Generating mouse,key...etc events in linux

Question

I am in a project where I will need to write a simple driver that accepts input from a USB device and preforms actions on GUI according to the received msg (Like writing a usb mouse driver but with my own protocol). I am searching the possibility of this and I found software testing automation tools like LDTP that already can generate actions like mouse clicks and keyboard hits . Are there other APIs to use ? How long it will consume given that my team has good understanding of C language and no experience with Linux ?

Answer 1

You have basically two options, that I can think of:

• X11: Use the XTest extension (XTestFakeDeviceKeyEvent, XTestFakeRelativeMotionEvent, etc.)
• Module uinput.

The first one makes use of fake input devices (try running xinput list in the shell) that are present in most (all?) X servers. Each call to one of the XTestFake* function generates an X input message.

The second one is a kernel module that allows a user application to create input devices and send input events. You simply open the /dev/uinput device, send a few ioctls to configure it, and then write the input events directly.

And, of course, you can write an input kernel driver!