touchscroller

Simulate smooth multi-touch scrolling on Linux with uinput.

On many Linuxes you can only scroll instantly over several lines. This package lets you script pixel-level scrolling by simulating two fingers on a touchpad.

Setup

pip install touchscroller

You must have the uinput kernel module loaded to use touchscroller. Two options:

1. Quickly start it for now:

modprobe -i uinput

2. Auto load on start up:

echo uinput | sudo tee /etc/modules-load.d/uinput.conf > /dev/null

You also need permissions to create a uinput device. Three options:

1. Quickly run as root:

sudo python myscript.py

2. Temporary fix until reboot:

sudo chmod 666 /dev/uinput

3. Proper, most annoyingly involved way:

# create a udev rule
echo 'KERNEL=="uinput", GROUP="input", MODE="0660"' | sudo tee /etc/udev/rules.d/99-uinput.rules > /dev/null

# add current user to 'input' group
sudo usermod -aG input "$USER"

# reload udev rules and trigger
sudo udevadm control --reload-rules
sudo udevadm trigger

echo 'all done, now reboot or log out and back in'

Usage:

Important note: Before it actually starts scrolling, some threshold value has to be overcome probably in order to prevent accidental scrolling when breathing onto a real touchpad.

from touchscroller import TouchScroller

ts = TouchScroller()

directions = [
    (3, 0), (2, 2), (0, 3), (-2, 2),
    (-3, 0), (-2, -2), (0, -3), (2, -2)
]

ts = TouchScroller()
with ts.touch() as touch:
    for dx, dy in directions:
        for _ in range(30):
            touch.move(dx, dy)