Connecting new devices stops device from working

[Furyspark]

As brilliant as this software is, it is giving me issues when connecting new devices.

Every time (after a reboot) I connect a keyboard OR mouse for the 4th time(possibly related to the amount of (virtual) keyboards/mice I have connected), that device doesn't transmit anything to Windows anymore. But it does still light up, and the other devices that were already connected still work fine. After that, any device I connect has the same issues. Until a reboot of Windows, which (usually) fixes things. Until I (re)connect devices again in the same way.

Now mind, this is BEFORE I ran any programs to create a context at all. And after I uninstall Interception and reboot my pc, and try connecting devices in the same way, everything works like expected again.

Also note, it doesn't matter if it's the same device or different devices I (re)connect. 4th time is the charm (in my case). Also not sure if related to Windows 10 or if this would be the case for all Windows systems, as I don't have a W8/W7 device to test it on. Though my notebook is giving the same issues (also W10).

[oblitum]

Thanks for reporting this... I suspect I realize what's happening here but I'm unable publish a fix because it means resigning the drivers, which I'm not able to do at the moment.

What I think is happening is that your reattaching process is increasing the suffix Windows use to name its device objects (device objects can be browsed with OSR DeviceTree for example). It's like something KbdClass0, KbdClass1, and so on. I've implemented Interception to filter devices up to the 9 suffix since previously I didn't know how the suffixes would go beyond that, increase to 10 or to the ASCII char coming after the character for 9, and indeed, it counts using just one char through the ASCII table. I've implemented Interception to just ignore and don't filter devices not ending with a 0-9 suffix, there may be a problem here. Your reattaching, I guess, instead of assigning the same name with same suffix for the same device on every attachment should be giving instead a newly suffixed device name.

[Furyspark]

Ah, that would explain it. Would you perhaps know of a way to reset the count and/or rename the device objects? That would be a temporary fix, at least.

I don't believe I can remove all the excess devices to start at 2/3, unfortunately. Razer and Logitech install a (virtual) keyboard AND mouse driver for every device I connect, and I don't know of a way (at the moment) to do something against that.

[oblitum]

Sorry, I dunno. This naming scheme is really internal behaviour of Windows drivers.

[oblitum]

Closing for now since solution is known and can be solved increasing maximum number of devices with access to driver sources. That's, in case this is indeed the solution for this particular report.

[Furyspark]

That is no solution, however. It can happen without starting any Interception-dependent program, after just having installed the driver and just unplugging and replugging a device a couple of times.

We can compile all we want, but in the end, it is most likely something in the part of the source code we have no access to without a license.

And yes, just to be sure, I have tried this, and also compiled the accessible source code with max mice and max keyboards set to 500.

[oblitum]

Hi, this has never been a issue for me and I've previously licensed it with specific purpose of having an increase of the number of devices supported, so, people interested enough may indeed have access to this by licensing. Changing library headers is not advised since library and drivers must be in-sync regarding such configuration, changing header alone can only bring more problems.

[AlexMKX]

@oblitum it is fixed in licensed version?
If yes, how I can get it?

[TaranVH]

"Can be solved by increasing maximum number of devices with access to driver sources"... what does that mean? How do I do that?

[Furyspark]

I'm not 100% sure either, but it seems this issue has been fixed regardless in the currently latest release (v1.0.1)

[oblitum]

As can be read at https://github.com/oblitum/Interception#license. There's a license that gives access to all source code including drivers. With access to them, increasing the limit and doing a custom build is trivial. The only remaining issue is signing, which requires acquiring a certificate to run it on any machine, or using the updated drivers through a self-signed certificate in a machine that's started with TESTSIGNING on.

I currently assume it as solved because I've licensed the drivers to companies and helped them doing exactly that. They needed more devices, they licensed drivers sources, signed with their own certificate, and the limit was trivially increased.

[TaranVH]

Mikau, I did uninstall 1.0.0, and I installed 1.0.1, but I still have the same issue.

Forgive me for being daft, but I still don't get it. Much of this stuff is very new to me, and I'm simply using a tool called intercept.exe created by Kamaz.

Is the problem that Logitech and Corsair are not using the drivers that Oblitum has provided to them...?

Or am I supposed to install a "self-signed certificate" onto my own computer? (And how?)

