hello Conor!

how can I help you today?

Hi Mark - phew, just caught you :)

Background: I am doing some development for a SoM Android boards.

"SoM"?

System on Module.

*Not a smartphone.

OK

One requirement is to disable or lockdown mouse and keyboard input (via usb connection).

I'm guessing that's you

Yes :)

you need a higher-res avatar :-)

Do you know anything about this? I'm sure it's possible via low level Android work but i'm looking for the most practical solution. i.e. as close to the Android SDK as possible or alternatively via shell commands.

well, it's definitely not possible at the SDK level

I need a whole new one :)

there might be some trick to it at the shell level (adb shell or some other root-ish shell)

Do you concentrate mainly on the SDK or have you done any hacking outside of it?

no, I'm an SDK guy

Ah ok, cool.

that being said, I'd look for Linux shell commands that might have your desired effect on, say, Ubuntu, then see if they work on Android

Ah ok cool, i'll look for those.

I'm no expert, but that feels like it'd take out more USB stuff than just HID

Which i'm sure just disables the USB port. Unfortunately, I still need the ports to work for a USB -> Ethernet adapter.

right

AFAIK, for KB/mouse, Android's using fairly vanilla Linux stuff

Do you think there would be something there

so if you could figure out how to block HID input on a Linux desktop, the same approach stands a decent chance of working on Android

Ok cool.

Thanks.

at best, you'd be in a similar boat as with your echo 0 command -- you might be able to clog the USB port, but nothing finer-grained than that AFAIK

Ok, i'll keep that in mind - thanks.

but, I haven't played with the USB API in the Android SDK

hardware is my kryptonite

Ha ok :)

the closer you get to the metal, the more likely it is that I'm all thumbs

I doubt it will offer anything useful anyway. I doubt it would allow you to block a HID device.

you might try your question over on https://android.stackexchange.com, as it's more of an end-user question than a programming one

Sure, i'll give it a blast. Thanks.

Also, do you know if there is anything in the SDK for managing the power settings of a device. i.e. disabling screen lock etc?

well, you can keep the screen on

android:keepScreenOn="true"

FLAG_KEEP_SCREEN_ON

or a manual WakeLock

those have the side effect of keeping the device from locking on its own accord

though all of that is trumped by the power button

beyond that, we don't have a lot of power control at the SDK level

I see. Well, this board doesn't really have that type of button. Power is via connect/disconnect the power jack :)

I see. Do you know much about ethernet over USB for Android devices?

I seem to recall that it worked when I tried it once on a tablet

Ok, do you know which devices you used?

that was a few years ago

if I had to guess, an ASUS Transformer TF700T

That's good, support can only have gotten better, right?

*oops, I meant the USB->Ethernet device?

yeah, I assumed that's what you meant

the key is that I don't know how much of that support is in Android proper or might be added by device manufacturers

Ah yea, I guess that's true. Thanks.

in the case of the Transformer, it had a keyboard dock with a real honest-to-goodness USB port

which made it far more amenable to the USB network adapters of the time

Ah I see.

I would *think* that Android has it natively, but since I don't think I've tried it since then, I can't rule out that it was an ASUS thing

Yea, you're probably right. I've seen reports that Android has native support in later versions but it can be very picky on the hardware devices.

Well, thanks for your help. I guess you must be off now? :)

shortly -- if you have another quick question, go ahead

Nope, that's all for now.

OK

Thanks for your input :)

Have a good evening.

you are very welcome

you too!

lol it's 01:29 here.

Goodbye.

ah

cheerio! :-)