Nicotine 🚬

High-performance EVE Online multiboxing tool for Linux (X11 & Wayland), inspired by EVE-O Preview.

Illuminated is recruiting!

Features

• Instant client cycling with mouse buttons (forward/backward) or targeted switching (jump to client N)
• Always-on-top overlay showing all clients and their status
• Daemon architecture for near-zero-latency window switching
• Auto-stack windows to perfectly center multiple EVE clients
• Draggable overlay with middle-mouse button (X11 only)
• Auto-detects display resolution - works on any monitor setup
• Multi-compositor support - Works on X11, KDE Plasma (Wayland), Sway, and Hyprland
• Minimize inactive clients - Optional feature to reduce resource usage by minimizing unfocused clients

Roadmap

• Comprehensive documentation
• More configuration options
• Optional preview windows
• Overlay redesign

Quick Install

One-Line Installer (Recommended)

curl -sSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/isomerc/nicotine/master/install-github.sh | bash

Then restart your terminal and run:

nicotine start    # Automatically runs in background

From Source

git clone https://github.com/isomerc/nicotine
cd nicotine
./install-local.sh

Then restart your terminal and run:

nicotine start    # Automatically runs in background

Usage

Basic Commands

nicotine start          # Start everything (daemon + overlay)
nicotine stop           # Stop all Nicotine processes
nicotine stack          # Stack all EVE windows
nicotine forward        # Cycle to next client
nicotine backward       # Cycle to previous client
nicotine 1              # Jump to client 1
nicotine 2              # Jump to client 2

Targeted Cycling

By default, nicotine 1, nicotine 2, etc. use window detection order. To define your own order, create ~/.config/nicotine/characters.txt:

Main Character
Alt One
Alt Two

Each line is a character name (without "EVE - " prefix). Line 1 = target 1, line 2 = target 2, etc. Bind these commands to hotkeys in your desktop environment for quick access.

Mouse Bindings

Native Support (Works on X11 & Wayland):

Nicotine has built-in mouse button detection that works universally across all display servers and compositors

Quick Setup:

1. Add your user to the input group:

   sudo usermod -a -G input $USER

2. Log out and log back in (required for group membership to take effect)
3. Start Nicotine - mouse buttons work automatically!

Configuration: Edit ~/.config/nicotine/config.toml to customize:

enable_mouse_buttons = true
forward_button = 276   # Button 9 (forward/side button)
backward_button = 275  # Button 8 (backward button)
mouse_device_name = "" # Optional takes priority over mouse_device_path, use evtest to find name of the device
mouse_device_path = "/dev/input/event3" # Optional and not created on first run, find the correct device with evtest

If using mouse_device_name the string must be na exact match, you can list your devices with evtest.

$ sudo evtest
...
/dev/input/event16:     Logitech PRO X
...

In ~/.config/nicotine/config.toml set

mouse_device_name = "Logitech PRO X"

Device is configuration priority order is:

1. Name
2. Path
3. Autodetect

Common button codes:

• 275 = BTN_EXTRA (button 8, backward)
• 276 = BTN_SIDE (button 9, forward)
• 277 = BTN_FORWARD
• 278 = BTN_BACK

Find your button codes:

sudo evtest  # Select your mouse, then click buttons to see their codes

Troubleshooting:

• Verify group membership: groups | grep input
• Check permissions: ls -l /dev/input/event*
• Disable if needed: enable_mouse_buttons = false in config

Keyboard Bindings

Quick Setup:

1. Add your user to the input group:

   sudo usermod -a -G input $USER

2. Log out and log back in (required for group membership to take effect)

Configuration: Edit ~/.config/nicotine/config.toml to customize:

enable_keyboard_buttons = true
forward_key = 15  # TAB Key
backward_key = 15  # TAB Key - modifier_key applied if set in config
keyboard_device_path = None # Device path /dev/input/eventX (OPTIONAL but you may need to set this if keybinds don't work)
modifier_key = None # You will have to add this if you want a modifier key for backward cycling

Common button codes:

• 15 = KEY_TAB (TAB Key)
• 42 = LEFT_SHIFT

Find your button codes:

sudo evtest  # Select your keyboard, then click buttons to see their codes

Troubleshooting:

• Make sure you've enabled keyboard buttons: enable_keyboard_buttons = true in config
• Check for other device events, sometimes keyboards will have multiple events but only one is handling inputs

cat /proc/bus/input/devices | grep -B 5 "kbd" | grep -E "Name|Handlers"
sudo evtest /dev/input/eventX # Replace X with the correct event number i.e event11

Overlay Controls

• Restack Windows - Re-center all EVE clients
• Daemon status - Green = running, Red = stopped
• Client list - Shows all EVE clients with active indicator (>)
• Middle-click drag - Move the overlay (X11 only)

Configuration

Config file: ~/.config/nicotine/config.toml

Auto-generated on first run. Key settings:

display_width = 1920
display_height = 1080
panel_height = 0           # Set this if you have a taskbar/panel
eve_width = 1037           # ~54% of display width
eve_height = 1080
overlay_x = 10.0
overlay_y = 10.0
show_overlay = true        # Set to false to run daemon-only mode (no GUI)
enable_mouse_buttons = true
forward_button = 276       # Button 9
backward_button = 275      # Button 8
minimize_inactive = false  # Minimize clients when cycling away (saves resources)

Architecture

• Daemon mode: Maintains window manager connection and state in memory for instant cycling
• Unix socket IPC: ~2ms command latency (vs ~50-100ms process spawning)
• Non-blocking activation: Fire-and-forget window switching
• Native mouse support: Direct evdev access for universal mouse button detection

Requirements

Display Server Support

Nicotine supports both X11 and Wayland (compositor-dependent):

• X11 - Full support (all features)
• Wayland - KDE Plasma - Full support via wmctrl (XWayland)
• Wayland - Sway - Full support via swaymsg
• Wayland - Hyprland - Full support via hyprctl
• Wayland - GNOME - Not supported (restrictive APIs)

Dependencies

Required:

• wmctrl - Window management on X11 and KDE Plasma Wayland

Wayland-specific (compositor tools):

• KDE Plasma: wmctrl (uses XWayland compatibility)
• Sway: swaymsg (included with sway)
• Hyprland: hyprctl (included with hyprland)

Install:

# Arch
sudo pacman -S wmctrl

# Ubuntu/Debian
sudo apt install wmctrl

# Fedora
sudo dnf install wmctrl

For mouse button support, add yourself to the input group (see Mouse Bindings section).

Wayland Support & Known Limitations

What works:

• Mouse buttons (native evdev support, no external tools needed)
• Window detection and cycling (all supported compositors)
• Window stacking (KDE/Sway/Hyprland)
• Auto-detection of display server and compositor

Limitations:

• Overlay dragging disabled on Wayland (security model prevents arbitrary window positioning)
  • Workaround: Use compositor window management (e.g., Super+drag)
• GNOME not supported (restrictive window management APIs)

Building from Source

# Install Rust
curl --proto '=https' --tlsv1.2 -sSf https://sh.rustup.rs | sh

# Build
cargo build --release

# Binary at: target/release/nicotine

License

See LICENSE