How to get special keys to work

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Revision as of 20:17, 13 December 2005 by 68.43.197.144 (Talk) (Konqueror)
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Overview

key standard function tools supporting key1 configurability2 remarks
Fn - xmodmap, tpb full on release without completed key combination
FnF1 - ibm-acpi full
FnF2 - ibm-acpi full
FnF3 blank screen ibm-acpi, thinkpad-acpi full
FnF4 suspend to ram ibm-acpi, thinkpad-acpi full
FnF5 switch bluetooth ibm-acpi, thinkpad-acpi full in models starting from 2002
FnF6 - ibm-acpi full
FnF7 switch display ibm-acpi, thinkpad-acpi, tpb additional actions
FnF8 toggle display expansion ibm-acpi, thinkpad-acpi, tpb additional actions
FnF9 eject from dock ibm-acpi, thinkpad-acpi full
FnF10 - ibm-acpi full
FnF11 - ibm-acpi full
FnF12 hibernate ibm-acpi, thinkpad-acpi full
FnPos1 brightness up ibm-acpi, tpb additional actions
FnEnd brightness down tpb additional actions
FnPageUp toggle thinklight tpb additional actions
FnSpace toggle zoom tpb full
FnIns - ibm-acpi full
FnDel - ibm-acpi full
FnBackspace - ibm-acpi full
Access IBM or ThinkPad help application tpb full
Home open web browser xmodmap, tpb full only A30, A30p, A31, A31p and ext. keyboards
Search open search application xmodmap, tpb full only A30, A30p, A31, A31p and ext. keyboards
Mail open mail application xmodmap, tpb full only A30, A30p, A31, A31p and ext. keyboards
Favorites open favorites xmodmap, tpb full only A30, A30p, A31, A31p and ext. keyboards
Reload reload web page xmodmap, tpb full only A30, A30p, A31, A31p and ext. keyboards
Abort abort loading page xmodmap, tpb full only A30, A30p, A31, A31p and ext. keyboards
Backward previous page xmodmap, tpb full ext. keyboards and Thinkpads starting from 2002
Forward next page xmodmap, tpb full ext. keyboards and Thinkpads starting from 2002
Volume up volume up tpb additional actions
Volume down volume down tpb additional actions
Volume mute mute volume tpb additional actions
Power shutdown ibm-acpi full triggered on pressing 3secs, but notebook goes off on 5sec press
Display lid blank screen ibm-acpi full
Ultrabay lid announce ultrabay change ibm-acpi full
Dock eject eject from dock ibm-acpi full
Tablet power shutdown ibm-acpi full triggered on pressing 3secs, but notebook goes off on 5sec press
Tablet orientation rotates screen setkeycodes full
Tablet shortcut shortcut menu setkeycodes full
Tablet Esc esc key setkeycodes full
Tablet Enter enter key setkeycodes full
Tablet Up up key setkeycodes full
Tablet Down down key setkeycodes full
Tablet (unlabeled) down key setkeycodes full

Triggering key events

ibm-acpi events

Some of the following events require a # echo enable,0xffff >/proc/acpi/ibm/hotkey in order to make acpi able to get information on them. These events can be used to configure acpid.

events triggered by ibm-acpi for /etc/acpi/events files.
key event
FnF1 ibm/hotkey HKEY 00000080 00001001
FnF2 ibm/hotkey HKEY 00000080 00001002
FnF3 ibm/hotkey HKEY 00000080 00001003
FnF4 ibm/hotkey HKEY 00000080 00001004
FnF5 ibm/hotkey HKEY 00000080 00001005
FnF6 ibm/hotkey HKEY 00000080 00001006
FnF7 ibm/hotkey HKEY 00000080 00001007
FnF8 ibm/hotkey HKEY 00000080 00001008
FnF9 ibm/hotkey HKEY 00000080 00001009
FnF10 ibm/hotkey HKEY 00000080 0000100a
FnF11 ibm/hotkey HKEY 00000080 0000100b
FnF12 ibm/hotkey HKEY 00000080 0000100c
FnBackspace ibm/hotkey HKEY 00000080 0000100d
FnIns ibm/hotkey HKEY 00000080 0000100e
FnDel ibm/hotkey HKEY 00000080 0000100f
FnPos1 ibm/hotkey HKEY 00000080 00001010
Power button/power PWRF 00000080 xxxxxxxx
Display lid button/lid LID 00000080 xxxxxxxx
Ultrabay eject ibm/bay MSTR 00000003 00000000
Ultrabay inserted ibm/bay MSTR 00000001 00000000
Dock eject ibm/dock GDCK 00000003 00000001

