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linux - How can I read input from the hosts keyboard when connected via SSH?


I'm currently experimenting with an RFID card reader that emulates a keyboard. When you connect a card, it will read out data from it and then emulate keystrokes according to configuration.


I've connected this device to a Raspberry Pi and connected to the Raspberry Pi via SSH.


Obviously, when the reader now emulates keystrokes, they land on the local tty of the Pi (and not in my SSH session). So I'm having a hard time getting to that input right now.


Ultimately, I'll be writing a piece of software to handle the input, but for debugging and development purposes, it would be quite helpful to get the keyboard input in my SSH session.


I tried the following


sudo cat /dev/input/by-id/usb-HID_OMNIKEY_5127_CK_01010053423438303000835748112531-event-kbd

Which does give some output when I connect a card, but it's not what I would have expected. It seems like that would be raw input data. I would love to get the keys as readable values.


The data that is being read from the /dev/input device makes a bit more sense when piping it through hexdump:


pi@raspberrypi ~ $ sudo cat /dev/input/by-id/usb-HID_OMNIKEY_5127_CK_01010053423438303000835748112531-event-kbd | hexdump
0000000 eef8 5138 219a 0008 0004 0004 0024 0007
0000010 eef8 5138 21ad 0008 0001 0008 0001 0000
0000020 eef8 5138 21b3 0008 0000 0000 0000 0000
0000030 eef8 5138 6019 0008 0004 0004 0024 0007
0000040 eef8 5138 602a 0008 0001 0008 0000 0000
0000050 eef8 5138 602f 0008 0000 0000 0000 0000
0000060 eef8 5138 9e97 0008 0004 0004 0023 0007
0000070 eef8 5138 9eab 0008 0001 0007 0001 0000
0000080 eef8 5138 9eb1 0008 0000 0000 0000 0000
0000090 eef8 5138 dd18 0008 0004 0004 0023 0007
00000a0 eef8 5138 dd26 0008 0001 0007 0000 0000
00000b0 eef8 5138 dd2b 0008 0000 0000 0000 0000
00000c0 eef8 5138 1b9a 0009 0004 0004 0021 0007
00000d0 eef8 5138 1baf 0009 0001 0005 0001 0000
00000e0 eef8 5138 1bb4 0009 0000 0000 0000 0000
00000f0 eef8 5138 5a15 0009 0004 0004 0021 0007
0000100 eef8 5138 5a24 0009 0001 0005 0000 0000
0000110 eef8 5138 5a29 0009 0000 0000 0000 0000
0000120 eef8 5138 989e 0009 0004 0004 0020 0007
0000130 eef8 5138 98b3 0009 0001 0004 0001 0000
0000140 eef8 5138 98b9 0009 0000 0000 0000 0000
0000150 eef8 5138 d71d 0009 0004 0004 0020 0007
0000160 eef8 5138 d72b 0009 0001 0004 0000 0000
0000170 eef8 5138 d730 0009 0000 0000 0000 0000
0000180 eef8 5138 15a1 000a 0004 0004 0009 0007
0000190 eef8 5138 15b5 000a 0001 0021 0001 0000
00001a0 eef8 5138 15bb 000a 0000 0000 0000 0000
00001b0 eef8 5138 541e 000a 0004 0004 0009 0007
00001c0 eef8 5138 542d 000a 0001 0021 0000 0000
00001d0 eef8 5138 5432 000a 0000 0000 0000 0000
00001e0 eef8 5138 92a3 000a 0004 0004 0004 0007
00001f0 eef8 5138 92b8 000a 0001 001e 0001 0000
0000200 eef8 5138 92be 000a 0000 0000 0000 0000
0000210 eef8 5138 d123 000a 0004 0004 0004 0007
0000220 eef8 5138 d131 000a 0001 001e 0000 0000
0000230 eef8 5138 d136 000a 0000 0000 0000 0000
0000240 eef8 5138 0fab 000b 0004 0004 0021 0007
0000250 eef8 5138 0fbf 000b 0001 0005 0001 0000
0000260 eef8 5138 0fc5 000b 0000 0000 0000 0000
0000270 eef8 5138 4e22 000b 0004 0004 0021 0007
0000280 eef8 5138 4e31 000b 0001 0005 0000 0000
0000290 eef8 5138 4e36 000b 0000 0000 0000 0000
00002a0 eef8 5138 8ca5 000b 0004 0004 0023 0007
00002b0 eef8 5138 8cb9 000b 0001 0007 0001 0000
00002c0 eef8 5138 8cbe 000b 0000 0000 0000 0000
00002d0 eef8 5138 cb2b 000b 0004 0004 0023 0007
00002e0 eef8 5138 cb3a 000b 0001 0007 0000 0000
00002f0 eef8 5138 cb40 000b 0000 0000 0000 0000

That should have been the input: 7643fa46



Answer



This hacked together script works for me for now:


import string

from evdev import InputDevice
from select import select

keys = "X^1234567890XXXXqwertzuiopXXXXasdfghjklXXXXXyxcvbnmXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX"
dev = InputDevice('/dev/input/by-id/usb-HID_OMNIKEY_5127_CK_01010053423438303000835748112531-event-kbd')

while True:
   r,w,x = select([dev], [], [])
   for event in dev.read():
        if event.type==1 and event.value==1:
                print( keys[ event.code ] )

It uses python-evdev to read from /dev/input/foo and very dirtyly converts them to readable values.


This is what I get when I run the script and connect a card to the reader:


pi@raspberrypi ~ $ python test.py
7
6
4
3
f
a
4
6

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