Linux keyboard event capturing /dev/inputX

linux, linux-device-driver, linux-kernel

Solution

Thank you for the clue about `ls -l /dev/input/by-id` it helped me a lot !.

defenderdz@defenderdz-pc:~$ ls -l /dev/input/by-id | grep kbd
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root  9 nov.  28 14:04 usb-Logitech_USB_Receiver-event-kbd -> ../event7
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 10 nov.  29 00:33 usb-NOVATEK_USB_Keyboard-event-kbd -> ../event26
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root  9 nov.  28 14:04 usb-SONiX_USB_DEVICE-event-kbd -> ../event3
defenderdz@defenderdz-pc:~$

'kbd' is the suffix used for keyboard devices (I have 3 keyboards connected).

Your error is that you're accessing the wrong folder :

`/dev/input/` instead of `/dev/input/by-id`

In my example the correct path is :

defenderdz@defenderdz-pc:~$ sudo cat /dev/input/by-id/usb-NOVATEK_USB_Keyboard-event-kbd
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���]�>
 ���]�>
d���]�8
       ���]�8
              ���]�8
                    ���]�����]�����]��s���]H|���]H|���]H|���]�����]�� ���]��d���]Ǵ���]Ǵ ���]Ǵ

In your case

neel@pc1$ sudo cat /dev/input/by-id/usb-Plus_More_Enterprise_LTD._USB-compliant_keyboard-event-kbd

I'm not saying that it's the best solution but it works fine for me. You can even create an automatic detection of the keyboard by parsing the ls result ...

Problem

I was trying to capture keyboard events. e.g. I want to drill down a keylogger from the scratch. After 2 hours of fighting I found the following ``` neel@pc1$ ls -l /dev/input/by-id lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 9 2010-05-05 21:33 usb-Plus_More_Enterprise_LTD._USB-compliant_keyboard-event-kbd -> ../event1 lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 9 2010-05-05 21:33 usb-Plus_More_Enterprise_LTD._USB-compliant_keyboard-event-mouse -> ../event2 lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 9 2010-05-05 21:33 usb-Plus_More_Enterprise_LTD._USB-compliant_keyboard-mouse -> ../mouse1 ``` But when I tried to ``` neel@pc1$ sudo cat /dev/input/usb-Plus_More_Enterprise_LTD._USB-compliant_keyboard-event-kbd ``` It yields nothing THERE WAS NO OUTPUT after a bit more searching Now I am thinking probabbly something in Xorg blocks it. So Any more Information ?? and atthe end of the say how can I read the input from that file ?? or is there any other way of capturing keyboard events ??

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