input-over-ssh

Forwarding arbitrary input devices over SSH, such as gamepads/game controllers, mice and keyboards. Includes support for relative mouse pointer movement. See here for additional background and discussion.

(For the legacy implementation using xinput/xdotool, see the legacy branch.)

Usage

To use input-over-ssh, download input-over-ssh on both the client and server, and install python-evdev as a dependency.

Then navigate to the root directory on the client and run:

python -m input_over_ssh.client -L

This will print a list of all available evdev/libinput devices. If no devices appear, ensure the current user has access to the raw /dev/input device files (e.g. by adding the user to the input group).

Then pass the path of the device to be forwarded, and pipe the output to an instance of input-over-ssh running on the server. Also pass the -u flag to Python when running the client, to force unbuffered output. For example:

python -u -m input_over_ssh.client -p /dev/input/event1 | ssh hostname.example.com 'PYTHONPATH=/path/to/input-over-ssh python -m input_over_ssh.server'

For the adventurous, you ought to be able to replace ssh with mosh or netcat over UDP to further reduce latency.

For a full list of command-line options, run python -m input_over_ssh.client --help.