Or... should I uninstall all these devices in my device manager, http://i.imgur.com/BmMw9GF.png then plug them in and hope that Windows finds and installs the newest drivers for all my USB devices?

Or... do I just need to "contact francisco@oblita.com for acquiring a commercial license?" How much does that cost?

Any help is greatly appreciated. I'm trying hard to learn this stuff, but I'm not a programmer, I'm just a video editor who wants to have more keyboards for macro keys.

[oblitum]

@TaranVH I'm not affiliated with the tool you refer to but it's based upon my project, the Interception library and drivers, it should rely on it for it to work. Please read the README and check licenses, prices and anything is explained already. I'm sorry but the full source code commercial license is the only one through which driver's source code is available and through which device limit can be altered. From start, as explained on a legacy Interception web page linked at the current Interception's web page, once device counting reaches 10, for mouse or keyboard, there's no support in the downloadable version.

[Furyspark]

@TaranVH Based on your description, and having briefly looked at the tool that you linked, I think (though I'm not 100% sure if this is the only problem) that the tool uses the dll for Interception v1.0.0.

Another tool that I used which makes use of Interception loaded the .dll for it from outside, which meant I could just replace it with the one from the Interception v1.0.1 release. The tool you linked, however, doesn't seem to have a .dll file stored within its zip at first glance, so I don't think you'll have much luck unless you can convince the creator to recompile his project with the newer .dll or do it yourself (it does seem to include the source code for the tool, but if you don't have programming experience this will be a hassle).

The tool I mentioned that I use is only for mouse acceleration, so not really that useful to you, I'd guess.

[TaranVH]

Thanks oblitum for editing your comment to link to the legacy page; I didn't find that info otherwise.

Okay, this is all starting to make sense. The 10-device limit is an intentional part of the free license. According to interception.pdf, the cost for a commercial license, which allows the removal of this limitation, is $2,200 USD.

I'm perfectly happy to pay for useful software, but this is far outside of my price range. I'm not a developer looking to build a new product, I'm just a video editor who wants a few extra keyboards for macros.

The unfortunate thing is that 6 of my 10 HID Keyboard Devices are "virtual devices" that I can't get rid of, (one of them is my mouse!?) meaning that I'm left with just 4 physical keyboards to work with.

A real first-world problem, to be sure.

I wish the limit was 15 rather than 10, but I'm sure there are reasons for it. I'll make it work.

[oblitum]

I still hope to further improve the project and remove this limitation but there's no estimate and getting new certificates for signing drivers these days a real hassle. Back in the days I could do it as an individual developer, now one needs a company and EV certificates are needed, which are really expensive.

[vickash]

I'm not 100% sure either, but it seems this issue has been fixed regardless in the currently latest release (v1.0.1)

The tool I mentioned that I use is only for mouse acceleration, so not really that useful to you, I'd guess.

@MikauSchekzen Is it the current version of povohat's mouse acceleration software?
Let's be real. What else would it be?

I'm having the same problem (using a cheap non-DDM KVM to swap my keyboard between Win and Mac so it's REALLY annoying), and dropping the 1.0.1 DLL into the interaccel folder didn't fix it. I also made sure to uninstall the driver that shipped with interaccel 2.7 and reinstall using the installer in the latest release of this repo. Not that it matters anyway, since that wasn't changed apparently.

It looks like a header file changed in 1.0.1. Did you recompile interaccel by chance? I notice you mentioned recompiling something after changing the limits, but that was over a year before you concluded 1.0.1 fixed the reconnect issue.

[Furyspark]

Yeah, you're right, it's povohat's program I was talking about. What I did was use the dll I compiled for a program I was developing. I had expected the dll that's shipped with Interception 1.0.1 to work just as well, though.

I can't guarantee that it'll work (I'm no advanced programmer), but try compiling a dll yourself with the new headers, or use the dll I compiled for the program I was working on. Link: https://github.com/MikauSchekzen/LaunchZorro/blob/master/interception.dll
I compiled the dll as a 64 bit one, so I'm fairly sure it won't work with the 32 bit version of povohat's program, though.

[vickash]

@MikauSchekzen, thanks a lot. Will try it a little later and let you know if it works. On 64-bit Windows 10, so that shouldn't be a problem.

Also @TaranVH, what you're trying to do (uniquely map keys on many different keyboards to unique functions) is trivial on a Mac using Karabiner or the newer Karabiner Elements. Both totally free. I think you might be limited in the sense that you can't filter 2 of the exact same device (since it works based on vendor ID and product ID), but beyond that, you can map any key to anything else, or to a shell script.

