CueCat Driver

From Armand Winter

    The CueCat keystroke automator is a FREE hand-held device that attaches to your computer
    that connects between the keyboard and the keyboard port, and will not interfere with
    your mouse or keyboard function.

    To use the :CueCat reader, just run its 'nose' across UPC and ISBN codes, proprietary cue codes,
    and many other standard product codes. With just one swipe, the :CueCat reader instantly transports your
    Internet browser to a specific Web page that's directly related to the product or advertisement you scanned.

    CueAct is a userspace utility provided as part of the CueCat driver software. Its purpose is to exploit barcodes
    read by a CueCat reader, and decoded by the CueCat driver, by performing an action of interest associated with the
    barcode swiped (the most obvious being to link a barcode with a suitable database to look up in no time the information
    relevant to that barcode).

Without CueAct enabled the information from the barcode is just dumped into a terminal.

Get a CueCat at RadioShack, it's a giveaway along with the new RS catalog or go here:

http://www.cuecat.com/index.html?mc=cuecat

It may only be currently available in the US. I'm not sure.

The CueCat driver is a driver for the Linux kernel. It provides a standard /dev interface to read
barcodes from one or more CueCat devices connected to your computer.

    It was built for the 2.2.16 kernel or the linux-2.4.0-test7 kernel and requires recompiling the kernel
    because it is a real device driver. After that you can just update the module after the first recompile
    for any newer versions if you choose module under character devices in xconfig.

Get a CueCat at RadioShack, it's a giveaway along with the new RS catalog or go here:

http://www.cuecat.com/getcat.html

Download the 93K file here:

http://opensource.lineo.com/cuecat/cuecat_driver/

Other resources here:

http://opensource.lineo.com/cuecat/

All the directions are in the README file of the tarball.

Assuming you have the 2.2.16 kernel sources installed and ready to compile on your computer
with /usr/src/linux->linux-2.2.16;

    #cd ${HOME}
    #tar -zx < cuecat-0.1.4.tar.gz
    #cd /usr/src/linux
    #patch -p1 < ${HOME}/cuecat-0.1.4/cuecat-linux-2.2.16.patch

#make mrproper
#make xconfig

You should get a new option : Support for :Cue:Cat barcode reader in the "character devices" section
which will let you build it in the kernel or build it as a module.

    For each or the above options, you can choose to have the driver enabled by
    default or not. If you don't enable a driver by default, make sure
    "proc filesystem support" is enabled.

Select support for :CueCat on PC/AT keyboard port if your CueCat is on
the keyboard port of your PC, the most likely. The PS/2 mouse port is still experimental.

Now save, exit and recompile by invoking :

#make dep && make clean && make bzImage && make modules && make modules_install
#cp /usr/src/linux/arch/i386/boot/bzImage /boot/vmlinuz-2.2.16

Edit /etc/lilo.conf and run lilo or edit grub to reflect the change:

    Put a # in front of message=/boot/message to comment out this feature because
    it can't be used with the pristine kernel sources, in other words you'll loose the graphical
    boot up screen, so...

    Edit the line vga=274 to make it read vga=normal and
    don't forget to edit the line image=/boot/vmlinuz-2.2.xx to read
    image=/boot/vmlinuz-2.2.16 or just create another entry for the new kernel
    and rename the original kernel "oldkernel"

Create a "/dev/cuecat" device file by invoking :

#mkdir /dev/scanners
#mknod /dev/scanners/cuecat c 10 199

And reboot into your new kernel or...

If you have compiled the driver as a module reboot your new kernel after creating
the "/dev/cuecat" device file then invoke:

#insmod cuecat

Or just load it with COAS to enable it at each boot time.

Now build the cueact file

#cd ${HOME}/cuecat-0.1.4/cueact
#make

Install CueAct wherever you wish, for example /usr/local/bin/.

#cp ${HOME}/cuecat-0.1.4/cueact/cueact /usr/local/bin

When ran, CueAct expects to find a configuration file at ~/.cueactrc : to create one, simply
copy the supplied configuration file (cueactrc.sample) to your home directory as .cueactrc

#cp ${HOME}/cuecat-0.1.4/cueact/cueactrc.sample ${HOME}/.cueactrc

The CueCat driver is disabled by default (i.e. characters from the barcode
scanner will go through as if the driver wasn't there). To enable it, invoke :

#echo CC0=1 > /proc/scanners/cuecat

You can now read /dev/cuecat : as soon as the driver decodes a barcode, it
sends a text line containing the CueCat device ID, the type of barcode and the barcode itself on /dev/cuecat.

    If you want to be able to see the raw characters sent by the CueCat, or you
    want to test the userland program, you can disable the driver again by
    invoking :

#echo CC0=0 > /proc/scanners/cuecat

Now you can use CueCat by invoking this as user:

$cueact

    The software should start and wait for you to swipe a barcode with the CueCat.
    When you do this, if the barcode type is recognized, the corresponding command
    is executed : with the supplied configuration file, it is required that
    you have Netscape Communicator running prior to swiping a barcode. When you
    swipe a barcode, CueAct will instruct Netscape to go fetch information on
    that particular barcode using the appropriate web page.

Options :

    -f <filename> : specify alternative configuration file (default is ~/.cueactrc)
    -h                        : gives a help screen
    -o                        : read and process only one barcode
    -s                        : run silently
    -v                        : be verbose

By default, cueact runs continuously.

Tip : invoke "cueact -s &" from your ~/.profile file and you'll have cueact
automatically start each time you login.

Other people and projects for the CueCat device, and information about
barcodes:

    UScan Bar Code Scanning system :    http://sourceforge.net/projects/uscan/
    A Web Of Information About Bar Code :   http://www.adams1.com/pub/russadam/
    Colin Cross' decoding perl script :   http://www.mit.edu/~colin/cat.pl
    Mirror and other info for the CueCat driver :   http://www.flyingbuttmonkeys.com/cuecat/
    A trail-ware version of a commercial application written in Java2 by the list's own Ronnie Gauthier
    which doesn't require a device driver http://www.readerware.com/rwLinux.html