Input

crosvm supports virtio-input devices that provide human input devices like multi-touch devices, trackpads, keyboards, and mice.

Events may be sent to the input device via a socket carrying virtio_input_event structures. On Unix-like platforms, this socket must be a UNIX domain socket in stream mode (AF_UNIX/AF_LOCAL, SOCK_STREAM). Typically this will be created by a separate program that listens and accepts a connection on this socket and sends the desired events.

On Linux, it is also possible to grab an evdev device and forward its events to the guest.

The general syntax of the input option is as follows:

--input DEVICE-TYPE[KEY=VALUE,KEY=VALUE,...]

For example, to create a 1920x1080 multi-touch device reading data from /tmp/multi-touch-socket:

crosvm run \
  ...
  --input multi-touch[path=/tmp/multi-touch-socket,width=1920,height=1080]
  ...

The available device types and their specific options are listed below.

Input device types

Evdev

Linux only.

Passes an event device node into the VM. The device will be grabbed (unusable from the host) and made available to the guest with the same configuration it shows on the host.

Options:

• path (required): path to evdev device, e.g. /dev/input/event0

Example:

crosvm run \
  --input evdev[path=/dev/input/event0] \
  ...

Keyboard

Add a keyboard virtio-input device.

Options:

• path (required): path to event source socket

Example:

crosvm run \
  --input keyboard[path=/tmp/keyboard-socket] \
  ...

Mouse

Add a mouse virtio-input device.

Options:

• path (required): path to event source socket

Example:

crosvm run \
  --input mouse[path=/tmp/mouse-socket] \
  ...

Multi-Touch

Add a multi-touch touchscreen virtio-input device.

Options:

• path (required): path to event source socket
• width (optional): width of the touchscreen in pixels (default: 1280)
• height (optional): height of the touchscreen in pixels (default: 1024)
• name (optional): device name string

If width and height are not specified, the first multi-touch input device is sized to match the GPU display size, if specified.

Example:

crosvm run \
  ...
  --input multi-touch[path=/tmp/multi-touch-socket,width=1920,height=1080,name=mytouch2]
  ...

Rotary

Add a rotating side button/wheel virtio-input device.

Options:

• path (required): path to event source socket

Example:

crosvm run \
  --input rotary[path=/tmp/rotary-socket] \
  ...

Single-Touch

Add a single-touch touchscreen virtio-input device.

Options:

• path (required): path to event source socket
• width (optional): width of the touchscreen in pixels (default: 1280)
• height (optional): height of the touchscreen in pixels (default: 1024)
• name (optional): device name string

If width and height are not specified, the first single-touch input device is sized to match the GPU display size, if specified.

Example:

crosvm run \
  ...
  --input single-touch[path=/tmp/single-touch-socket,width=1920,height=1080,name=mytouch1]
  ...

Switches

Add a switches virtio-input device. Switches are often used for accessibility, such as with the Android Switch Access feature.

Options:

• path (required): path to event source socket

Example:

crosvm run \
  --input switches[path=/tmp/switches-socket] \
  ...

Trackpad

Add a trackpad virtio-input device.

Options:

• path (required): path to event source socket
• width (optional): width of the touchscreen in pixels (default: 1280)
• height (optional): height of the touchscreen in pixels (default: 1024)
• name (optional): device name string

Example:

crosvm run \
  ...
  --input trackpad[path=/tmp/trackpad-socket,width=1920,height=1080,name=mytouch1]
  ...

Custom

Add a custom virtio-input device.

• path (required): path to event source socket
• config_path (required): path to file configuring device

crosvm run \
  --input custom[path=/tmp/keyboard-socket,config-path=/tmp/custom-keyboard-config.json] \
  ...

This config_path requires a JSON-formatted configuration file. "events" configures the supported events. "name" defines the customized device name, "serial" defines customized serial name. The properties and axis info are yet to be supported.

You can find an example config JSON from /devices/tests/data/input/example_custom_input_config.json. It configs the same supported events as keyboard's supported events(default_keyboard_events in devices/src/virtio/input/defaults.rs). Here is a portion of the example config file:

{
  "name": "Virtio Custom Test",
  "serial_name": "virtio-custom-test",
  "events": [
    {
      "event_type": "EV_KEY",
      "event_type_code": 1,
      "supported_events": {
        "KEY_ESC": 1,
        "KEY_1": 2,
        "KEY_2": 3,
          ...
        "KEY_BACK": 158,
        "KEY_HOMEPAGE": 172,
        "KEY_PRINT": 210
      }
    },
    {
      "event_type": "EV_REP",
      "event_type_code": 20,
      "supported_events": {
        "REP_DELAY": 0,
        "REP_PERIOD": 1
      }
    },
    {
      "event_type": "EV_LED",
      "event_type_code": 17,
      "supported_events": {
        "LED_NUML": 0,
        "LED_CAPSL": 1,
        "LED_SCROLLL": 2
      }
    }
  ]
}