wminput is an Linux event, mouse, and joystick driver for the wiimote using the uinput system. It supports assigning key/button symbols to buttons on the wiimote, nunchuk, and classic controller, and axes symbols to wiimote axes including direction pads, „analog“ sticks, and „analog“ shoulder buttons.

Furthermore, it provides a plugin interface through which more advanced functionality can be implemented, such as accelerometer and ir calculations. Plugins can provide button-type events and axes.

wminput [-h] [-w] [-c config] [bdaddr]

• -h: print usage and exit
• -w: on startup, wait (without timing out) until a wiimote is found
• -c config: specifies the configuration file to load. „default“ is the default configuration file (on install, a symlink is created to the acc_ptr configuration. The search directories are specified below in the section on configuration files, or an absolute or relative pathname may be given.
• bdaddr: specifies the bluetooth device address of the wiimote. If unspecified, the environment variable WIIMOTE_BDADDR is used. If this variable does not exist, a connection is made with the first wiimote found.

uinput kernel support is required. joydev and evdev are required for joystick and event interfaces, respectively. See http://gentoo-wiki.com/HOWTO_Compile_a_Kernel_Manually for information on kernel compilation.

By default, some (most? all?) udev configurations set up a uinput device file readable only by root. Using wminput as a user other than root requires udev to change the permissions on uinput. Place the following line in a file in /etc/udev/rules.d (see the documentation for your distro for the recommended file for local rules) to allow anyone on the system to use uinput:

KERNEL=="uinput", MODE="0666"

A more secure method uses the following line to allow anyone in <group> to use wminput, and adds only the desired users to <group>:

KERNEL=="uinput", GROUP="<group>"

A uinput group can be created specifically for this purpose, or an existing group such as wheel can be used.

Key symbols can be assigned to wminput button events. While standard keys are supported by X by default, non-standard key symbols, and mapping actions to those symbols, is not automatic. An excellent tutorial at http://gentoo-wiki.com/HOWTO_Use_Multimedia_Keys can help you set this up. An overview of the process described there:

1. Assign the key symbol in question to a button in a wminput configuration file.
2. Use wminput and the wiimote to generate that key symbol, using xev to find out if the key symbol is already mapped, and find the key code if it is not.
3. If the code is not mapped to the appropriate symbol, edit ~/.Xmodmap, and use xmodmap to map them. (A copy of my ~/.Xmodmap is included in cwiid/doc)

1. Use xbindkeys or a window manager-specific utility to map the key symbols to specific actions.

Configuration files are installed in /usr/local/etc/cwiid/wminput. Configuration search directory order is ~/.cwiid/wminput, /usr/local/etc/cwiid/wminput. Configuration files specify the mapping of button and key symbols to wiimote buttons, and axis symbols to wiimote axes. The grammar is as follows (words in angle brackets are to be replaced by appropriate values or strings, without the brackets):

# <text>

Comment

include <inc_file>

Include the file specified by inc_file.

Wiimote.<button> = <button_symbol>
Nunchuk.<button> = <button_symbol>
Classic.<button> = <button_symbol>
Plugin.<plugin>.<button> = <button_symbol>

Map the button or key symbol specified on the right-hand side to the button event specified on the left-hand side. Button and key symbols are listed in /usr/include/linux/input.h (BTN_* and KEY_* macros), and in [http://abstrakraft.org/cwiid/browser/trunk/wminput/action_enum.txt cwiid/wminput/action_enum.txt]. All valid wiimote, nunchuk, and classic buttons are listed in [http://abstrakraft.org/cwiid/browser/trunk/doc/wminput.list cwiid/doc/wminput.list].

Wiimote.<axis> = [-][~]<abs_axis_symbol> | [-]<rel_axis_symbol>[[BR]]
Nunchuk.<axis> = [-][~]<abs_axis_symbol> | [-]<rel_axis_symbol>[[BR]]
Classic.<axis> = [-][~]<abs_axis_symbol> | [-]<rel_axis_symbol>[[BR]]
Plugin.<plugin>.<axis> = [-][~]<abs_axis_symbol> | [-]<rel_axis_symbol>

Map the axis symbol specified on the right-hand side to the axis event specified on the left-hand side. Axis symbols are listed in /usr/include/linux/input.h (ABS_* and REL_* macros), and in http://abstrakraft.org/cwiid/browser/trunk/wminput/action_enum.txt cwiid/wminput/action_enum.txt.

All valid wiimote, nunchuk, and classic axes are listed in http://abstrakraft.org/cwiid/browser/trunk/doc/wminput.list cwiid/doc/wminput.list. A - before the axis symbol inverts the axis. A ~ is usually required before an absolute axis symbol in order to use it for cursor movement.

Wiimote.Rumble = On | Off

Activates or deactivates force feedback/rumble function.

An event device is always created. A mouse device is created if REL_X, REL_Y, and BTN_LEFT symbols are mapped (~ABS_X and ~ABS_Y effectively map REL_X and REL_Y, respectively). A joystick device is created if ABS_X is mapped.

Plugins provide a mechanism for more advanced wiimote event programming. The following plugins are provided:

ir_ptr:: rough IR tracking algorithm. Provides X and Y axes representing the calculated cursor position.

acc:: accelerometer calculations. Provides X and Y relative axes for cursor tracking, and Roll and Pitch axes.

nunchuk_acc:: nunchuk accelerometer calculations. Identical to acc, but using the nunchuk accelerometers.

Plugins are by default installed in /usr/local/lib/cwiid/plugins. Plugin search directory order is ~/.cwiid/plugins, /usr/local/lib/cwiid/plugins.