tpb configuration

configuration keywords for tpb (to put in /etc/tpbrc)
key config keyword
Access IBM or ThinkPad THINKPAD
Home HOME
Search SEARCH
Mail MAIL
Favorites FAVORITES
Reload RELOAD
Abort ABORT
Backward BACKWARD
Forward FORWARD
Fn FN
FnSpace CALLBACK (zoom on/off)
FnPageUp CALLBACK (thinklight on/off)
FnF7 CALLBACK (display lcd/crt/both)
FnF8 CALLBACK (expand on/off)
FnHome CALLBACK (brightness <percent>)
FnEnd CALLBACK (brightness <percent>)
Volume up CALLBACK (volume <percent>)
Volume down CALLBACK (volume <percent>)
Volume mute CALLBACK (mute on/off)

To all parameter keywords should be assigned the full path to the executables supposed to be started on key press. The exectable provided for the CALLBACK keyword should take the parameters given in parentheses and act according to them. If you want to use xmodmap for the HOME, SEARCH, MAIL, FAVORITES, RELOAD, ABORT, BACKWARD, FORWARD and FN keys you should provide a XEVENTS=off in your /etc/tpbrc.

For Debian users, tpb is started from /etc/X11/Xsession.d/90tpb.

xmodmap configuration

xmodmap enables you to edit the modifier map and keymap tables that are used to translate keycodes into keysyms. Understood? Well, basically it allows you to give the X server a dictionary for the translation of keycodes like "97" into more human readable synonyms like "Home". This way xmodmap allows you to make the special keys of your keyboard known to X applications.

Usually you should write your keycode-keysym associations into the file ~/.Xmodmap. This file is usually read by the X session startup scripts of your system, so that the mappings automatically get included everytime you run the X server.

The ~/.Xmodmap lines for our purpose are in the form of

keycode <keycode> = <keysym>

Load the assocation using the command

$ xmodmap ~/.Xmodmap

(some configurations do this automatically upon X startup).

The following table shows the keycodes generated by the Thinkpad special keys and sensible keysyms to assign them to.

keycodes and recommended keysyms
key keycode keysym
Backward 234 XF86Back
Forward 233 XF86Forward
Home 178 XF86HomePage
Search 229 XF86Search
Mail 236 XF86Mail
Favorites 230 XF86AddFavorite or XF86Favorites
Reload 231 XF86Reload
Abort 232 XF86Stop
Fn 227 F35


Note: if you are running tpb you might need to add the line XEVENTS=off into your tpbrc to stop it from grabbing the key events and allow them to get through to X instead.

Using Caps Lock as Super L (Windows key)

You can easily use Caps Lock as Win key by adding the following in your ~/.Xmodmap:

       ! No Caps Lock
       clear lock
       ! Caps Lock as Win key
       add mod4 = Caps_Lock

Mapping keys with setkeycodes

You can use the setkeycodes command to remap certain keys. I.e. you can use # setkeycodes 6e 109 6d 104 69 28 6b 1 to map the Tablets Up and Down keys to the standard PageUp and PageDown keys and Tablet Escape and Enter to their respective keys.

The following table shows the keycodes generated by the ThinkPad keys.

keycodes
key keycode
Tablet orientation 0x6d
Tablet Shortcut 0x6e
Tablet Esc 0x6b
Tablet Enter 0x69
Tablet Up 0x68
Tablet Down 0x6c
Tablet (unlabeled) 0x67

Example Applications

Web Browsers

Firefox

To have firefox make use of the browser keys you need to modify one of its files3. To do this you will first need to extract it from the browser.jar archive. Do...

