I've set up my multimedia keys in gnome 2.6 under "Applications > Desktop Preferences > Keyboard Shortcuts"

Most of them work, such as the Play/Pause,Stop,etc keys.

However none of the volume control keys (+,-,mute) are doing anything, which are the one's i used the most :/ I'm running gentoo with the 2.6.5 kernel and ALSA.

Also i've got the email button set, but when i press it it doesn't load my mail client (evolution)
Where abouts do you assign the default email client? I've looked in gconf, but haven't been about to find anything...

Any help would be appreciated...

I have the exact same symptoms, please post if you manage to fix this.

Are your volume keys properly mapped?
None of my multimedia keys were mapped, so I did it myself using xev and xmodmap.

For the volume buttons, in my window manager configuration, I set them to
"amixer -q set Master 1+" and "amixer -q set Master 1-"

Which multimedia keyboard are you using?
The following works for a Logitech iTouch cordless keyboard:

setxkbmap -model logiciink -layout gb -variant basic

Just change the model for yours.



If you have KDE (3.2.2), you can find the appropriate command by going to control centre/Regional & Accessability/Keyboard Layout
Check Enable Keyboard layout and choose yours from the list on the right hand side. The command will appear at the bottom. I guess you could apply that to your profile and it should work in Gnome as well...

I now notice that what I said earlier wasn't strictly true, for my symptoms _might_ be different:

Pressing the volume up/down and mute keys DOES bring up the volume dialog window, but the volume doesn't get adjusted. The dialog doesn't even show the volume bar. This goes to show that the keys are mapped alright.

Also @crispibits, it's a Gnome 2.6 problem, not KDE.

...which is why I said 'this shoudl also work in Gnome'
Also the solution I suggested is not KDE specific - the command I gave was for X, not a specific midow manager.

Sorry, perhaps I won't bother next time... :-)

crispibits, it just didn't seem to me that the kb map was the problem, that's why I dismissed your first piece of advice and failed to grok the second. Sorry, but no need to take offense.

I think I found the actual cause of the problem though: the preferences dialog for the volume applet doesn't show any channels for it to control, therefore the volume controls do nothing. No idea how to solve =P

Well duh, that wasn't it. I purged the gnome-applets and gnome-applets-data packages and reinstalled, and now the channels are visible, but the volume multimedia keys still don't work :-(