Some information about Spacenav

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rockn
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Some information about Spacenav

Post by rockn »

Hi everyone !
A new version of free spacenav is available.(after 4 years :shock: ). Last days I compile and install this last version on my Ubuntu system. It's work as always with FreeCAD.
But I still need to run this to FreeCAD detect spacenavigator.

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sudo /etc/init.d/spacenavd restart
I took contact with freespacenav dev, he is going to see if the needed of restart spacenav daemon can be fixed.
He also say to me that the command :

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sudo xhost +
should not be needed on any version of spacenav.
But instead, we have to copy the user's .Xauthority file in root's home

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sudo cp ~/.Xauthority /root/
If anyone having this trouble, could he test this if it's work. So we can change the wiki, because xhost + is a command with some security risk.
I can't really test since I don't need it either with new spacenav version.

I have another tips :
If you don't want to run the command to restart the daemon after each login :
you can create a script like this

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#!/bin/sh
echo PASSWORD | sudo -S /etc/init.d/spacenavd restart
exit 0
Change password with your sudo passaword.
Then add this command on starting application :
sh -c "/path/to/the/script.sh"
It's not very safe because the password is in plain text ...
Formations - Assistance - Développement : https://freecad-france.com
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tanderson69
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Re: Some information about Spacenav

Post by tanderson69 »

rockn wrote:He also say to me that the command :

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sudo xhost +
should not be needed on any version of spacenav.
But instead, we have to copy the user's .Xauthority file in root's home

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sudo cp ~/.Xauthority /root/
It's been a while, but it seems like I remember the .Xauthority procedure wasn't working on kubuntu after some version. Just FYI

I screwed up when I did the spaceball support for freecad. I should have never used the magellan xwindow protocol. It was/is obsolete and should be for legacy support only.
galou_breizh
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Re: Some information about Spacenav

Post by galou_breizh »

Hi,

I managed to have the spacenav working at startup on Ubuntu 14.04. Here is my setup, though I don't like it:
I added two lines at the beginning the init script "/etc/init.d/spacenavd"

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export XAUTHORITY=/home/gael/.Xauthority
export DISPLAY=:0
where gael is my user name (its presence there is the reason why I don't like my setup).

As stated in the man page, you have to add a command for the spacenav daemon to send x events:
add the file "/etc/X11/Xsession.d/90-spnav_ctl" with the content

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/usr/bin/spnavd_ctl x11  start
Hope this helps,
Gaël
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rockn
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Re: Some information about Spacenav

Post by rockn »

Interesting, thanks for sharing !
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bejant
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Re: Some information about Spacenav

Post by bejant »

galou_breizh wrote:I managed to have the spacenav working at startup on Ubuntu 14.04. Here is my setup, though I don't like it:
I added two lines at the beginning the init script "/etc/init.d/spacenavd"
Gaël, Thanks for sharing indeed! It's nice to have my Spaceball working in FreeCAD automatically now.
Edit 2015-01-24: It starts automatically only right after after booting, but not when I logout and log back in. I'll have to take another look...
dublya
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Joined: Wed Jan 30, 2019 5:43 pm

Re: Some information about Spacenav startup on elementary juno

Post by dublya »

Posting for anyone who would like to use spacenav with freecad on elementary juno.

I first followed the docs here: https://www.freecadweb.org/wiki/index.p ... ut_devices

To install spacenav on elementary juno:

1. sudo apt-get install spacenavd
2. sudo cp ~/.Xauthority /root/
3. sudo /usr/bin/spnavd_ctl x11 stop
4. sudo /usr/bin/spnavd_ctl x11 start

Then do these steps every time you boot up and login:

1. sudo xhost +
2. sudo /etc/init.d/spacenavd restart

What follows below is how to start spacenav on startup, so that you don't have to issue the commands every time.

( I brought this over from where I originally posted the question : https://elementaryos.stackexchange.com/ ... 8141#18141 )

It turned out I did not actually need to use sudo with these commands. That said, something I did, tho I can't re-create it, did allow me to issue the commands preceeded by sudo. I ran the script with the sudo commands and was prompted by a desktop dialogue box to enter my password. If anyone can re-create, this may solve the original question.

