Improve simplicity, in application startup, mapping keys, and installation.

[jeffbdavenport]

Hey there, I am a huge fan of this project, and it's definitely the best out there if you're a gamer, however I think the project lacks a lot of attention due to the complexity of the installation and the ease of use of the program in general.

I remember I struggled quite a bit for a few hours just trying to install btnx and set it up. And for the average Linux gamer, I can imagine they get fed up with it quickly. Just a couple days ago after re-installation of Ubuntu I was struggling getting btnx-config installed, I tried compiling it from source and it didn't work, I ended up having to go to some random third-party website that had the binary.

I would love to contribute to this project to help improve it's simplicity, however I am worried that if I add features to the project and do a pull request, it will just be ignored. How can I help contribute?

[cdobrich]

Hello. Sorry to hear you were having trouble compiling the code. I can try to help you succeed in compiling the programs.

There are some things you can do to contribute.

First, regarding troubles with compiling, there is need for further documentation on guides and troubleshooting. Your occasion of troubles could be useful as example is a troubleshooting section.

Second, there is need for people to assume the roles of making binary packages for each release. This would be particularly useful for distributions like Ubuntu, Linux Mint, and Fedora.

Third, your issue subject line asks for improvement simplicity, mapping keys, and installation. If you want to give me some more details on what you want, with specific steps and simplifications, I will listen.

Fourth, about application startup: What do you mean with this? On the Ubuntu and Fedora systems I have been using for years, the program always automatically starts up in the background. It seems to work just fine as far as I have encountered. The only caveat I have noticed is when you remove a USB wireless dongle, the program will require a restart (either through the GUI or the backend through system-scripts). I haven't checked whether this behavior happens for wired mice being removed and reinserted.

[jeffbdavenport]

Thank you for your reply, as I mentioned, regardless of my troubles I still love this project, and I hope to help solve the problems I encountered.

Regarding the application startup, for some reason, on Ubuntu 16.04 I have to run sudo btnx every time I restart, I will have to dig further into what the cause may be and I will get back on that.

Regarding installation, I had always wished I could use yum or apt-get to install the program but last few times I tried the package was non existent, I will check more on that.

Another thing at first it was very confusing to me that there were two packages to the program, however now it makes more sense. I think this would be the lowest priority but it would be nice to only have to install one package, as neither can work without the other to my knowledge.

Regarding installation, I like to think I'm pretty good at compiling code but for some reason btnx-config it just didn't exist after it claimed to be installed on Ubuntu 14.04 after compiling, I will have to troubleshoot some more and write a bug report.

Regarding mapping keys, I think for a lot of users there are way too many configuration options in the UI at first glance. I can see the average Linux user taking one look and changing their mind. I was thinking of maybe having a simple tab and an advanced one, and the simple one would be strictly for simply remapping keys and nothing more. Another thing is when detecting mouse buttons, I think it's a bit unnecessary to have to click each button several times, and it feels time consuming. Especially if you end up having to redo it. I think most people will realize they pressed the wrong button if they do.

That's another thing, for some reason I ended up having to redo the mouse detection and naming each button multiple times. As if I forgot to save the config, or it just didn't seem to load it due to the config being saved as root or something.

I would be happy to look into all these and provide much more accurate bug reports if this is something that interests you.

[jeffbdavenport]

Another thing, in Ubuntu 16.04 my mouse is listed twice on computer list, and it was causing it to execute both the normal button as well as the mapped button. But without btnx there is only one input mouse. To solve that problem I had to write a startup script that would run xinput disable ID and I had to do fancy things to determine which is was the faulty one, but every now and again it gets the wrong one

[jeffbdavenport]

Xinput* list not computer list