using power/sleep/wakeup buttons for macros

[babag]

not sure if this is the right forum for this but hardware, a second keyboard, is involved.

i'm using a second keyboard with tools like evdev, evtest, xev, and xte to assign macros to its various keys. ran into a snag, though, with the power, sleep, and wakeup keys which seem to correspond to print screen, scroll lock, and pause.

these keys work as advertised, powering down the computer, sleeping it, waking it. i can't seem to find a way to assign them to what i want, though. i have to disable the power, sleep, wake assignments but when i do this, the buttons themselves seem to become disabled rather than just their relation to the power functions. they cease to be visible in something like xev, making them unassignable. the way i turned them off was through the gui for 'system settings--->shortcuts--->global shortcuts--->power management.'

is there a way to break their tie to the power functions and still retain the buttons as simple buttons?

thanks,
babag

[oshunluvr]

Depends. If they are "software" buttons - yes, hardwired - no. If they are not visible using xev, in my experience you're out of luck.

If they are visable with xev, you should be able to reassign them using their codes and xmodmap or with a new keymap. The only XF86 commands I've seen are "POWEROFF" and "SLEEP".