What I did was to save the 2 commands (without sudo) in a bash script in my home folder. Then I gave it permissions to be executed by me and my group. Then, in elementary juno, I went to System Settings > Applications > Startup and clicked the + in bottom left to add the script.

This action creates a file in ~/.config/autostart/ with basic info that results in something very similar to my original screenshot, named Custom Command and with a stock icon. I was able to clean up the look by editing basic info in this file, like name, and adding an icon in ~/.local/share/icons/hicolor/128x128/apps/ called spacenavd.png.

Here is how it looks now:

Image

Here is the spacenavd.sh file in my home folder

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#! /bin/bash
    
xhost +
/etc/init.d/spacenavd restart
The permissions on the script

Image


The dekstop file at ~/.config/autostart/ which I renamed spacenavd.desktop

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[Desktop Entry]
Name[en_US]=Spacenav
Comment[en_US]=3D Controller
Exec=./spacenavd.sh
Icon=spacenavd
X-GNOME-Autostart-enabled=true
Type=Application
And the spacenavd icon ~/.local/share/icons/hicolor/128x128/apps/spacenavd.png

Image
galou_breizh
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Re: Some information about Spacenav

Post by galou_breizh »

Can you please specify your setup? I can't get it working on Ubuntu 18 with FreeCAD v0.18.
dublya wrote: 2. sudo cp ~/.Xauthority /root/
On Ubuntu 18.04, there is no file `~/.Xauthority`, the correct file, I think, is `/run/user/$(id -u)/gdm/Xauthority`.
dublya wrote: 3. sudo /usr/bin/spnavd_ctl x11 stop
4. sudo /usr/bin/spnavd_ctl x11 start
This is useless if you run `sudo /etc/init.d/spacenavd restart` afterwards which kills the daemon.
dublya wrote: 2. sudo /etc/init.d/spacenavd restart
A more modern version of this command is `sudo systemctl restart spacenavd`.

What I need to do on Ubuntu 18.04 is to deactivate xinput for the device (I have an older SpacePilot but I guess this is the same with others) because it would otherwise be treated as a mouse.:

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Section "InputClass"
   Identifier         "SpaceNav"
   MatchProduct       "3Dconnexion SpacePilot"
   Option             "Ignore" "on"
EndSection
I did manage to have to work with the official 3dconnexion driver, which has the advantage that it can be launched as normal user. I didn't post anything about it yet because last time I tried it didn't work :(

Gaël

OS: Ubuntu 18.04.1 LTS
Word size of OS: 64-bit
Word size of FreeCAD: 64-bit
Version: 0.18.15711 (Git)
Build type: Release
Branch: master
Hash: 5caae5f430237a73cd17e283d45b3ac9ab005feb
Python version: 2.7.15rc1
Qt version: 5.9.5
Coin version: 4.0.0a
OCC version: 7.3.0
Locale: English/UnitedStates (en_US)
dublya
Posts: 8
Joined: Wed Jan 30, 2019 5:43 pm

Re: Some information about Spacenav

Post by dublya »

here is my setup on a model A1398 macbook pro 2012

OS: elementary OS 5.0 Juno
Word size of OS: 64-bit
Word size of FreeCAD: 64-bit
Version: 0.18.15697 (Git) AppImage
Build type: Release
Branch: master
Hash: dedaa807629ab25cf32977d30bf7610f1346aff7
Python version: 2.7.6
Qt version: 4.8.6
Coin version: 4.0.0a
OCC version: 7.3.0
Locale: English/UnitedStates (en_US)

Screenshot from 2019-01-31 11-34-00.png
Screenshot from 2019-01-31 11-34-00.png (201.23 KiB) Viewed 2192 times
galou_breizh
Posts: 436
Joined: Wed Sep 15, 2010 9:38 am

Re: Some information about Spacenav

Post by galou_breizh »

Thanks for the info.

Could you please help us (me) making this work by answering the few questions I had?

Thanks a lot!
Gaël
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