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How to make special keys run commands without X?

Hello :)

I'm installing Slackware 13.1 on a Samsung N150 netbook and am stuck trying to make the special keys do their normal functions when using a virtual terminal, that is not under X. Under X + Xfce it can be done via Menu->Settings->Keyboard->"Application Shortcuts".

In essence the question is how to make a special key (example Fn+Up to increase screen brightness) run a command in the background.

EDIT: Changed title and text to make clear that the command should not run in a virtual terminal but while the display is being used for a virtual terminal, that is after Ctrl+Alt+F2 for example.

Best

Charles

This page should be helpful. Also see /etc/inputrc and `man 3 readline` for more information. If you use screen you can always configure keybindings there as well.

Thanks T3slider :)

Thinking this through some more it's a hardware-level requirement. Ideally it would work at a virtual terminal even before login. Maybe it is not possible because all (?) keystrokes are intercepted by the login process that replaces the getty-type process but Linux is very flexible and powerful so I still have some hope. Perhaps keystrokes are passed to the login process via the kernel or perhaps there is a hardware event in hal land ...

Fn keys are usually controlled through acpi events if the hardware doesn't do it alone.

Check out /etc/acpi/acpi_handler.sh

Quote:

Originally Posted by dive (Post 3995070)

Fn keys are usually controlled through acpi events if the hardware doesn't do it alone.

Check out /etc/acpi/acpi_handler.sh

Thanks dive :)

It looks as if Fn+<whatever> does not create ACPI events.

In the default installation, the /etc/acpi/events directory has a single file, defaults, which looks as if it simply passes all events to acpi_handler.sh:

Code:

root@CW9:~# cat /etc/acpi/events/default | grep -E -v '^#|^$'

event=.*

action=/etc/acpi/acpi_handler.sh %e

The as-installed acpi_handler.sh reports everything except the power button as "not defined":

Code:

root@CW9:~# cat /etc/acpi/acpi_handler.sh | grep -E -v '^#|^$'

IFS=${IFS}/

set $@

case "$1" in

  button)

    case "$2" in

      power) /sbin/init 0

        ;;

      *) logger "ACPI action $2 is not defined"

        ;;

    esac

    ;;

  *)

    logger "ACPI group $1 / action $2 is not defined"

    ;;

esac

Searching the /var/log/* files for such reports shows very few and none associated with Fn+ keys:

Code:

root@CW9:/var/log# grep 'ACPI group' * | sed 's/.*logger: //' | sort | uniq

ACPI group ac_adapter / action ADP1 is not defined

ACPI group battery / action BAT1 is not defined

ACPI group processor / action CPU0 is not defined

ACPI group processor / action CPU1 is not defined