how to enable laptop extra buttons.

xushi · 07-21-2005, 04:00 PM

I'm on an emachines laptop, and on the top right side of it, next to the power buttons, it has 6 extra buttons to control volume, and email/web apps.. An example is shown here
http://pcweb.mycom.co.jp/photo/artic...hines/007l.jpg

Although this is not my laptop's model, and the buttons i have are slightly different.

My question is how would i get them to work in linux? I have absolutely no idea where to start, and pressing them shows nothing in dmesg..

I'd take a pic of the ones i have if anyone wants to have a look at them.

Thanks.

EDIT:
Sorry for the poor quality.. (phone..)
A pic of the one i have is here
http://xushi.co.uk/xushi/sv/pics/key.jpg

Thanks

titanium_geek · 07-21-2005, 04:28 PM

does this help?
http://killerbob.ca/howto/inetkeys.html

do a search- I swear this was discussed SOMEWHERE (man- can't find it) sometime today.
http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...der=descending ?
titanium_geek

xushi · 07-21-2005, 05:46 PM

Many thanks. I'll look at them at the morning and keep the post updated.

maginotjr · 07-21-2005, 11:40 PM

I have tryed this here but doesnt work... My .Xmodmap is just like it has to be and nothing happens... my buttom cant call XF86calculator ... :/

xushi · 07-22-2005, 02:14 AM

Same here.. i followed it SBS and i populated both ~/.Xmodmap and /usr/lib/X11/xinit/Xmodmap

Code:

keycode 236 = XF86Mail
keucode 229 = XF86Search
keycode 178 = XF86HomePage
keycode 176 = XF86AudioRaiseVolume
keycode 174 = XF86AudioLowerVolume
keycode 237 = XF86AudioMute

But when i restart X, and run xev again, it still shows NoSymbol.

Code:

KeyRelease event, serial 31, synthetic NO, window 0x2800001,
    root 0x40, subw 0x2800002, time 25963053, (29,42), root:(34,467),
    state 0x0, keycode 229 (keysym 0x0, NoSymbol), same_screen YES,
    XLookupString gives 0 bytes: 

KeyPress event, serial 31, synthetic NO, window 0x2800001,
    root 0x40, subw 0x2800002, time 25965306, (29,42), root:(34,467),
    state 0x0, keycode 229 (keysym 0x0, NoSymbol), same_screen YES,
    XLookupString gives 0 bytes: 
    XmbLookupString gives 0 bytes: 
    XFilterEvent returns: False

xushi · 07-22-2005, 06:28 AM

I read in another tutorial that you need to call xmodmap on a new session..
http://gentoo-wiki.com/HOWTO_Use_Mul...s#Introduction

Quote:

All you have to do now is to call xmodmap whenever your X session starts. Usually a good place to do this is your $HOME/.xsession file.

File: $HOME/.xsession

/usr/X11R6/bin/xmodmap $HOME/.Xmodmap

Now, ~/.xsession doesn't exist.. If i manually create it, would that solve the problem?

On a side note, i ran
xmodmap ~/.Xmodmap
manually and got the following error

Code:

# xmodmap .Xmodmap 
xmodmap:  unknown command on line .Xmodmap:1
xmodmap:  1 error encountered, aborting.

The contents of .Xmodmap is the following

Code:

keycode 236 = XF86Mail
keucode 229 = XF86Search
keycode 178 = XF86HomePage
keycode 176 = XF86AudioRaiseVolume
keycode 174 = XF86AudioLowerVolume
keycode 237 = XF86AudioMute

I'm on the latest Xorg and XFce...

gbonvehi · 07-22-2005, 06:36 AM

It should be ~.Xsession , those files are usually used by graphical login programs (like KDM, GDM or XDM).
Your file contents seems fine except for "keucode 229 = XF86Search" note the "u". Try reading xmodmap man page, you may spot some details there.
Also you could try calling xmodmap with the expression, like: xmodmap -e "keycode 178 = XF86HomePage"

Edit: Also, check that your .xinitrc (or .Xsession as commented above) file calls xmodmap, they don't always do that.

keefaz · 07-22-2005, 06:37 AM

Does it work ? :

Code:

xmodmap -e "keycode 236 = XF86Mail"

[edit]
It seems that gbonvehi found the problem

xushi · 07-22-2005, 07:07 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by gbonvehi
It should be ~.Xsession , those files are usually used by graphical login programs (like KDM, GDM or XDM).
Your file contents seems fine except for "keucode 229 = XF86Search" note the "u". Try reading xmodmap man page, you may spot some details there.

haha.. didn't notice that.. (bad eyes.. bad..)
Yes fixing the typo made xmodmap run successfully.

Quote:

Edit: Also, check that your .xinitrc (or .Xsession as commented above) file calls xmodmap, they don't always do that.

I have this line in .xinitrc if it helps,

Code:

# load local modmap
test -r $HOME/.Xmodmap && xmodmap $HOME/.Xmodmap

Pressing a key now gives me good results in xev,

Code:

KeyPress event, serial 31, synthetic NO, window 0x2a00001,
    root 0x40, subw 0x0, time 43564421, (174,-11), root:(651,574),
    state 0x0, keycode 229 (keysym 0x1008ff1b, XF86Search), same_screen YES,
    XLookupString gives 0 bytes: 
    XmbLookupString gives 0 bytes: 
    XFilterEvent returns: False

KeyRelease event, serial 31, synthetic NO, window 0x2a00001,
    root 0x40, subw 0x0, time 43564652, (174,-11), root:(651,574),
    state 0x0, keycode 229 (keysym 0x1008ff1b, XF86Search), same_screen YES,
    XLookupString gives 0 bytes:

So i guess i can continue assigning the keys in XFce.

Thanks alot! i didn't think it would all be this easy.

xushi · 07-22-2005, 07:17 AM

Oh, one more thing...

I use alsamixer for my volume control.. aumix doesn't reallly do any effect on my system. How would i use the buttons for alsamixer?

I mean
aumix -v+5 (-5) are ineffective..

keefaz · 07-22-2005, 07:26 AM

Use amixer instead of aumix

Code:

amixer -c 0 sset 'Master' 5+
amixer -c 0 sset 'Master' 5-

xushi · 07-22-2005, 09:54 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by keefaz
Use amixer instead of aumix

Code:

amixer -c 0 sset 'Master' 5+ amixer -c 0 sset 'Master' 5-

Hmm, that too has no effect ..

maginotjr · 07-22-2005, 11:13 AM

Ok, mine is returning this but still does not open any calculator ... ;///

Code:

KeyPress event, serial 26, synthetic NO, window 0x3000001,
    root 0x38, subw 0x0, time 585202, (228,491), root:(238,579),
    state 0x10, keycode 161 (keysym 0x1008ff1d, XF86Calculator), same_screen YES,
    XLookupString gives 0 bytes:
    XmbLookupString gives 0 bytes:
    XFilterEvent returns: False

any ideia?

keefaz · 07-22-2005, 11:19 AM

Quote:

Hmm, that too has no effect ..

Post the output with ' amixer scontrols ' please

(did you try to replace Master with PCM ?)

maginotjr, it is up to the wm to react with the hotkey,
what is your current window manager ?

maginotjr · 07-22-2005, 11:28 AM

Im using Dropline Gnome ...
To be honest, the only keys that work fine was those that I configured using Keyboard Shortcut ... using .Xmodmap have no effect :/