I have a totally weird keyboard where to press F1 - F12 I need to hold Fn key. Otherwise the function key gets executed - increase volume and stuff like that. I want to remap them to be the other way around - function keys would require Fn pressed. But the problem is that `xev` doesn't give me any output by pressing F6-F9 alone. So I am wondering is it possible to remap those?

I'm afraid you're out of luck; if xev can't find a keyboard scancode
there's nothing to be mapped. You may need to try and find a proper
driver for the device.


Cheers,
Tink

This is what I found, but unfortunately not for linux: link

I have a similar problem with a Logitech Cordless Desktop Wave Pro.

My understanding is that xev can only see scancodes below 256 and these keyboards do 2 byte codes which need to be re-mapped.

I have Fedora 16 and there are two files that might help.

You cam copy the /lib/udev/rules.d/95-keyboard.rules to /etc/udev/rules.d. Using these enhanced rules for keyboards, if udevd detects your specific keyboard it may load a vendor specific keymap and allow these extra keys to work. These vendor specific keymaps are in /lib/udev/keymaps/. In my case it loads the logitech-wave-pro-cordless file.

BTW I am still trying to get this to work.

I see a few Lenovo keymaps in there, but you'd have to map what the rules say against your specific keyboard.

I've always understood that the Fn key is hardwired. In other words, if you press Fn+F6 the keyboard will send the code for F6; if you just press F6, no code is output because the appropriate hardware change is executed without using the OS. If that's true, there's no solution other than a new circuit-board.