evmk tools

evmk is a alpha stage tool under development.

evmk is developed to learn actual keyboard behavior differences among keyboards to investigate ways to enable QMK-like home row mod and multilayer keyboard behavior on normal keyboards connected to the Linux system. It uses Python for ease of coding. C/C++/go re-implementation for speed and size is desirable.

evmk

evmk is a Linux evdev signal filter and logging script used with the interception-tools.

Supported features of evmk

• Key code remapping
• Key code logging
• Dual-Function keys (DFK) for tap and hold
  • Support tap behavior for short press to emit a key code.
  • Support hold behavior for long press to change keyboard mode
    • layer change to emit a different key code
    • additional mod keys to be emitted together with the original key code of keys pressed
  • Support classical hold behavior of repeat by tap -> short-gap -> hold
  • Support time independent hold detection mechanism in addition to the normal time based one
  • Release key code based on the last press code result
  • Layer keys (up to 8 layers) as DFK
  • Mod keys (8 mod keys: [LEFT|RIGHT][SHIFT|CONTROL|ALT|META]) as DFK
• Support pass through after consecutive 100 * ESCs

Usage of evmk

usage: evmk [-h] [-t] [-d] [-v [u|a|o]] [-g] [-m] [-s SECTION] [-l LOG]

A collection of python scripts to play with evdev events. version: 0.1
copyright 2022 Osamu Aoki <osamu@debian.org> license: GPL 2.0+ See See
https://github.com/osamuaoki/evmk

options:
  -h, --help            show this help message and exit
  -t, --timestamp       with timestamp
  -d, --delta           time as delta
  -v [u|a|o], --value [u|a|o]
                        key state value for log (default=u for ↑ ↓ →)
  -g, --group           group by event grp ending with SYN
  -m, --monitor         monitor only (no stdout)
  -s SECTION, --section SECTION
                        section to activate log: [1|2|3|4|5|9]
  -l LOG, --log LOG     set logging level (default=WARNING)

genmap

genmap creates keyboard remapping table in the simple CSV format.

Currently, remapping is supported for all TKL-key positions.

TODO

I see some shortcomings.

• evmk currently focuses on US TKL-key positions. But it can handle all full size key positions.

• evmk acts as mere pass-through for unsupported events such as mouse, joystick, ... .

• evmk doesn't trap native LED signals for CapsLock nor generate one for remap-generated CapsLock KEY events. NumLock situation should be similar.

LICENSE

GPL2+ or MIT whichever you like

Prerequisite: interception by Francisco Lopes

For evmk tools to be useful, interception-tools by Francisco Lopes is needed.

• For Linux: https://gitlab.com/interception/linux/tools (This is what I target)

• For Windows: https://github.com/oblitum/Interception

  • Blog: http://www.oblita.com/interception

Osamu Aoki osamu@debian.org 2022-08-14