Simulating combination of key presses from ADB terminal

Question

I want to send "CTRL + W" to the Chrome for Android to close active tab. I tried lots of things but there is no success to achieve it from terminal. (If i connect a USB Keyboard with OTG, i can close the tab with CTRL+W)

Firstly i do not want to write a application for this, i only want a shell command to use it from Tasker.

I read somewhere that to achieve this (CTRL+W keypress), i have to simulate key presses like this:

Down CTRL
Down W
Up W
Up CTRL

And to achieve this from terminal, it seems i have to use "sendevent".

I can simulate all hardware keypress with "sendevent" but can not simulate the normal keys with it.

For example, to down and up to the POWER key:

sendevent /dev/input/event1 1 116 1
sendevent /dev/input/event1 0 0 0
sendevent /dev/input/event1 1 116 0
sendevent /dev/input/event1 0 0 0

i use this commands, but i can not use this commands to send normal keys. (for example a,b,c etc)

The event1 is the gpio-keys, so i'm using it. And all the other input events are sensors and one is the charging driver. (max77693-muic)

The output of the "getevent -p" says that:

add device 1: /dev/input/event9
  name:     "compass_sensor"
  events:
    REL (0002): 0000  0001  0002  0003  0004  0005  0006  0007 
                0008  0009 
  input props:
    <none>
add device 2: /dev/input/event6
  name:     "barometer_sensor"
  events:
    REL (0002): 0000  0001  0002 
  input props:
    <none>
add device 3: /dev/input/event5
  name:     "light_sensor"
  events:
    REL (0002): 0000  0001  0002  0009 
  input props:
    <none>
add device 4: /dev/input/event4
  name:     "proximity_sensor"
  events:
    ABS (0003): 0019  : value 1, min 0, max 1, fuzz 0, flat 0, resolution 0
  input props:
    <none>
add device 5: /dev/input/event3
  name:     "gyro_sensor"
  events:
    REL (0002): 0003  0004  0005 
  input props:
    <none>
could not get driver version for /dev/input/mice, Not a typewriter
add device 6: /dev/input/event7
  name:     "Midas_WM1811 Midas Jack"
  events:
    KEY (0001): 0072  0073  00e2 
    SW  (0005): 0002  0004 
  input props:
    <none>
add device 7: /dev/input/event1
  name:     "gpio-keys"
  events:
    KEY (0001): 0072  0073  0074  00ac 
  input props:
    <none>
add device 8: /dev/input/event0
  name:     "max77693-muic"
  events:
    KEY (0001): 0072  0073  00a3  00a4  00a5 
  input props:
    <none>
add device 9: /dev/input/event8
  name:     "sec_touchkey"
  events:
    KEY (0001): 008b  009e 
    LED (0011): 0008 
  input props:
    <none>
add device 10: /dev/input/event2
  name:     "sec_touchscreen"
  events:
    ABS (0003): 002f  : value 0, min 0, max 9, fuzz 0, flat 0, resolution 0
                0030  : value 0, min 0, max 255, fuzz 0, flat 0, resolution 0
                0031  : value 0, min 0, max 255, fuzz 0, flat 0, resolution 0
                0032  : value 0, min 0, max 30, fuzz 0, flat 0, resolution 0
                0035  : value 0, min 0, max 719, fuzz 0, flat 0, resolution 0
                0036  : value 0, min 0, max 1279, fuzz 0, flat 0, resolution 0
                0039  : value 0, min 0, max 65535, fuzz 0, flat 0, resolution 0
                003c  : value 0, min -90, max 90, fuzz 0, flat 0, resolution 0
                003d  : value 0, min 0, max 1, fuzz 0, flat 0, resolution 0
  input props:
    INPUT_PROP_DIRECT

Also my gpio-keys layout file "/system/usr/keylayout/gpio-keys.kl" like this:

key 115   VOLUME_UP         WAKE
key 114   VOLUME_DOWN       WAKE
key 116   POWER             WAKE
key 172   HOME              WAKE

I can send all normal keyevents with:

"input keyevent KEYCODE_X" 

and to send more than one:

"input keyevent KEYCODE_X KEYCODE_Y"

You should think it can works like this:

"input keyevent KEYCODE_CTRL_LEFT KEYCODE W"

but keyevent down and up immediatly and i can not use it to send CTRL+W combination.

I know, the answer should be with "sendevent". But i can not find.

I also tried to adding some fake keys into the key layout file like this:

key 115   VOLUME_UP         WAKE
key 114   VOLUME_DOWN       WAKE
key 116   POWER             WAKE
key 172   HOME              WAKE
key 19    Q

i restarted the phone, then tried:

sendevent /dev/input/event1 1 19 1
sendevent /dev/input/event1 0 0 0
sendevent /dev/input/event1 1 19 0
sendevent /dev/input/event1 0 0 0

But it never writes "Q" into the any textbox.

Please help, thanks for your helps.

Camion

Answer 1

Oh YES!! I dont know why but whenever I feel stuck I come to stackoverflow and as soon as I start writing the question somehow I find the answer... xD Anyways, I was able to do it by following procedure:

1. Go to /system/usr/keylayout/
2. In my case there was no gpio-keys, anyways open Generic.kl
3. It has all the keycodes you would need to simulate anything... such as for CTRL_RIGHT keycode is 97 and for W keycode is 17
4. Thats all you need, now open tasker --> New task --> Add wait 5 sec --> Run shell: input keyevent 97 input keyevent 17

Now run the command and quickly open chrome, voila! in 5 secs you will see your tab disappearing!

Hope that helps all the future tasker pros ;)

Kudos...

Koon

Solution came after two years, thanks you. I tried and it works great. – Camion

It appears that there's no need to use input keyevent 17'. Tabs close for me by just using input keyevent 97` – Exosphere

Answer 2

The events section in getevent -p output lists all accepted key codes:

add device 7: /dev/input/event1
  name:     "gpio-keys"
  events:
    KEY (0001): 0072  0073  0074  00ac 

i.e. VOLUME_UP(0x73), VOLUME_DOWN(0x72), POWER(0x74) and HOME(0xAC) in case of /dev/input/event1. Everything else gets filtered out by the linux kernel input driver long before it reaches the Android framework (where the layout files you tried to modify are used)

Margarita

Thanks for your reply. So, it is impossible to simulating combination of key presses from ADB terminal? – Camion

It is possible. All I am saying that you need to make configuration changes starting on a much lower level (kernel driver) than you tried so far. – Margarita

Some one please move it to android enthusiast! – Koon

Answer 3

To supply a combination of keyevents, use keycombination, followed by the keyevent codes.

Example (Ctrl + F):

adb shell input keycombination 113 34

(On a side note, in the accepted answer, 97 is the keycode for BUTTON_B, which has the desired side effect of closing the tab in Chrome by itself, and multiple input keyevents will not yield a combination effect)

Centrosymmetric