Keyboard map for RH9 on Dell Latitude C800
 

I've had Redhat 9 running on my C800 for about 3 months. I've got all my software running. I'm a happy camper.

But yesterday I noticed that suddenly, my down arrow and delete keys don't work. (They used to work, but not sure what changes I've made lately that might have knocked them out.)

And that gets me thinking about dealing with the fact that Linux has never recognized my page-up and page-down keys.

So, my question is - how do I deal with these issues? From the reading I've done, I should be able to handle this with xmodmap, rather than patching the kernel.

In a perfect world, maybe somebody who has a C800 with all the keys working could send me a "xmodmap -pk" output. Or am I looking in the wrong place?

Jefficus

Ever noticed that your volume up/down bios keys don't work? And that your Dell Buttons don't work either? Have you tried looking into the I8KUTILS which deal with these special Dell Laptop keys. If you look for that in google, you should come accross other helpful information from other laptops, but which 98% of the time apply to all Dell laptops. Happy Hunting...

Actually, my C800 doesn't have any volume keys. And when it comes to rebuilding the kernel, I'm certainly willing to tackle that, but I'm not sure it's neccessary in this case. The DEL and DOWN-ARROW keys worked a week ago. Something I've done recently has screwed them up. And since I haven't changed my kernel in that time, I should be able to recover those keys without having to tackle the kernel.

The real problem is, I don't know what keycodes are generated by what keys. That's why I was hoping somebody with a C800 could send me their xmodmap details.

As for the PG-UP and PG-DOWN keys, I'm hoping that they can be recovered via xmodmap as well, even though I've never had them working. As for the (i) info button and the Windows button, I don't currently have a use for them, but if they could be recovered as well, then I suppose I could find a use for them.

In the meantime, I guess I'll poke around with kernel tweaks, although that makes me nervous.

Jefficus

I'm just guessing, but if your dell is like my dells, the up, down, backspace and anykeys are standard, like a regualr PS/2 keyboard, and I just realized I could send you my map! (Duh!) So, here it is:
Hope it helps...

Okay. So maybe a year has gone by since I first tackled this issue. I've been busy. Sue me. :-)

I've been "living" with the dead page up/down keys and I'm getting increasing tired of doing so.

So today I poured some more time down this hole.

Good new: the Info button (tiny little Dell-special function button) generates a scancode, so I was able to grab it and put it to good use. (It now launches my music program.)

But the Page Up and Down buttons are still DEAD. Nothing. No scancodes of any kind. It ain't just that they're not mapped to a useful keycode. They generate bupkis.

But if I boot in Windows, they work just fine. So there can't be something wrong with the hardware.

Are there any keyboard/keycode/mapping gods around who can point me at something new to try?

(This message would be longer, but then I'd be unable to page up to re-read before posting. :-)

Jefficus

You know the keys work, yes? Well, they work on my Latitude C400, so maybe something just went wrong with your installiation... Selected the wrong keyboard layout at install time maybe?I think the ones in red are the ones you need to look for. (That is from my C400.)

Yup. My xmodmap has exactly the same entries. But the keys are not generating any symbols.

showkey shows nothing

showkey -s shows nothing

But yet, when I run Windows, the keys work fine.

The only thing I can imagine is that the kernel does not have support for these specific keys.

I'm stumped.

Jefficus

have you tried a new kernel?

Yes. I've tried about 8 newer kernels over the last year. None of them made anything better.

I'm at the point now where I'll probably just map a few other keys to UP and DOWN so I have the functionality and call it a fix.

Jefficus