Can I simulate mouse movements via terminal without xdotool?

Question

I would like to write a script to prevent a computer from locking by virtually wiggling the mouse. However, I do not have xdotool on the computer that I am using, and I cannot install since I am not root. Is there a way to move the cursor without using xdotool?

Answer 1

That you cannot install xdotool because you are not root doesn't mean you cannot run the program, for that you don't need any special privileges.

Just download and compile from source.

If you don't have access to a compiler then you can download the package for your system directly and extract the file from the package (for .deb first use ar, extracting from .rpm can be done with rpm2cpio)

Answer 2

According to this answer you can move the pointer of your mouse with command-line with the following procedure:

1. First you need to find mouse input device with

   grep mouse /proc/bus/input/devices | grep event
   

   You should see something like H: Handlers=mouse0 event7 in my case. It could output more then one line if you have more then one mouse (e.g. touchpad). The important part is event7, it means you will write to /dev/input/event7.

2. Then the following will move mouse pointer 100 pixels to the right:

   seconds=$(date +%s)
   type=2      # EV_REL
   code=0      # REL_X
   value=100   # 100 pixels
   
   printf '%08X%04X%04X%08X%08X\n' $value $code $type 0 $seconds | xxd -r -p | \
       perl -0777e 'print scalar reverse <>' > /dev/input/event7
   
   type=0      # EV_SYN
   code=0      # SYN_REPORT
   value=0
   
   printf '%08X%04X%04X%08X%08X\n' $value $code $type 0 $seconds | xxd -r -p | \
       perl -0777e 'print scalar reverse <>' > /dev/input/event7
   

I didn't test whether this procedure is equivalent to real mouse movement in the sense of interrupting locking mechanism.