Onboard

how does auto click work?

Asked by Paolo Barresi

I'm sorry, I know it's supposed to be self explanatory but I don't get what it does because after I activate auto clicking it doesn't do anything. My guess is that it should allow to click on a key after hovering the mouse above it for a given time and in fact the button to activate auto-click actually allows for this behaviour but after activating it it doesn't even work on that same button. Now either I don't get what it's supposed to do or is bugged.

I'd actually like this feature for my sister who has limited movement and can only manage to use a special mouse with a big joystick even though it has buttons they still are a little troubling, avoiding having to press buttons would make things a lot easier.

PS1: I also don't get what the (left | right | double)-click buttons are supposed to do, but that's secondary.
PS2:I really like this app, thanks for the good work ;)
PS3: Sorry for the bad english.

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Paolo Barresi
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Francesco Fumanti (frafu) said : 		#1

Hi,

Your assumption about how auto-click should work is right.

The auto-click feature needs the mousetweaks package to work, as the auto click functionality is offered by the mousetweaks package. Could you verify whether the mousetweaks package is installed on your system?

Another reason for the auto-click not working: Onboard and mousetweaks are designed for the X server and not for the newer Wayland server. In other words, it works on Unity and other desktops based on the X server, but not on GNOME 3, the default desktop of Ubuntu 17.10, which uses Wayland.

If you happen to be using Ubuntu 17.10, if it is acceptable for you, I would suggest to install the Unity 7 desktop next to the default GNOME desktop. It is still available in the Ubuntu universe repositories. Once installed, you can choose what desktop to use at the login screen. Your sister should use the Unity 7 desktop if she wants to use the auto-click feature. (Or any other desktop using the X server.)

Finally, to work around the problem to type the password at the login screen, you might enable auto-login, if there is no risk of other persons using her account.

PS: I can confirm that Onboard and mousetweaks are still working on Ubuntu 17.10 with the Unity 7 desktop; it is what I am currently using.

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Paolo Barresi (paolobb4) said : 		#2

I'm so sorry, I should have specified my system, I'm using xubuntu so X wasn't the problem but it doesn't metter anymore, your suggestion about mousetweaks was correct and although calling *apt-get install mousetweks* claims mousetweaks was already installed and no changes were made it fixed it.

Many thanks for the quick responce.
PS: Comunque checco, potevi dirlo di essere italiano xD grazie mille è veramente un bellissimo progetto questo, complimenti.

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Francesco Fumanti (frafu) said : 		#3

I am glad that you were able to fix the problem.

Thanks for the compliments about Onboard and mousetweaks.

PS: Hai indovinato bene. 8-) Un attimo volevo pure dirti che potevi scrivere in italiano; ma dopo ho lasciato perdere, perché il tuo inglese mi sembra molto buono. :-)