- -nomouse
- Don't capture the mouse. (Overridden by -north, -south, -east or
-west.)
- -nopointermap
- Since x2x uses XTEST, which sends input at a lower level than the pointer
button mapping, x2x needs to understand the "to" display's
button mapping and do appropriate conversion. Use this option to turn off
the pointer button conversion.
- -nosel
- Don't relay the X selection between displays.
- -noautoup
- Normally, the autoup feature in x2x automatically lifts up all keys and
mouse buttons when it removes the cursor from the "from"
display. Note: the autoup feature changes the state of lock functions
like Caps Lock. The state of the lock function may not correspond
to the state of the keyboard LEDs! To disable this feature, use
the -noautoup command line option.
- -resurface
- Ugly hack to work-around window manager ugliness. The -north, -south,
-east and -west modes actually put a small window on the side of the
"from" display. This option causes this window to resurface
itself if another window ever obscures it. This option can cause really
nasty behavior if another application tries to do the same thing. Useful
for login scripts.
- -capslockhack
- Ugly hack to work-around the situation in which the "to" Xserver
doesn't seem to honor the state of the CapsLock on the "from"
Xserver. This is the default when the -fromwin option is given (although
the hack used is slightly less ugly).
- -nocapslockhack
- Disable the -capslockhack behaviour. Used to change the default behaviour
after the -fromwin option is specified.
- -clipcheck
- Check that clipboard entries are regular strings (XA_STRING) before
forwarding to Windows. Enabling this is safer but may prevent copying with
certain setups (eg from emacs under KDE/XFree).
- -shadow display
- Also sends mouse movements and keystrokes to this display. Useful for
demos. Amaze your friends: specify multiple shadows.
- -sticky sticky-key
- This option is primarily for "lock" keys like Caps_Lock. If a
lock key only seems to work on every other press, try this option. The
sticky option prevents autoup for the specified key. Look in
/usr/include/X11/keysymdef.h for a list of valid names of keys (remove the
leading XK_).
- -singlesticky
- Some X servers generate both a key down and a key up when a lock key is
toggled. Some X servers generate a key down when a lock key is activated
and a key up only when it is deactivated. This option will allow an X
server with the former behavior to control one with the latter behavior.
Use this if Caps_Lock lock is behaving like shift.
- -label label
- Override the label of the control window (useful when running over ssh).
The label is the text displayed within the control window.
- -title title
- Override the title of the control window (useful when running over
ssh).
- -copyright
- Prints the full copyright for the x2x code.
AUTHOR¶
David Chaiken
(chaiken@pa.dec.com)
Mark Hayter (-fromwin code, thanks to the WinVNC sources)
Addition of -north and -south options by Charles Briscoe-Smith
<cpbs@debian.org>.
Current maintaner is Mikhail Gusarov <dottedmag@dottedmag.net>
BUGS¶
This software is experimental! Heaven help you if your network connection should
go down. Caveat hacker. TANSTAAFL.
Nevertheless, bugtracker is at
http://x2x.dottedmag.net/trac/do/newticket
When using the -fromwin option if the Ctrl-Alt-Del keysequence is used while the
mouse is forwarded to the X display then the Ctrl and Alt key press events are
reported to x2x and forwarded but no other key events are generated. Thus if
the Ctrl-Alt-Del sequence is used to manually lock the Windows display when
the display is unlocked the mouse will still be forwarded to the X screen and
the X server will believe Ctrl and Alt are still pressed. Pressing and
releasing Ctrl and Alt should restore correct operation, as should returning
the mouse to the Windows display (or using the RightAlt-Home magic key
sequence).
LAWYERESE¶
Copyright (c) 1997 Digital Equipment Corporation. All rights reserved.
By downloading, installing, using, modifying or distributing this software, you
agree to the following:
1. CONDITIONS. Subject to the following conditions, you may download, install,
use, modify and distribute this software in source and binary forms:
a) Any source code, binary code and associated documentation (including the
online manual) used, modified or distributed must reproduce and retain the
above copyright notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer.
b) No right is granted to use any trade name, trademark or logo of Digital
Equipment Corporation. Neither the "Digital Equipment Corporation"
name nor any trademark or logo of Digital Equipment Corporation may be used to
endorse or promote products derived from this software without the prior
written permission of Digital Equipment Corporation.
2. DISCLAIMER. THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY DIGITAL "AS IS" AND ANY
EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED
WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE ARE
DISCLAIMED.IN NO EVENT SHALL DIGITAL BE LIABLE FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT,
INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT
LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR
PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION) HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF
LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING
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