- keyWatcher -

	keyWatcher (fb) Download latest: keyWatcher-2.0.1.tar.bz2 KeyWatcher is a daemon that monitors events from the new Linux input system and to perform actions based on certain events. In other words, multimedia keys like play, stop, mute, etc. can be made to do what they say... It is similar to LinEAK and xhkeys, but does not require X. The downside is you need a device that supports the Linux input system. In 2.4 kernels very few devices support the new input system (USB keyboards should work). In 2.6 most input devices use the new input system. A 2.6 kernel is strongly recommended. If you are having problems setting things up, take a look at this Ubuntu howto.

	keyWatcher: 2.0.1 28-Jan-2006 (fb) Changes: Only be verbose when asked to be verbose. Fixed handling of unpluggin/replugging input devices. Added keyConfig.desktop. Thanks to Frank DiPrete. Linux kernel 2.6 recommended.

	keyWatcher: 2.0.0 18-Dec-2005 (fb) Changes: Added multi-key support. Added support to ignore input events from a device. Misc fixes Linux kernel 2.6 recommended.

	Fedora 3 - Linux 2.6.9 03-Jan-2005 (fb) A number of changes: Autoconf cleanup. Added support for key filtering. Added support for unicode labels. Added support for virtual input device (/dev/uinput). Added support for hot-config via the UI. Added German translation.

	Fedora 3 - Linux 2.6.9 01-Jan-2005 (fb) Minor updates to UI and link against qt-mt. No problems on Fedora 3.

	RedHat 8.0 breakage 28-Dec-2002 (fb) Sigh... after installing RedHat 8.0 keyWatcher stopped working. Apparently the USB hid-core out of RedHat's 2.4.18 kernel is lacking. After patching the kernel it works again (I just dropped a known working hid-core from a Mandrake 2.4.18 kernel into the RedHat kernel).

	keyWatcher 11-Aug-2002 (fb) A new multimedia keyboard made me do it... It has those fancy extra function keys (play, stop, mute, etc). At first I tried LinEAK which didn't quite work with all the extra keys. Some of the keycodes generated by the keyboard are > 255 which the normal keyboard handler can't handle - but the (new) input event system can! As an additional bonus keyWatcher will also work outside X :) LinEAK made most of them work, but not all :( As it turns out, the keys that didn't work generated key codes greater than 255 and apparently the normal (kernel) keyboard handler is feeling its age and refuses to pass them on to X. The (new) input event system in the Linux kernel (2.4) has no such limitation. Thus keyWatcher arose out of the ashes. There's also xhkeys, which I found after writing my proggy :( This proggy works behind the curtain, so the only thing worth a screenie is the config utility: