zzeneg / qmk-hid-host

QMK HID Host

Host component for communicating with QMK keyboards using Raw HID feature.

Requires support on keyboard side, currently is supported by stront.

Architecture

Application is written in Rust which gives easy access to HID libraries, low-level Windows/Linux APIs and cross-platform compatibility.

Supported platforms/providers

	Windows	Linux
Time	✔️	✔️
Volume	✔️	✔️ (PulseAudio)
Input layout	✔️	✔️ (X11)
Media info	✔️	✔️ (D-Bus)

MacOS is not supported, as I don't own any Apple devices, feel free to raise PRs.

How to run it

All files are available in latest release.

Configuration

Default configuration is set to stront. For other keyboards you need to modify qmk-hid-host.json.

• device section contains information about keyboard. All values are decimal, make sure to convert them from hex using a converter.
  • productId - pid from your keyboard's info.json
  • usage and usagePage - default values from QMK (RAW_USAGE_ID and RAW_USAGE_PAGE). No need to modify them unless they were redefined in firmware
• layouts - list of supported keyboard layouts in two-letter format (app sends layout's index, not name)
• reconnectDelay - delay between reconnecting attempts in milliseconds

Windows

Manual/Debug mode

1. Start qmk-hid-host.exe
2. If needed, edit config and restart the app

Silent mode

When you verified that the application works with your keyboard, you can use qmk-hid-host.silent.exe instead (like add it to Startup). It does not have a console or logs, and can be killed only from Task Manager.

Linux

1. Update udev rules by running script (remember to update idVendor and idProduct to your values first):

   sudo sh -c 'echo "KERNEL==\"hidraw*\", SUBSYSTEM==\"hidraw\", ATTRS{idVendor}==\"feed\", ATTRS{idProduct}==\"0844\", MODE=\"0666\"" > /etc/udev/rules.d/99-qmkhidhost.rules'

   More info

2. Reconnect keyboard

3. Start qmk-hid-host, add it to autorun if needed

Development

1. Install Rust
2. Run cargo run
3. If needed, edit qmk-hid-host.json in root folder and run again

Changelog

• 2024-02-06 - add Linux support
• 2024-01-21 - remove run as windows service, add silent version instead
• 2024-01-02 - support RUST_LOG, run as windows service
• 2023-07-30 - rewritten to Rust