# cd <firefox-directory>/chrome
# unzip browser.jar

The file of interest is content/browser/browser.xul. Edit it...

# vi content/browser/browser.xul

Look for the <keyset id="mainKeyset"> section and add the following lines within...

<key id="goBackTP" keycode="VK_XF86Back" command="Browser:Back" />
<key id="goForwardTP" keycode="VK_XF86Forward" command="Browser:Forward" />

Now save the file and repackage the browser.jar archive...

# zip -rD0 browser.jar content/browser/

That's it.

Hint:
Another interesting Page on Firefox is http://dqd.com/~mayoff/notes/thinkpad/dqdnavkeys/ It uses different key mappings (F19 resp. F20) but a ready .xpi is provided which is pretty comfortable. However, this xpi file does not install on Firefox 1.5

Konqueror

Konqueror is KDE's Web browser. KDE provides Khotkeys, where you can set key mappings for KDE applications (Go KMenu > System > Control Center > Regional & Accessibility > Keyboard Shortcuts). By default (at least in KDE 3.5), XF86Back and XF86Forward are set as alternatives to Alt-Left and Alt-Right, and are mapped to KDE Back and Forward navigation actions.

You'll need to set up ~/.Xmodmap as described above in order to assign Thinkpad Back and Forward keys to the symbols XF86Back and XF86Forward. This will make these keys work for KDE applications such as Konqueror, Quanta Plus, and KPackage etc (not all KDE applications honor this setting though, e.g. KDE help system doesn't).

Unfortunately, KDE Back and Forward navigation actions do not work for Firefox, and you still have to setup Firefox to use XF86Back and XF86Forward as described above.

Opera

However this isn't a simple configration file, you can set your browser manually.
Go to Tool > Settings > Mouse and keyboard > Keyboard settings > Edit > Browser Window. There add F21 - Back and F22 - Forward. Now you can surf using your TP keys ;-)

Window Managers

fvwm

To get the Forward and Backward keys to cycle through pages in the virtual desktop, add this to your ~/.fvwmrc:

Key    XF86Back     A      A   Scroll     -100000   0
Key    XF86Forward  A      A   Scroll     +100000   0

If you use multiple virtual desktops, you could instead use the keys to flip between them by using GotoDesk.

pekwm configuration

You can make the two browser keys switch workspaces in pekwm, by adding the following two lines to the ~/.pekwm/keys file:

KeyPress = "Mod1 XF86Back" { Actions = "GoToWorkspace prev" }
KeyPress = "Mod1 XF86Forward" { Actions = "GoToWorkspace next" }

pwm

Another example how to use these two keys to switch between pwm tabs. These two lines should be added to ~/.pwm/keys-default.conf or /etc/pwm/keys-default.conf:

kbind "Back", "switch_rot", -1
kbind "Forward", "switch_rot", 1

icewm

Some applications use CtrlLeft and CtrlRight to set the cursor to the beginning of the previous / next word. In icewm, though, they're bound to previous / next workspace. Change these two options in ~/.icewm/preferences to bind those to Forward and Backward: (Provided you assigned keysyms F21 and F22 with xmodmap)

# "Previous workspace" shortcut
KeySysWorkspacePrev="F21"
# "Next workspace" shortcut
KeySysWorkspaceNext="F22"

Other Uses

Console tools configuraton

To make the Forward and Backward keys useful in console, add this to your keymap (/etc/console/boottime.kmap.gz in Debian):

keycode 158 = Decr_Console
keycode 159 = Incr_Console

External Sources


FOOTNOTES [Δ]
  1. if there are more than one tool listed, one is sufficient
  2. 'full' means you can completely reassign any action to be triggered by the key, 'additional actions' means you can trigger actions in addition to the standard function of the key, which can not be changed.
  3. Thanks go to Ryan Barrett for writing the little howto on his blog.