Programming global hotkey detection for OSX in Python using pyobjc -- Error using 'Quartz.CGEventMaskBit'

Question

I'm referencing this old thread: system wide shortcut for Mac OS X

I have been attempting to use this to create a global hotkey for osx since my old method of using pyglobalshortcuts no longer works with PyQt5. The trouble is that when I listen for 'kCGEventKeyUp' or 'kCGEventKeyDown' in the 'CGEventTapCreate' function, the program exits with code '-11'. Here's the code I was trying:

import Quartz
from AppKit import NSKeyUp, NSSystemDefined, NSEvent

def keyboardTapCallback(proxy, type_, event, refcon):
    keyEvent = NSEvent.eventWithCGEvent_(event)
    if keyEvent is None:
        pass
    else:
        print keyEvent


tap = Quartz.CGEventTapCreate(
                              Quartz.kCGSessionEventTap,
                              Quartz.kCGHeadInsertEventTap,
                              Quartz.kCGEventTapOptionListenOnly,
                              # Quartz.kCGEventMaskForAllEvents, 
                              Quartz.CGEventMaskBit(Quartz.kCGEventKeyUp),
                              keyboardTapCallback,
                              None
                             )


runLoopSource = Quartz.CFMachPortCreateRunLoopSource(None, tap, 0)
Quartz.CFRunLoopAddSource(
                          Quartz.CFRunLoopGetCurrent(),
                          runLoopSource,
                          Quartz.kCFRunLoopDefaultMode
                         )

Quartz.CGEventTapEnable(tap, True)

try:
    Quartz.CFRunLoopRun()
except Exception as e:
    print e, "<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<"

I also tried replacing 'Quartz.kCGEventMaskBit(Quartz.kCGEventKeyUp)' with 'Quartz.kCGEventMaskForAllEvents' and while this did not fail it also isn't returning any alphanumeric keys (I need to be able to use 'ctrl+shift+d' as my shortcut).

Am I terribly far off with being able to detect this shortcut in Quartz or is there a better method in OSX?

Thanks, -Mark

Answer 1

I think I just figured it out. I'm using a shared keyboard through Synergy. When I went back to my mac keyboard, it could detect the key events.

Thanks! -Mark