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| <H2><A NAME="s14">14. Unusual keys and keyboards</A></H2> |
| |
| <P> |
| <!-- |
| keyboard!unusual versions of |
| --> |
| |
| <!-- |
| keyboard!non-standard keys on |
| --> |
| <P>The two keys PrintScrn/SysRq and Pause/Break are special in that they |
| have two keycodes: the former has keycode 84 when Alt is pressed |
| simultaneously, and keycode 99 otherwise; the latter has keycode |
| 101 when Ctrl is pressed simultaneously, and keycode 119 otherwise. |
| (Thus, it makes no sense to bind functions to Alt keycode 99 or |
| Ctrl keycode 119.) The Pause/Break key is also special in another way: |
| it does not generate key-up scancodes, but generates the entire |
| 6-scancode sequence on key-down. |
| <P>If you have strange keys, that do not generate any code under Linux |
| (or generate messages like "unrecognized scancode"), and your kernel |
| is 1.1.63 or later, then you can use setkeycodes(1) to tell the kernel |
| about them. Once they have gotten a keycode from <CODE>setkeycodes</CODE>, |
| they can be assigned a function by <CODE>loadkeys</CODE>. |
| <P>For example, using <CODE>showkey -s</CODE> one sees that Microsoft keyboards |
| use the scancode sequences (in hexadecimal) e0 5b (left Windows key), |
| e0 5c (right Windows key), e0 5d (Menu key). |
| Microsoft Internet keyboard also uses e0 6a (Back), e0 69 (Forward), |
| e0 68 (Stop), e0 6c (Mail), e0 65 (Search), e0 66 (Favorites), |
| e0 32 (Web/Home), e0 6b (My Computer), e0 21 (Calculator), e0 5f (Sleep). |
| Use <CODE>dumpkeys</CODE> to see what keycodes are still unused. |
| Typically values like 89-95 and 112-118 and 120-127 are free. |
| Now |
| <BLOCKQUOTE><CODE> |
| <PRE> |
| % setkeycodes e05b 125 |
| % setkeycodes e05c 126 |
| % setkeycodes e05d 127 |
| </PRE> |
| </CODE></BLOCKQUOTE> |
| |
| assigns keycodes to these scancode sequences, and |
| <BLOCKQUOTE><CODE> |
| <PRE> |
| % loadkeys |
| keycode 125 = Decr_Console |
| keycode 126 = Incr_Console |
| keycode 127 = KeyboardSignal |
| % |
| </PRE> |
| </CODE></BLOCKQUOTE> |
| |
| would make these Windows keys go to the previous or next virtual console, |
| and let the Menu key create a fresh virtual console (in case you have |
| something like <CODE>spawn_console</CODE> running). |
| <P> |
| <H2><A NAME="ss14.1">14.1 Funkeys</A> |
| </H2> |
| |
| <P>Many modern keyboards have buttons or keys with labels like |
| "Vol Up", "Eject" etc. that suggest actions rather than strings. |
| Of course one can bind shell commands to them, but then they'll |
| work only when you are at a shell prompt. |
| Rick van Rein wrote a package funkey consisting of a kernel patch |
| and a daemon. The kernel patch creates a new character device, |
| and adds a new key type to indicate which keystrokes should be |
| sent to this new character device. A daemon can now listen to |
| the character device, somewhat like <CODE>gpm</CODE> listens to the |
| mouse device, and perform the actions indicated in its config file. |
| See |
| <A HREF="http://rick.vanrein.org/linux/funkey">rick.vanrein.org/linux/funkey</A>. |
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