Running under ArchLinux via Debtap wont Work

[TheCustomFHD]

I know that this is technically not supported, but the fact that the USB Driver side still uses SysV style Scripts, makes me think that this is terribly outdated. i also cant get the driver to start on newer Kernels. Is this Project still being maintained?

[JustCryen]

What would be the best way to try and get it working under systemd? (also Arch in my instance).
Is it worth rewriting these scripts or are there ways to convert / use the existing scripts already?

[TheCustomFHD]

If i remember correctly, which i probably dont, since it has been quite a while, the SysV scripts arent awefully complex, i think i remember that they simply started an executeable, but i might have missed some stuff, as i do not know SysV Files.
But im also very much thinking that the driver is simply too old and broken on newer Kernels, and likely expects a Linux 4.x.x kernel version

[JustCryen]

Thanks, I'll get back to it when I have more free time on my hands.

Obviously I wouldn't want to reverse engineer the whole thing but at the same time, it would be nice if I could get it working…

[megagtrwrath]

@JustCryen have you had any luck on this?
I can see your post here seems to indicate as such opentrack/opentrack#1918 (comment)

Are you able to specify how you accomplished this and/or fork this repo with your changes so others can follow?

[JustCryen]

@megagtrwrath yeah, I did manage to get it working.

• I used debtap on every package, I have not used the manager from AUR as it was incomplete, I used version 2.6.1 as it's the last version that can currently be patched to work with the Tobii Eye Tracker 5.
• Just use debtap on these .deb files without changing anything first and try to install, when you get any dependency errors, figure out which package is causing it and change it to either arch alternative or remove from the list if it was already satisfied by similar dependency listed.
• The post-install section of (I think) the usb service needs to be removed as we won't run it as a SysV service. This can be done during debtap package creation.

To install these packages just use sudo pacman -U <package_file> on the files generated with debtap.

After that, patch the file following instructions in this comment #6 (comment).
And in between the sed command and the repackaging step, apply this sed command as well #6 (comment) (mind the typo, should be unpack, not unpacked).

This is how you run it:
#6 (comment)

If I remember correctly it should be everything.
Just take into consideration that the /var/run/tobiiusb directory gets removed in between reboots and it needs to be created every time before running the tobiiusbservice.

[megagtrwrath]

Just to compact this down for anyone else who wishes to try this:
Grab the service and other files from this repo, then the 2.6.1 Manager from https://s3-eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/tobiipro.eyetracker.manager/linux/TobiiProEyeTrackerManager-2.6.1.deb

Use debtap on these packages and install them, being very specific to remove anything in the postinstall part of the USB Service package,

Once all packages are installed, go to the main dir of the Manager app, and run the following commands as root

cd /opt/TobiiProEyeTrackerManager/resources

asar extract app.asar app.asar.unpack
rm app.asar

sed -ri "s/types_1\.EtmModuleType\.TELEMETRY//g" app.asar.unpack/config.js
sed -ri "s/TPSP1/IS5FF/g" app.asar.unpack/main.*.js

asar pack app.asar.unpack app.asar
rm -rf app.asar.unpack

Finally, mkdir /var/run/tobiiusb and run the manager

[TheCustomFHD]

This seems huge! Unfortunately i dont have a lot of time lately, but if i find some, i will try this. Does anyone of you know how well this works to use on desktop as a mouse, or ingame?

[megagtrwrath]

I'm not having much luck getting it to talk to Opentrack yet, so I wouldn't get your hopes up.

And as for use as mouse, even less so.
Talon does have partial Tobii support that should allow it for mouse use, but they have not been open to discussion about having it work with other software for the tracking information from what I recall.
And I have not tested it, so cannot confirm if it works. (Might on X11, might not on Wayland, and possibly vary DE to DE)

[TheCustomFHD]

Ah, so if i understand correctly, its only functional within the Manager App? Thats a shame. There was some Talk about the SDK, but only for the Pro Stuff.. I suppose one could try to write a driver using that if one manages to get the SDK working.. but that seems unlikely and like a lot of work

[megagtrwrath]

I'm not really a developer, so I can't state it's feasibility, but I would think that, given we can actually get something from the eye tracker as seen here https://github.com/betaboon/python-tobii-stream-engine it could be wrapped into a fake virtual joystick and use that for Opentrack, as it does support joystick input for tracking

[JustCryen]

Glad you managed to get it working as well @megagtrwrath!
I also had no luck getting it to talk to opentrack.
The only packages that I actually have installed are:
tobii-config 0.1.6-1
tobiiproeyetrackermanager 2.6.1-1
tobiiusbservice 2.1.5-1

But for now tobii_engine_linux did not prove useful in getting anything to work yet.
The example code in this repo works fine without it.

[megagtrwrath]

I can get the Eye tracking input perfectly fine, and there does seem to be something on the headtracking stream but I am not sure that it's presenting the proper data.

So I think it may be possible to configure a fake joystick with it, as Opentrack does allow joystick input. Only thing is I am not sure how.

I am also seeing what happens if I link the .so from the stream_engine, but it doesn't seem to enable the tracker in Opentrack.
Likely cause the build is failing for that or is blocked elsewhere by checks for WIN32. (The cmake did only allow it via WIN32)

[megagtrwrath]

Currently stuck at this point.
It does build and appears to link properly to the so.

For context, this is me trying to use tracker-tobii from opentrack by linking it to the so from the files here.

[JustCryen]

This seems huge! Unfortunately i dont have a lot of time lately, but if i find some, i will try this. Does anyone of you know how well this works to use on desktop as a mouse, or ingame?

@TheCustomFHD
The mouse control seems to be possible using the talonvoice program (talon-bin in AUR)
Keep in mind that you have to disable the tobiiusbservice driver for it to detect successfully.

You probably don't have to install anything mentioned here for it to work.
Unless you have to calibrate the eye tracker as well.
My bad, Talon has its own calibration.

[JustCryen]

@megagtrwrath were you able to use the python-tobii-stream-engine you provided earlier?
I have the following error:
ModuleNotFoundError: No module named 'tobii_stream_engine'
Even though I have the tobii-config instaled that provides the libtobii_stream_engine.so file