qmk_firmware/docs/features/os_detection.md

OS Detection

This feature makes a best guess at the host OS based on OS specific behavior during USB setup. It may not always get the correct OS, and shouldn't be relied on as for critical functionality.

Using it you can have OS specific key mappings or combos which work differently on different devices.

It is available for keyboards which use ChibiOS, LUFA and V-USB.

Usage

In your rules.mk add:

OS_DETECTION_ENABLE = yes

It will automatically include the required headers file. It declares os_variant_t detected_host_os(void); which you can call to get detected OS.

It returns one of the following values:

enum {
    OS_UNSURE,
    OS_LINUX,
    OS_WINDOWS,
    OS_MACOS,
    OS_IOS,
} os_variant_t;

::: tip Note that it takes some time after firmware is booted to detect the OS. ::: This time is quite short, probably hundreds of milliseconds, but this data may be not ready in keyboard and layout setup functions which run very early during firmware startup.

Callbacks

If you want to perform custom actions when the OS is detected, then you can use the process_detected_host_os_kb function on the keyboard level source file, or process_detected_host_os_user function in the user keymap.c.

bool process_detected_host_os_kb(os_variant_t detected_os) {
    if (!process_detected_host_os_user(detected_os)) {
        return false;
    }
    switch (detected_os) {
        case OS_MACOS:
        case OS_IOS:
            rgb_matrix_set_color_all(RGB_WHITE);
            break;
        case OS_WINDOWS:
            rgb_matrix_set_color_all(RGB_BLUE);
            break;
        case OS_LINUX:
            rgb_matrix_set_color_all(RGB_ORANGE);
            break;
        case OS_UNSURE:
            rgb_matrix_set_color_all(RGB_RED);
            break;
    }
    
    return true;
}

OS detection stability

The OS detection is currently handled while the USB device descriptor is being assembled. The process is done in steps, generating a number of intermediate results until it stabilizes. We therefore resort to debouncing the result until it has been stable for a given amount of milliseconds. This amount can be configured, in case your board is not stable within the default debouncing time of 200ms.

KVM and USB switches

Some KVM and USB switches may not trigger the USB controller on the keyboard to fully reset upon switching machines. If your keyboard does not redetect the OS in this situation, you can force the keyboard to reset when the USB initialization event is detected, forcing the USB controller to be reconfigured.

Configuration Options

• #define OS_DETECTION_DEBOUNCE 200
  • defined the debounce time for OS detection, in milliseconds
• #define OS_DETECTION_KEYBOARD_RESET
  • enables the keyboard reset upon a USB device reinitilization, such as switching devices on some KVMs

Debug

If OS is guessed incorrectly, you may want to collect data about USB setup packets to refine the detection logic.

To do so in your config.h add:

#define OS_DETECTION_DEBUG_ENABLE

And in your rules.mk add:

CONSOLE_ENABLE = yes

And also include "os_detection.h" in your keymap.c.

Then you can define custom keycodes to store data about USB setup packets in EEPROM (persistent memory) and to print it later on host where you can run qmk console:

enum custom_keycodes {
    STORE_SETUPS = SAFE_RANGE,
    PRINT_SETUPS,
};

bool process_record_user(uint16_t keycode, keyrecord_t *record) {
    switch (keycode) {
        case STORE_SETUPS:
            if (record->event.pressed) {
                store_setups_in_eeprom();
            }
            return false;
        case PRINT_SETUPS:
            if (record->event.pressed) {
                print_stored_setups();
            }
            return false;
    }
}

Then please open an issue on Github with this information and tell what OS was not detected correctly and if you have any intermediate devices between keyboard and your computer.

Credits

Original idea is coming from FingerprintUSBHost project.