how to get USB HID ID of pressed keyboard keys

6,510

The answer is:

su -c "while true; do od --read-bytes=144 --width=144 -x /dev/input/event3 | awk 'NF > 1 { print \$12 }'; done"

Explanition

With the tree command I have found this

$ tree /dev/input/by-path
/dev/input/by-path/
├── pci-0000:00:1a.0-usb-0:1.1:1.0-event-kbd -> ../event3
├── pci-0000:00:1a.0-usb-0:1.1:1.1-event -> ../event4
├── pci-0000:00:1d.2-usb-0:1:1.0-event-mouse -> ../event2
└── pci-0000:00:1d.2-usb-0:1:1.0-mouse -> ../mouse0

Ok, so /dev/input/event3 is my keyboard.

The od command dumps files in octal and other formats.

  • With the -x option it dumps hexadecimal.
  • And with the --width=144 option it dumps only one line per keypress (one line is 144 Bytes long).
  • Option --read-bytes=144 quits od after 144 Bytes.

The awk command prints the 12th field out of the whole line. That only, if the number of fields NF is greater then 1, because every second line is just a line break.

The while true loop around the whole thing is because if I type some letter keys it breaks. I get no more results, only 0000. But the od command quits reading after 144 Bytes (one key press). After that it is restarted. There is surely a better fix for that, but this is a good workaround.

Example output (I pressed a few times Return, RightCtrl and Backspace, which gives me the correct numbers when comparing to this document from microsoft (PDF) or this text file document)

0028
0028
0028
00e4
00e4
00e4
002a
002a
002a
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erik
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erik

Updated on September 18, 2022

Comments

  • erik
    erik about 1 year

    What I want to do: Get the USB HID IDs when I press the keys of my truly ergonomic keyboard to be able to reprogram the firmware of the keyboard.

    I know there is this list from microsoft with a lot of USB HID IDs.

    But it would be easier to find the ID of a key by just typing it and seeing it displayed in a program. Especially for some media keys, which I don’t find in that list from microsoft.

    Does such a program exist? Could be a command line program. Linux preferred, but Windows would be an option.

    PS: I have seen, that this question on stackoverflow has an interesting answer. But I can’t find /dev/usb/hiddev0 on my system (Fedora 17).

    Update

    In this question the answer from @Andy Ross helped me to at least get some output, when pressing a key. I did

    xxd -c 144 /dev/input/by-path/pci-0000:00:1a.0-usb-0:1.1:1.0-event-kbd
    

    But it is still not really readable. And not always the same, when I press the same key.

    Update2

    In this question a python script is linked, that reads the input device and should print it. But on this computer at work I have no rights to access the device with this python script.

    • Kevin Versfeld
      Kevin Versfeld almost 11 years
      Describe your specific application which will allow users to provide better solutions that specifically meets your needs.
    • erik
      erik almost 11 years
      @mdpc There is nothing more to say. I want to easily get the USB HID ID numbers of my keyboard without having to search in the linked list from microsoft. Maybe this question is better on stackoverflow? superuser seems more for users, not for hackers. can someone move this question?
    • slhck
      slhck almost 11 years
      Hi erik. I don't think it's absolutely necessary to move your question to Stack Overflow, as we Super Users surely also do some hacking here and there :) If you'd really like to have it moved, leave me a comment.
  • erik
    erik almost 11 years
    No, I want the USB HID ID numbers. Not the X keycodes. xev only prints X keycodes.
  • loadaverage
    loadaverage almost 11 years
    Oh, sorry. Maybe use dmesg|grep hid?
  • erik
    erik almost 11 years
    No, sorry. dmesg does not give you an event for every key press. But that is what I want to have.