How to get special keys to work
Contents
Overview
| key | standard function | tool | configurability | remarks |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fn | - | xmodmap, tpb | full | on release without completed key combination |
| FnF3 | blank screen | ibm-acpi, thinkpad-acpi | full | |
| FnF4 | suspend to ram | ibm-acpi, thinkpad-acpi | full | |
| FnF5 | switch bluetooth | thinkpad-acpi | ??? | in models starting from 2002 |
| FnF7 | switch display | thinkpad-acpi, tpb | additional actions | |
| FnF8 | toggle display expansion | thinkpad-acpi, tpb | additional actions | |
| FnF9 | eject from dock | thinkpad-acpi | full | |
| FnF12 | hibernate | ibm-acpi, thinkpad-acpi | full | |
| FnPos1 | brightness up | tpb | additional actions | |
| FnEnd | brightness down | tpb | additional actions | |
| FnPageUp | toggle thinklight | ibm-acpi, tpb | additional actions | |
| FnSpace | toggle zoom | tpb | full | |
| Access IBM | help application | tpb | full | |
| Home | open web browser | xmodmap, tpb | full | only iSeries and ext. keyboards |
| Search | open search application | xmodmap, tpb | full | only iSeries and ext. keyboards |
| open mail application | xmodmap, tpb | full | only iSeries and ext. keyboards | |
| Favorites | open favorites | xmodmap, tpb | full | only iSeries and ext. keyboards |
| Reload | reload web page | xmodmap, tpb | full | only iSeries and ext. keyboards |
| Abort | abort loading page | xmodmap, tpb | full | only iSeries and ext. keyboards |
| Backward | previous page | xmodmap, tpb | full | iSeries, ext. keyboards, Thinkpads starting from 2002 |
| Forward | next page | xmodmap, tpb | full | iSeries, ext. keyboards, 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 |
ibm-acpi events
| key | event |
|---|---|
| FnF3 | ibm/hotkey HKEY 00000080 00001003 |
| FnF4 | ibm/hotkey HKEY 00000080 00001004 |
| FnF12 | ibm/hotkey HKEY 00000080 0000100c |
| 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 |
tpb configuration
| key | config keyword |
|---|---|
| Access IBM | THINKPAD |
| Home | HOME |
| Search | SEARCH |
| 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) |
| FnPageUp | CALLBACK (brightness <percent>) |
| FnPageDown | 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 tpbrc.
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>
The following table shows the keycodes generated by the Thinkpad special keys and sensible keysyms to assign them to.
| key | keycode | keysym |
|---|---|---|
| Backward | 234 | XF86Back or F21 |
| Forward | 233 | XF86Forward or F22 |
| Home | 178 | XF86HomePage |
| Search | 229 | XF86Search |
| 236 | XF86Mail | |
| Favorites | 230 | XF86AddFavorite or XF86Favorites |
| Reload | 231 | XF86Reload |
| Abort | 232 | XF86Stop |
| Fn | 227 | F35 |
(In case you want to use the browser keys in Firefox, you will have to assign the F21 and F22 or similar keysyms to them.)
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.
firefox configuration
(First of all thanks go to Ryan Barrett for writing the little howto on his blog.)
To have firefox make use of the browser keys you need to modify one of its files.
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_F21" command="Browser:Back" /> <key id="goForwardTP" keycode="VK_F22" command="Browser:Forward" />
No save the file and repackage the browser.jar archive...
$ zip -rD0 browser.jar content/browser/
That's it.
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.
pekwm configuration
This is just a small example of what else you can do with your extra keys.
I configured the two browser keys of my T41p to 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 configuration
Another example how to use these two keys to switch between pwm tabs. These two lines should be added to $HOME/.pwm/keys-default.conf or /etc/pwm/keys-default.conf:
kbind "Back", "switch_rot", -1 kbind "Forward", "switch_rot", 1
opera configuration
However this isn't simple configration file, you can set your browser manualy.
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 ;-)
fvwm configuration
To get the Backwards and Forwards 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.
Console tools configuraton
To make the prev page / next page keys (located at the cursor keys on my T42p) useful in console, add this to your keymap (/etc/console/boottime.kmap.gz in Debian):
keycode 158 = Decr_Console keycode 159 = Incr_Console
