---
name: "spacenavd"
section: "8"
platform: "linux"
package: "spacenavd"
version: "1.3.1-1"
release: "Debian 13 (Trixie)"
platforms: ["linux"]
url: "https://new.carta.tech/spacenavd"
---

# spacenavd(8)

daemon for 3D-input-devices

## NAME

spacenavd, spnavd\_ctl - daemon for 3D-input-devices

## SYNOPSIS

**spacenavd**\
 **spnavd\_ctl**

## DESCRIPTION

This manual page documents briefly the **spacenavd** commands.

The **spacenav** project provides a free, compatible alternative, to the proprietary 3Dconnexion device driver and SDK, for their 3D input devices (called  “space navigator”,  “space pilot”,  “space traveller”, etc).

**spacenavd,** is a free software replacement user-space driver (daemon), for 3Dconnexion's space-something 6dof input devices. It's compatible with the original 3dxsrv proprietary daemon provided by 3Dconnexion, and works perfectly with any program that was written for the 3Dconnexion driver.

### Starting

Depending on how your system startup process is set up, it might be the case that the spacenavd daemon starts before the X server (for instance if you don't use a graphical login). In that case the daemon will start properly, but won't connect to the X server until explicitly told to do so. You can do that by running **spnavd\_ctl x11** **start** as root, or by using the graphical **spnavcfg** program. You don't really want to have to do that all the time though, so it's a better idea to add the aforementioned **spnavd\_ctl** command to either your ~/.xsession or ~/.xinitrd file, or the system-wide /etc/X11/Xsession file.

### Configuration

The **spacenavd** daemon reads a number of options from the /etc/spnavrc file. If that file doesn't exist, then it uses default values for everything. You may use the graphical **spnavcfg** program to interactively set any of these options.  The daemon should respond immediately to your changes, and also the configuration file should be updated automatically.

## AUTHOR

**spacenavd** was written by John Tsiombikas (nuclear@member.fsf.org)

This manual page was assembled by M G Berberich \<berberic@invalid\>, for the Debian project (but may be used by others).