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I'm currently working on a project where I want to control my PC with an AVR, via emulating a PS/2 keyboard. For this reason I currently have all the required hardware and some software libs, such as https://github.com/ndusart/ps2-keyboard for the AVR and http://python-evdev.readthedocs.io/en/latest/index.html for the PC part.
I also read about the PS/2 protocol from http://www.pcbheaven.com/wikipages/The_PS2_protocol/, http://www.computer-engineering.org/ps2protocol/ and http://retired.beyondlogic.org/keyboard/keybrd.htm

Then I've ran the command sudo cat /dev/input/by-path/platform-i8042-serio-0-event-kbd > ./kbrd.hex and connected a keyboard, then pressed and released the backspace.
I would except something like AA 66 F0 66, and maybe some FA's (ACK) in between, but what I've got is very different:

enter image description here

So my question:
Could this be caused by my misunderstanding of the working behavior of /dev/input/, or the problem is in the other parts of my setup? I expect to get the raw input from the buffer from /dev/input/, and this isn't that I think the raw should be.

EDIT
Another hexdump AFTER plugging in the keyboard: enter image description here

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    You can also use evtest, which will pretty print the input_event structure, to help you understand what is going on. Note that kernel input events are not the raw PS/2 protocol. If your question is how to access the raw PS/2 protocol, this needs some additional steps.
    – dirkt
    Dec 10, 2017 at 9:31

1 Answer 1

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The way you describe the process, you: started capturing output, plugged in the keyboard, pressed a key, then stopped capturing. If that is the case, I would recommend plugging in the keyboard, start capture, press key, stop capture?

EDIT: Adding additional information

I haven't gotten anything in my own quick research to fully line up with your dumps so far, but:

Per kernel.org documentation and source code, output from /dev/input interfaces is in the format:

struct input_event {
    struct timeval time;
    unsigned short type;
    unsigned short code;
    unsigned int value;
};

Which equates to:

  • timeval: 16 bytes (8 bytes for seconds, 8 bytes for microseconds)
  • type: 2 bytes
  • code: 2 bytes
  • value: 4 bytes 01 for keypress, 00 for release, 02 for autorepeat
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  • Edited Question with another dump
    – Sasszem
    Dec 9, 2017 at 22:23

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