wl-uinput-proxy

Proxies an existing Wayland connection, implementing zwp_virtual_keyboard_manager_v1 and zwlr_virtual_pointer_manager_v1 using uinput.

This is intended for making remote desktop implementions like wayvnc and RealVNC work correctly with compositors with broken/incomplete virtual input implementations, especially Smithay-based ones.

It has been tested to work on niri 26.04, with wayvnc 0.9.1 and RealVNC 7.17.0. With it, scrolling, compositor hotkeys, and keymaps work correctly.

There are a few limitations:

• You can't type characters which can't be typed using the current keymap.
• Initialization is slightly racy since the compositor may take some time to pick up the uinput devices. Also, getting the keymap is async.
• The keymap logic isn't perfect, and may fail to map complex key combinations.
• You need access to /dev/uinput.
• Virtual devices cannot be mapped to a specific seat, output, or compositor instance.

To use this with wayvnc, just prefix wayvnc with wl-uinput-proxy.

To use this with RealVNC 7.17.0's hidden Wayland support, ensure you have a working Xwayland setup (it's needed for the UI), then run it in user mode with a command like /usr/bin/bwrap --bind / / --dev-bind /dev/uinput /dev/uinput --bind /usr/bin/vncagent-wlr /usr/bin/vncagent-x11 /usr/bin/wl-uinput-proxy /usr/bin/vncserver-x11. The bind from vncagent-x11 to vncagent-wlr is required since it doesn't currently use it automatically. Note that clipboard currently only works unidirectionally from server to client since it's handled by vncserverui rather than vncagent-wlr and runs in Xwayland.

To use this with other applications, prefix them with wl-uinput-proxy. Note that only protocols supported by wl-proxy will be proxied.