Revision as of 01:22, 9 July 2009

Introduction

NIDE/NIDED create a network input device emulator. With that you may transform your freerunner in a virtual keyboard/mouse to control a remote Linux Box.

How it works

NIDE is the client part of the architecture, it's a GUI that show you the virtual device (keyboard, mouse, etc), when you trigger some action, eg. button press, it send a command to a remote host where NIDED is installed.

The NIDED daemon create a virtual keyboard/mouse registering a new device in "uinput", reads command sent by NIDE, translates and inijects them in the system.

Pro

• it works with every network, bt, wifi, usb and so on
• it may request remote command execution (startup application, halt, reboot, etc.)
• it's xml configurable and stylesheet themable, it's easy to create customized devices
• you may create different pages in the same config file and may switch between them
• every page may have two layouts (portrait, landscape), it auto switches beetween them if you rotate the display (actually with an external application)
• it may use AUX/POWER button to trigger action (simulate button press, request remote command execution, switch between pages and so on)
• there is no need to "initiate" action on the controlled host (as in Remoko)
• it automatically restore the last session at startup, so if you use it to control always the same host you are ready with only one click.

Cons

• it requires nided to be installed on the controlled host, that need linux 2.6 and uinput kernel module
• it uses QT library, and that are not provided in OM2009/SHR, you have to build them yourself or take them from the angstrom feed
• no authentication is implemented, a stupid and rude security ip access list is used, so you have to use it in secure networks
• it may be buggy in some part and may need bug fixing/code restyling

How to create new virtual devices

Create a file in /usr/share/nide/devices with extension ".cfg". It's an xml file, the following example should be autoexplaining:

 <xml>
  <page name="default">
   <portrait vsizex="5" vsizey="5" stylesheet="/usr/share/nide/styles/freerunnert.style" iconpath="/usr/share/nide/icons" >
    <key uinputcode="1"   x="0"  y="0" width="3" height="3" icon="application-exit.png"/>
    <key uinputcode="10" x="0" y="0" width="2" height="1" text="Esc"/>
    <key uinputcode="2"   x="1"  y="1" width="1" height="1" text="1" stext="!" atext="¹" satext="¡"/>
    <key x="0" y="6" text="remote
commands" width="3" height="3" gotopage="commands"/>
    <mouse x="3" y="0" width="3" height="4"/>
    <hwkey keycode="177" uinputcode="28"/>

   </portrait>
  </page>
  <page name="commands">
   <portrait vsizex="1" vsizey="5">
    <key gotopage="default" x="0" y="0" text="return"/>
    <key x="0" y="3" text="reboot" command="reboot" gotopage="default"/>
    <key x="0" y="4" text="halt" command="halt" gotopage="default"/>
</portrait>
</page>

uinputcode is the linux input key code, you can find it in /usr/include/linux/input.h, stext, atext, and satext are shift text, alt text, and shift alt texts. Nide has internal shift/altgr modifiers to handle them, simply add a key with the right uinput code.

Mouse create a virtual mouse, use the right key codes to create button left, right and middle, hwkey is hardware buttons, on the freerunner you may use aux and power.