Not recommending you switch to a Mac for editing, but you could buy any old Mac, install Karabiner, hook up your keyboards, and use it purely for input. Something running at least El Capitan might be a good idea though.

Make each key run a shell script sending a unique message over the network to your Windows PC via a TCP socket, or message queue or something, then write a simple daemon for Windows that listens for those messages and triggers relevant AHK scripts. It would be a bit of a Rube Goldberg machine, but it would work.

[oblitum]

This can be done just fine on Windows using Interception, or on Linux too, using Interception Tools for Linux.

The device limit you're facing with Interception on Windows is expected. As it has been explained already, unbounded device count is not offered at the moment, and you can change the limit only if you acquire a full source code license, because it needs device driver compilation, and also new code signing for booting out of Windows "Test mode".

[oblitum]

Also, compiling the library alone won't help with that, this is set at the driver level.

[oblitum]

Folks, I just created my Patreon and Liberapay pages, if I reach my initial goal of $400/month I'll have device limitation extended or removed and will look to buy a new certificate for signing the driver. If it goes beyond my expectations, there will be more to come 🙂, if not, ¯\_(ツ)_/¯.

[oblitum]

@evilC I recommend you to read this post on sustainable development of free projects: https://drewdevault.com/2018/02/24/The-road-to-sustainable-FOSS.html. I also suspect that you will consider all of his project of zero interest to you, which doesn't matter, this is about your will at patroning the person just as patroning the things the person creates.

Regarding your business proposals, thanks but I decline. I also would like to ask to reduce the noise a bit on the issue tracker regarding this, otherwise I'll have to delete messages, I have no interest in this.

[Alafalx]

Guys, stupid question — how to uninstall interception? Thanks in advance

[oblitum]

@Alafalx

• Obtain the installer from the download page.
• Run install-interception.exe /uninstall from an administrator prompt.
• Reboot.

[Alafalx]

thanks

[wmertens]

I think I might be running into this, but I have a hard time finding out. I have a waytools.com BLE keyboard that I use with AHKInterceptor and it works great from boot, but when I switch it to different hosts and come back to windows, it eventually stops working. I noticed in the monitor.ahk scripts that the virtual id of the keyboard keeps increasing, and now it doesn't show up.

When I look at device manager, I see nothing that indicates a keyboard number, is it an internal counter? When I connect the keyboard, Windows sees it:

Device BTHLEDevice\{00001812-0000-1000-8000-00805f9b34fb}_Dev_VID&01000d_PID&0000_REV&0110_b8f5e752141c\8&2ca88371&0&0045 was started.

Driver Name: hidbthle.inf
Class Guid: {745a17a0-74d3-11d0-b6fe-00a0c90f57da}
Service: mshidumdf
Lower Filters: WUDFRd
Upper Filters: 

But it doesn't provide any input. I can't find where the interception driver intercepts it.

I totally understand your need for a device limit, but does it have to be a device-over-time limit? Can it not be a devices-connected-at-the-same-time limit?

[wmertens]

In fact, just sleeping my laptop a few times is enough to reach the limit. Every time bluetooth disconnects, the device gets a higher internal id

[TaranVH]

yeah dude, that's just how it works, unfortunately. You gotta do a full restart to reset the IDs.
If you don't like it, you can use QMK instead...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GZEoss4XIgc

[wmertens]

@TaranVH :-(

Basically I want to disable my internal keyboard while I'm using my bluetooth keyboard on top of it. Do you perhaps know of another way to do this?

[TaranVH]

hmm, the QMK method only works if you have an actual USB connection. Perhaps construct a plywood and rubber box that you can put your laptop into so that the keys cannot possibly be pressed? heh.

…

On Wed, Apr 8, 2020 at 11:18 PM Wout Mertens ***@***.***> wrote: @TaranVH <https://github.com/TaranVH> :-( Basically I want to disable my internal keyboard while I'm using my bluetooth keyboard on top of it. Do you perhaps know of another way to do this? — You are receiving this because you were mentioned. Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub <#25 (comment)>, or unsubscribe <https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/AD2MGXY352ZSDVDLGAYDHC3RLVSEDANCNFSM4B5I4MNQ> .