Precisa xevAPENAS para eventos de teclado? sem problemas.
Não execute simplesmente xev, execute xev -event keyboardpara uma produção mínima.
Protip :alias xevkb="xev -event keyboard" # xev only for kb events https://coderwall.com/p/awlshw
de man xev:
-event event_mask
Select which events to display. The -event option can be specified multiple times to select multiple types of events.
**When not specified, all events are selected**.
Available event masks: keyboard mouse expose visibility structure substructure focus property colormap owner_grab_button randr