MachineClean — Lock your keyboard temporarily, so you can clean it

[vitor]

@cands That is indeed the desired behaviour, and it has always been there. It’s impossible to (securely) have it work without that prompt, since the operation requires elevated privileges — I state as much in the About.

Edited February 18, 2017 by vitor

[cands]

Thank you for the clarification. I was pretty sure that I did not have to input password earlier, I must be remember wrongly or there was something peculiar with my system. Anyhow, to input password for this workflow works well, since it is typically not used frequently. Thank you again for making this convenient workflow.

[GhostTheSavage]

I just tried this on new Mac and after 50 seconds keyboard still wouldn't unlock? The notification popped up that it was unlocked, though. Also, trackpad didn't lock.

[vitor]

37 minutes ago, GhostTheSavage said:

I just tried this on new Mac and after 50 seconds keyboard still wouldn't unlock? The notification popped up that it was unlocked, though. Also, trackpad didn't lock.

 

It doesn’t lock the trackpad anymore, as locking both occasionally caused problems.

 

As for it not unlocking, I don’t intend to debug this workflow any more, since it working or not depends on your Mac model and I can’t accurately debug it without access to your machine. At this point, for this Workflow I’ll take either a pull request that fixes when it doesn’t work or a clue that helps me fix it. But I won’t try to keep debugging it — it already consumed too much of my free time.

[GhostTheSavage]

Understood. Thanks for your time.

[vitor]

Update.

New icon and some code cleanup. Also reduced the default lock time to 30 seconds.

To update, download the latest version (same URL) or wait a few days (15 or less) and it’ll prompt you to on next usage, since it uses OneUpdater.
 

[vitor]

Update.

 

It now uses notificator for notifications. Please tell me if something goes wrong (if you get any error or stop receiving notifications). If everything works fine, I’d also be interested in knowing.

 

Main reasons for the switch to notificator are in the DownVid post.

 

To update, download the latest version (same URL) or wait a few days (15 or less) and it’ll prompt you to on next usage, since it uses OneUpdater.

[kitated]

@vitor, great workflow. Thanks.

 

I'm a newbie. Is there a way to change the default time of 30 sec?

[vitor]

@kitated Change the Workflow Environment Variable.

[kitated]

@vitor - got it. Thanks so much. And thanks for all the workflows that you've posted. They are essential for non-programmers like me.

[vitor]

@kitated Thank you. It’s always rewarding to know when people use and like my Workflows.

[Gevor]

For some reason it won't work on Sierra (10.12.6). Both the keyboard and trackpad won't get locked.

[vitor]

@Gevor 

 

[Gevor]

On 23.08.2017 at 11:47 PM, vitor said:

@Gevor 

 

It doesn't lock keyboard as well. 

[vitor]

31 minutes ago, Gevor said:

It doesn't lock keyboard as well. 

 

That’s not the paragraph that matters. Read the rest of that post.

[rgrtht]

What is that awesome theme you've got going there? 

[vitor]

4 hours ago, rgrtht said:

What is that awesome theme you've got going there? 

 

Três Mil.

[rgrtht]

Thank you good sir. Spectacular.

[pbl4845]

i just tried this once...... it worked.....locked my Keyboard... but not only for 30 Sec....the keyboard didn´t came back til I rebooted  the machine ?

 

Good part is... i cleaned my mac?

[vitor]

@pbl4845 Sorry to hear that. Maybe I’ll need to blacklist your machine as well.

 

1. What Mac model are you on?
2. What’s the output (in a terminal) of sysctl hw.model?
3. What’s the output (again, in a terminal) of kextstat | grep --ignore-case 'keyboard'?

Edited February 26, 2018 by vitor

[pbl4845]

MacbookPro14,3

MBP mid 2017 15"

 

this is the output of number 3

   82    0 0xffffff7f84c86000 0xa000     0xa000     com.apple.driver.AppleHIDKeyboard (203) 433F59A0-95EC-384A-8B8A-9A7A6A042119 <49 5 4 3>

 

I have just seen a new version from days ago and updated the workflow. But not tried again jet.

 

hope this info i gave you can help..... i really like the idea

 

Kind Regards

[vitor]

4 hours ago, pbl4845 said:

hope this info i gave you can help.....

 

It does. Thank you.

 

However, what it tells me is that your keyboard driver is the same (similar?) to the one on the MacBook Air, in which I already prevented this Workflow from running. Your info made me realise I need to block the Workflow from working on machines with that particular driver until I find a solution that works reliably.

 

I’ve just released an update that does that.

[Alexander]

Does it lock the Touch Bar as well?

[vitor]

24 minutes ago, Alexander said:

Does it lock the Touch Bar as well?

 

No idea. Probably not. I don’t have one of those Macs to test on.

[cygvis]

I know this is probably frowned upon here, but if anyone is having trouble with this, I'd definitely recommend giving this free app (Keyboard Clean Tool) a try instead.  I've used it for years with no issues.