Get keyboard scancode of char

Question

I want to interact with a Virtualbox-VM to do an unattended install of Virtualbox-Guest-Additions. Therefore I have to send keystrokes to the VM. I'm able to do this by using the VBoxManage-API, where I send the HEX of the scancode to the VM:

# sends "b" to the VM
VBoxManage controlvm "$VMNAME" keyboardputscancode <HEX>

Now I want to send a complete command to the VM, like:

mount /dev/scd0 /media/cdrom0<Enter>

So I have to convert every single char of that string into a scancode and send it to the VM by using VBoxManage.

How do I convert these chars to the corresponding keyboard scancodes on Linux? My VM has the same keyboard mapping like my host. I'm looking for something I can use like that:

$ getscancode n
> 31

?

Portraitist

I just found showkey -s, which gives me the correct scancode. But that only works in a Terminal outside of my Window Manager, Otherwise I get Couldn't get a file descriptor referring to the console. – Portraitist

xev will provide the information you need, but not in such a neat format as showkey -s (so I'm hesitant to give it as an answer). You will need to put the cursor into the black box, then type the keys you need. – Torhert

See also Translate ascii codes to AT set 2 keyboard scancodes – Harner

Answer 1

showkey --ascii seems to work for most keys, and it does work in my GNOME Terminal.

Cheng

this only works in an interactive mode. I want to get the keychar from within a script, so i can call something like getscancode n. – Portraitist

showkey --ascii does either not report the correct scancodes in my case, or doesn't report them at all, just ascii glyph, octal pseudo scancode and keycode – Suhail