How to bind Windows key combos and laptop Fn key
 

I was wondering how to bind the Windows key (+ another key) to an action.. e.g.:

Windows+R = Run
Windows+T = Terminal
etc.

And also, xev does not pick up the "Fn" key on the Dell laptops.. I'd like to get the Fn+PageUp (volume up) and Fn+PageDown (volume down) keys working, but I've had no such luck.

Thanks..

Not sure about your Dell's Fn-key, maybe search on
freshmeat (I found tpb for my Thinkpad there).

As for the Win-Key: that would depend on the
Window-Manager / Desktop-Environment you're
using ...


Cheers,
Tink

no, there are programs out there that can listen and respond to key combos, I'm not sure if they recognize the windows key, or if its another programs responsibility to do that ..

If you are using GNOME you should be able to go to Start Here, then under preferences look for keyboard shortcuts, then you high light the volume up, down or mute, press your Fn+PgUp, Fn+PgDn, Fn+End and this should set up your keyboard shortcuts.

I am running Fedora, but I believe GNOME should have this functionality in Slackware.

HTH :)

I'm using GNOME 2.6.2.

Nope, Gnome does not pick up Fn+anything.

I can assign Super_L (windows key) to anything I want, but what I want to do is assign Super_L+F, Super_L+X, etc... a two-key combo. How do I do that?

Regarding the Fn keys, have you checked to see if all of your hardware was detected properly? I'm not familiar with Slackware, but I'm sure you can check to see if Linux detected the proper hardware.

Many times without the specific platform drivers installed, generic drivers are used. This would cause several things from Linux not knowing how to use your chipset (which doesn't seem to be your problem) or small proprietary things like the Fn keys to not work. Myself, I don't own a laptop, but I never got some of the multimedia keys on my keyboard to work. But then again, I never used them anyways.

If this happens to be your case, check Dell's website and download Linux drivers for your specific hardware platform. However, you might have more success on Google.

Who knows...
Ian

Hm, couldn't find anything useful on Dell's site.. then again, they mostly support Windows on their laptops, not Linux. No surprise there.

Maybe you should google some more, mate ...
You didn't mention which Model you have, but
apparently on SOME Dell machines the volume
control can be made co-operating with Linux ...
the top entry in the search result set did ... this
web is a fantastic source of information! :}


Cheers,
Tink

Thanks for the link. I tried the i8k module thing (Slackware 10.0 also includes that module)
So I slapped i8k into my initrd.gz, ran lilo, booted.. I found this in my /var/log/messages:

Jul 12 22:47:03 toeunit kernel: i8k: unable to get SMM Dell signature
Jul 12 22:47:03 toeunit kernel: i8k: unable to get SMM BIOS version

Any ideas? It's a Dell Inspiron 4000, so maybe that's why it doesn't work.. it's kind of an old laptop (from 2000 or so).

I suggest to Google a little more, but here are some interesting links:

(This is another "Linux Questions" thread, even though it not a Inspiron 4000)
http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...Dell+signature

(These two are just the results of my search in Google)
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&l...22&btnG=Search
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&i...=Google+Search

That's all I have,
ian

When you are creating the key shortcut you want, hold both keys Super L+X or whatever, this will assign it together for a shortcut. Do this while in the box for the shortcut you want.

For the Keyboard Shortcuts in GNOME, Super_L registers as one key only.. it will not let you choose combos like Super_L+PageUp.

However, via gconf-editor, I can bind Super_L+PageUp to any shell command I want.. but I'm not sure if there's an actual shell command that will lower/raise/mute volume.

I just spent a day or two, simply trying to figure out how to solve this problem. And now I feel really dumb about it, but there's some really good info out there.

First of all, there is a really good guide to customizing hotkeys to launch a program/script/whatever on fedorausers.org. Check it out.

http://foolish.fedorausers.org/gnome...ard_shortcuts/

Secondly, do this: type xmodmap in the terminal, and look to see what modifier Super_L belongs to. Mine is mod4. Now, in gnome-config, use the modifier <Mod4> in your hotkey string.

Hope this helps.