AirClick Manager

AirClick USB icon AirClick Manager is a Linux driver for AirClick USB. AirClick USB is a remote controller produced by Griffin Technology. You can control applications on a remote computer with it.

There is another project for AirClick USB, pyClick.

[News] A new project for AirClick USB appears on sourceforge.net: airclick. The software doesn't require GAI, and seems to improve some usability problems. Please check it if you have any trouble for using airclick-mngr. Of course, your bug reports or requests to me are also welcome.
See also (Ubuntu Forums):

Supported Software

Adobe Reader
OpenOffice.org Impress
Mozilla or Firefox
Opera
MPlayer
RealPlayer
Xine (xine-ui)
XMMS or XMMS compatible (BMP, BMPx, Audacious etc.)

Screenshots

MPlayer (GNOME / Vine Linux)
BMP (FluxBox / Gentoo Linux)

Download

airclick-mngr-0.6.tar.gz (Sep. 1, 2006)
- Support both kernel 2.4.x and 2.6.x
- Support both USB 1.x and 2.x
- Support Xine (xine-ui)
- Support keeping the button held down
- Support toggling Play/Pause
- Support static user customization (modify shortcut_keys.h before make)
airclick-mngr-0.5.tar.gz (Feb. 1, 2006)
- First release

Installation

Linux kernel-headers and GAI(General Applet Interface library) are requierd to build AirClick Manager, so install these first.

In the case of Vine Linux, there is not the GAI package, so I recommend to get Fedora's src.rpm from Rpmfind.Net and rebuild it. For example, let you get gai-0.5.10-4.fc5.src.rpm. Enter 'rpm -ivh gai-0.5.10-4.fc5.src.rpm', and change gnome-panel-devel to gnome-panel in ~/rpm/SPECS/gai.spec (gnome-panel contains gnome-panel-devel in Vine Linux). By executing 'rpm -bb gai.spec', gai-0.5.10-4.i386.rpm and gai-devel-0.5.10-4.i386.rpm will be created in ~/rpm/RPMS/i386/.

If these installations are completed, you're ready to build AirClick Manager. Type './configure --prefix=PREFIX && make' in the tarball directory (PREFIX is probably '/usr' or '/usr/local'). This makes "airclick-mngr" and "airclick-rcvr". Then, do 'make install' as root for installation into your system. "airclick-mngr" will be installed in PREFIX/bin, and "airclick-rcvr" in PREFIX/sbin (not PREFIX/bin).

If you are in GNOME, please restart GNOME before the next section.

Instruction

AirClick Manager consists of 2 programs, "airclick-mngr" and "airclick-rcvr". airclick-rcvr receives signals from AirClick USB and sends them to airclick-mngr. airclick-mngr interprets the signals and sends events to X11 according to the software you want to control.

So you will launch 2 programs to use AirClick USB. First, launch airclick-mngr. Just type 'airclick-mngr' or you can launch this from the GNOME panel if you use GNOME. like this:

(right-click on the panel -> Add to Panel -> Utility -> AirClick Manager)

Then Airclick Manager's applet appears in the panel, or dockapp on your desktop.

GNOME applet
dockapp

Click the right mouse button on the icon to change preferences. ~/.gnome2/airclick-mngr is used as your configuration file. In the preference window, you will see supported software and select one of them.

--->

Your preference becomes effective after pushing 'Close'.

Do you really see AirClick Manager's icon on your desktop or GNOME panel? You will launch airclick-rcvr next, but make sure airclick-mngr is running before airclick-rcvr.

OK, then launch airclick-rcvr. like this:

airclick-rcvr [hiddev]

[hiddev] is probably '/dev/usb/hiddev0' or '/dev/hiddev0'. This maybe require root privileges, so you may have to be root or use sudo. In addition, remember airclick-rcvr is installed in PREFIX/sbin.

Are the 2 program launched successfully? Congratulations! Now you can use AirClick USB. Enjoy!

Handling Table

Adobe Reader

Button	Action	Key
Play	Toggle full-screen mode	`Ctrl+L`
Volume Up	Jump to the last page	`End`
Volume Down	Jump to the first page	`Home`
Next	Go to the next page	`→`
Prev	Go back to the previous page	`←`

OpenOffice.org Impress

Button	Action	Key
Play	Toggle full-screen mode	`F9 / Esc`
Volume Up	Jump to the last page	`End`
Volume Down	Jump to the first page	`Home`
Next	Go to the next page	`→`
Prev	Go back to the previous page	`←`

Mozilla / Firefox

Button	Action	Key
Play	Scroll down	`Space`
Volume Up	Switch to the next tab	`Ctrl+PgDn`
Volume Down	Switch to the previous tab	`Ctrl+PgUp`
Next	Go to the next page	`Alt+→`
Prev	Go back to the previous page	`Alt+←`

Opera

Button	Action	Key
Play	Scroll down	`Space`
Volume Up	Switch to the next tab	`2`
Volume Down	Switch to the previous tab	`1`
Next	Go to the next page	`Alt+→`
Prev	Go back to the previous page	`Alt+←`

MPlayer

Button	Action	Key
Play	Toggle Pause/Unpause	`Space`
Volume Up	Increase the volume	`9`
Volume Down	Decrease the volume	`0`
Next	Go to the next chapter	`>`
Prev	Go back to the previous chapter	`<`

RealPlayer

Button	Action	Key
Play	Toggle Play/Pause	`Ctrl+P / Ctrl+A`
Volume Up	Increase the volume	`Ctrl+↑`
Volume Down	Decrease the volume	`Ctrl+↓`
Next	Go to the next clip	`Ctrl+N`
Prev	Go back to the previous clip	`Ctrl+R`

Xine (xine-ui)

Button	Action	Key
Play	Toggle Play/Pause	`Return / Space`
Volume Up	Increase the volume	`Shift+V`
Volume Down	Decrease the volume	`V`
Next	Select and play next MRL in the playlist	`PgDn`
Prev	Select and play previous MRL in the playlist	`PgUp`

XMMS / BMP

Button	Action	Key
Play	Toggle Play/Pause	`X / C`
Volume Up	Increase the volume	`↑`
Volume Down	Decrease the volume	`↓`
Next	Go to the next song	`B`
Prev	Go back to the previous song	`Z`

Other (combination of the 2 buttons)

Button	Action	Key
Volume Up + Volume Down	Switch to the next window	`Alt+Tab`
Volume Up + Next	Switch to the next workspace	`Ctrl+Alt+→`
Volume Down + Prev	Switch to the previous workspace	`Ctrl+Alt+←`

Todo

Support more software
Support auto-switch window's focus to the selected software
Support fast-forward and fast-rewind for mutimedia players
Support dynamic user customization

License

AirClick Manager is released under the GNU GPL.

Contact

Any feedback is welcome! If you have some advice or helpful information, please send e-mail to me: Tomoaki Okayama I'm able to understand English and Japanese.