C# Mono - Low Level Keyboard Hook

Question

I'm using code that I found on the CodeProject.com for a low-level keyboard hook. The only problem is it uses external DLL calls that don't work in mono. I was wondering if anyone knew of a way to accomplish the same thing as that code, but will run in both Windows using .net, and Linux using mono?

Edit: Clarifying what I'm trying to do: I'm making a Dashboard like application. The program sits in the system tray and when the user presses the hot-key, it will pop up all the gadgets. So the program doesn't have focus, so typically it won't catch any keystrokes, so I'm using the low-level keyboard hook and I hook the two keys that the user defines as the hot-keys. But I'm using a Windows DLL call for that, which doesn't work in Linux using mono. So I'm wondering if there's a way to do the same thing, but will run in Linux using mono?

Answer 1

It's not possible to get this behavior using only .Net. You have to use a binary driver for each platform you run on (Windows, Linux, Mac OS). It might be possible to use only P/Invoke (detect what OS you are running on, call appropriate system libraries) so that you won't have to distribute any "extra" dll/so/dylib.

Answer 2

Without knowing what you are trying to capture, it's hard to be sure what will work for you. You may want to look at using Application.AddMessageFilter.

An example is here: http://dn.codegear.com/article/30129