Question

I am new in C but not in programming. I want access keyboard keys through pointers. As I have tried it with far pointer and use the address 0x417 and 7th bit on with my programming in my P2 system on Windows box. Now I want to start working in Linux and trying to use the same function but nothing happen with caps lock. Any one can send me some good tutorial about the hardware and file attribute access in Ubuntu Linux.

I am very much thankful to you all.

Regards,

Answer 1

You don’t access the keyboard thru pointers on Linux.

If you are thinking of a graphical application, it uses X11, and its underlying protocol (which is very complex for newbies). If you are a newbie, I strongly recommend using a graphical toolkit library like Qt or GTK.

If you are thinking of a console application, I do recommend using a library like ncurses or perhaps readline.

You could indeed read the raw keyboard (since e.g. the Xorg server does), but this is painful. You’ll need to learn about tty-s and the details are painful. You’ll also need to learn about the raw linux keyboard (I forgot the details, but study the Xorg server for more).

You really should explain what you want to do. Be aware that understanding in full detail what is a tty or what is the raw keyboard takes months of work. And you should be familiar with linux system calls before even starting.

You should take advantage that nearly all Linux software is free; so you can study its source code.