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 "to" 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_).
-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 NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING
IN ANY WAY OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE
POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGE.
Windows 95 and Windows NT are trademarks of Microsoft Corporation.
Exceed is a trademark of Hummingbird Communications Ltd.
x2x(1)