I am a new Linux user and have settled on Ubuntu 24.04.3 LTS in Wayland. In Windows, I used AutoHotKey to automate the keyboard to type repetitive text strings with a hotkey e.g. pressing Alt+E to type my@email.com
I believe the solution in Linux is to install an application like dotool or ydotool and then create a custom shortcut command. The problem is I cannot get dotool and ydotool to work. I’ll document the issues I’m having with ydotool as there seems to be more awareness and support for this application.
I am following the instillation instructions here:
Everything seems to go fine until I get to this step and get the following error:
sudo systemctl enable ydotoold
Failed to enable unit: Unit file ydotoold.service does not exist.
I came across this issue which suggests it could be a permissions issue on /dev/uinput and tried to the solution provided in that post but I still can’t enable ydotoold after a reboot.
Running this command works:
ydotoold --version
v1.0.4-38-g708e96f
But I am stuck here and not sure how to troubleshoot or progress further. Any help would be appreciated, thank you!
Project looks dead, and last commit was 2 years ago. Probably just some incompatible difference between a modern build and whenever the last work was done on it.
Read the real docs and repo though, not just somebody’s post about it: https://github.com/ReimuNotMoe/ydotool