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#1 2011-08-22 14:30:02

beatle
Member
Registered: 2011-08-09
Posts: 16

Lenovo laptop Fn button problem

Hi!

Firstly, let me share my excitement about the Arch Linux.
I am a very recent Arch Linux convert (did my so far first install a couple of days back) and I am simply amazed by it! Boot times are seemingly an order of magnitude shorter than they were on Ubuntu, I am finally able to build a very lightweight and minimal system as I like it, and I have already learned a lot more about how linux works.
Thank you guys for this very helpful forum and wiki, and great many thanks to the developers!

Now about the problem I am having.

I have a Lenovo ThinkPad Edge 15 laptop and it is mostly working very well with Arch Linux (haven't tried the wireless yet though) but recently most of my Fn keys stopped working.

Originally almost none of them did what they should, except for the brightness control buttons, and that was fine with me as they are the only ones that I need. But now they too are inert.

I am not sure when that happened but I have made both a full system update with pacman and a BIOS update from my Windows XP installation since then and suspect them to fault.

The dead keys are not working on ether Arch Linux nor Windows XP and register no event when using xev. But, to confuse the mater, they are physically OK as the alternate F1,F2, .., Fx function works for them, when holding down the Fn key. Also three of the keys still work (play/pause, next, prev) so the Fn key handling can not be just missing..

I am rather confused where to look for possible causes of the problem.

Any advice will be greatly appreciated!

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#2 2011-08-22 16:19:29

MoonSwan
Member
From: Great White North
Registered: 2008-01-23
Posts: 881

Re: Lenovo laptop Fn button problem

This may help if you haven't seen it before:  https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/TLP

For all "special keys" on a keyboard:  https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Ex … board_Keys

From the laptop page itself:

Lapsus is a set of programs providing easy access to many features of various laptops. It currently supports most features provided by asus-laptop kernel module from ACPI4Asus project, such as additional LEDs, hotkeys, backlight control etc. It also has support for some IBM laptops features provided by IBM ThinkPad ACPI Extras Driver and NVRAM device.

This page may have a link or page(s) that give a model similar to yours:https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php?ti … kpad&go=Go

Hope this helps!

Last edited by MoonSwan (2011-08-22 16:19:46)

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#3 2011-08-22 19:14:03

beatle
Member
Registered: 2011-08-09
Posts: 16

Re: Lenovo laptop Fn button problem

MoonSwan wrote:

This may help if you haven't seen it before:  https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/TLP

For all "special keys" on a keyboard:  https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Ex … board_Keys

From the laptop page itself:

Lapsus is a set of programs providing easy access to many features of various laptops. It currently supports most features provided by asus-laptop kernel module from ACPI4Asus project, such as additional LEDs, hotkeys, backlight control etc. It also has support for some IBM laptops features provided by IBM ThinkPad ACPI Extras Driver and NVRAM device.

This page may have a link or page(s) that give a model similar to yours:https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php?ti … kpad&go=Go

Hope this helps!


Thank you!
I will go through these and report back any results.

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#4 2011-09-05 21:10:04

beatle
Member
Registered: 2011-08-09
Posts: 16

Re: Lenovo laptop Fn button problem

Unexpected update:

I searched through the provided resources, but proved unable to make any progress with this problem until I had to boot from a Ubuntu LiveCD and after reboot required special keys worked both on Arch Linux and on Windows XP despite previously not even registering any events.

I am now off course happy form my returned brightening/dimming functionality, but it makes me very curious how can booting in other OS fix such an issue. In Any case, problem solved! smile

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