Mapping a keyboard button to a function

[Manni]

I have a laptop (Compaq Presario 2100) and have daul booted XP & Kubuntu 8.10. There is a mute button on the side of the laptop and in XP I press this, the sound is muted and the switch illuminates. I would like to get this feature working under Kubuntu.

[Manni]

Re: Mute Button Not Working

Does anyone else have this problem on there laptop or come across this before?
Should the mute button work on a clean install of Kubunu 8.10?
Does it work on your laptop?

[kevinc]

Re: Mute Button Not Working

I know that there are some good posts on this, but after searching for some minutes, I couldn't find them - too many other similar posts without the answer.

In Ibex there is usually speaker icon on your toolbar. Click on this and you get a small slider with a box called 'mixer' at the bottom. Click on mixer and another window opens with 'pcm' and 'front' sliders. The mute and if you have them volume increase, decrease on laptops seem to work with the 'front' but not the 'pcm'. Look at the settings for both and a simple adjustment of one or the other will probably solve the problem.

[Manni]

Re: Mute Button Not Working

Hi Kevinc. Had a look in the Mixer and I could see what you was talking about. The Mute function works in there, however the problem I'm having is linking my button on the laptop to the mute function.

If I could just find out how to see when the button is pressed and make this mute the audio. Does anyone know of a way to map a button to a function? This would come in handy when I get around to putting Kubuntu on my main PC. The keyboard has programmable buttons in XP, so I could do the same in Linux.

I think there was a disk with the XP drivers on for all the hardware when we got the laptop. Wonder if there is some kind of driver for Linux I could use?

[kevinc]

Re: Mute Button Not Working

Let me give some more detail. When I installed Ibex, the mute button and volume increase and decrease buttons didn't work. I found one post on this, but it was a long time ago and I've lost it.
When I click on the speaker icon on the task bar, it opens a small window with HDA Intel. This has two sliders, one is Front, the other is PCM. After trying lots of options I found that the mute, volume increase and decrease buttons on the laptop do work but only for the pcm, not the front. Try the 'settings' > configure kmix > enable system tray volume control and all of the other options too.

Try searching all of the recent sound not working, there are many posts.

[Manni]

Re: Mute Button Not Working

Hi Kevinc, Thanks for your replay. I have done the following:
Clicked on the speaker icon>Pressed the Mixer button
Checked settings>config kmix> and all options where already enabled.
Clicked OK to go back to the kimx panel.

When I press the volume up or volume down buttons on the laptop, the PCM slider moves and this does and always has adjusted my sound. However when I press the mute button on the laptop, nothing happens. If I check the PCM mute tick box in kimx, the sound does mute, therefore I think the problem isn't with the sound or controls, but mapping the button which hasn't been recognised to the function of muting the volume.

Again thanks for your reply and any more help would be much appreciated.

[Manni]

Re: Mapping a keyboard button to a function

Thought I'd change the subject from "Mute Button Not Working" to "Mapping a keyboard button to a function". I hope this will generate more interest and provide a solution to more people when solved.

[Manni]

Re: Mapping a keyboard button to a function

Right just to bring this thread up to speed.

I have opened the 'Keyboard & Mouse – System Settings'
(K>System Settings>Keyboard & Mouse). I have gone into the 'Global Keyboard Shortcuts' and I can assign a key to a function. (Select the function, in this case Mute then click on the spanner and press the shortcut key you want). This is great news, but when I press my Mute button, nothing happens as if its not seen (it works for other keys though).

I also tried the xev. I opened a terminal, typed xev and then when I pressed the volume down key I got a load of info, the main bit saying the key code was 122. I tried this with the Mute button and nothing happened, again as if it's not seeing it.

Has anyone come across this, or know of a solution?

[muzicman0]

Re: Mapping a keyboard button to a function

You might need to right click on the speaker icon, and select your master channel. Mine always defaults to 'front' or 'PCM', neither of which work...I set mine to master, then (I think) I have to remap my buttons, and everything works.

mm0

[Manni]

Re: Mapping a keyboard button to a function

Hi muzicman0.

The problem doesn't seem to be with the audio settings. I have full control over the volume / mute. Shortcuts work... it is just this one button. At the minute I can't us it for anything. I'm not sure why it's not seen.

[flarson]

Re: Mapping a keyboard button to a function

Could it be that you have to specify an enhanced keyboard for that button to be recognized?

[Manni]

Re: Mapping a keyboard button to a function

I will look into this. Is it easy to do?

[flarson]

Re: Mapping a keyboard button to a function

I am using Jaunty rather than Intrepid but this is really a KDE thing so they should be the same. System Settings->Regional&Language->Keyboard Layout.

You probably selected one as you installed without much noticing, although I an not remember if the installer even asked.

[Manni]

Re: Mapping a keyboard button to a function

I have tried different keyboard layouts, but still the mute button doesn't work. After each layout I tested the key, then reopened a terminal and used xev to see if there was any output & you guessed it, nothing.

I'm just assuming now, but I think that all the keyboard layout does is map each key code to a different action, like a pound sign, or euro sign.... I don't think it changes / has any impact on the key codes. I just can't seem to get a key code for this mute key

[flarson]

Re: Mapping a keyboard button to a function

Some keyboards have keys that others do not so they need a different layout. It really seems that your button must be using something other than a keyboard signal. Could it be part of a touchpad?