autodetect keyboard device

[Patrick Schleizer]

Is there some way to autodetect the user's keyboard /dev/input/... device?

That would be required so this can become as simple for users as possible. I.e. a package kloak (#3) and autostart kloak. Once I know a way to autodetect the keyboard, I will configure kloak's systemd unit file to do that.

[Vinnie Monaco]

This should be possible according to
http://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/74903/explain-ev-in-proc-bus-input-devices-data
and
http://stackoverflow.com/questions/29678011/determine-linux-keyboard-events-device

That approach might have to be modified a bit in case multiple keyboards are attached (maybe starting a kloak instance for each one?).

[Patrick Schleizer]

Systemd also supports like templates and multiple instances. But maybe systemd is not the appropriate tool here. Perhaps an udev rule could auto add kloak once a new (usb or ps2) keyboard was added? Do you think this is something you could work on at some point in future or would you leave this as an exercise for distribution integrators? I am asking, because for me this is a very difficult task to solve.

[Vinnie Monaco]

Yes, this is definitely something I can work on. I'll probably build this directly into kloak, such that the devices default to something sensible. This way, it can still be used without package installation.

[Vinnie Monaco]

Should be fixed. Current solution is to select the first /dev/input/event* device that supports at least N KEY_* events, a good indication that the device is a standard keyboard (and not a power button, joystick, etc). Currently, N is default to 20 by #define NUM_SUPPORTED_KEYS_THRESH.

[Vinnie Monaco]

Fixed in v0.2 release. Tested on latest Whonix and Ubuntu.