rkvm VS kbct

You might take some inspiration (or some code) from https://github.com/htrefil/rkvm

I've used it and it works pretty well, is written in rust, and it has one big advantage - by emulating the keyboard and mouse at the linux evdev layer it avoids touching any of the desktop-specific apis. (It also has encryption, though over TCP so has issues with managing connections. I think your choice of UDP was a good one)

It looks like RKVM is supposed to work well, but I can't figure out how to compile the Windows client.

only one i know is https://github.com/htrefil/rkvm which either doesn't work or has so little documentation that you probably can't figure it out yourself

I had a similar problem with the Tecurs KB510 I got at work. The only way I found to type F1-F12 keys on Linux was to set up a hack with kbct [0] and the Super key... until I tried the configuration described in the gist you linked. Thanks a lot for that !

[0] https://github.com/samvel1024/kbct

I use KBCT and encourage others to support it: https://github.com/samvel1024/kbct

kbct

>Creating a "standardized experience" like Windows usually means that configurability goes right out the window. It's how you get abominations like dconf or the GNOME music player

I don't understand how you connected these dots and I'd suggest against calling things abominations. You don't have to use dconf or the GNOME music player, those aren't standardized. If someone does like them I think they're perfectly fine, they do exactly what they're advertised to do. It's also fine if you don't like them, they're just two options from the many configuration databases and media players that you can choose from.

>But why shouldn't I be able to run xbindkeys or sxhkd or whatever hotkey dameon I want?

In some ways you actually can but it depends on the hotkey daemon and how it's implemented. The reason for that is technical, those are implemented with X grabs which have a number of usability and security issues. There are a few key rebinding daemons that use evdev directly so they work with Wayland:

https://github.com/samvel1024/kbct

https://github.com/snyball/Hawck

But these also do have similar security issues to X key grabs, in that they effectively operate as keyloggers. If you're looking for an API that works purely within Wayland and lets unprivileged clients request key rebinding, that doesn't exist yet. Somebody would need to specify what that API looks like and figure out a good way to make it secure. What would the end goal of the API be, and how could the system (and by extension, the user) tell the difference between a legitimate hotkey daemon and a malicious keylogger? And would it actually be any better than the approach of snooping evdev? I don't know the answer to these questions but you may have more experience with this than I do.