Function / Multimedia keys sometimes "skip"

brutalregistry · 2013-10-14 01:16:51

I have a keyboard with a 'FN' button, where I hold it down and press keys between F5 and F12 to access the multimedia keys. They work... sometimes...

I noticed that sometimes my XF86AudioMute combo will skip. There is no obvious pattern but sometimes I need to press it two or three times to action. On Windows, this key combo is just as responsive as any other key/combo.

I've confirmed this by:
- Binding the same action to another key combo (super + y) and watching its responsiveness.
- Testing out the key combo in xev, where I can see it is simply not receiving the key about 60% of the time.

Where should I be looking to fix something like this?

Last edited by brutalregistry (2013-10-18 23:57:53)

brutalregistry · 2013-10-18 23:58:31

I'm not sure what other information I can provide. At this point I'll accept any leads.

jasonwryan · 2013-10-19 00:05:51

Have you looked at the layer beneath xev, to see if talking more directly to the kernel makes a difference?
What does dmesg show? Or showkey?

brutalregistry · 2013-10-19 06:07:48

Thanks. I still haven't figured it out but...

dmesg shows nothing, but I think that is a good thing.
showkey responds to every keypress. For volume up and down, keycode 114 and 115.

jasonwryan · 2013-10-19 06:10:11

Try binding your volume keys to 114 and 115 and see if they respond consistently.

You also haven't mentioned if you are using a standalone WM, or have something like Gnome/KDE "helping" translate these keypresses...

brutalregistry · 2013-10-19 14:48:39

I'm just using bspwm and sxhkd. sxhkd only accepts keysym names, so I can't use 114 or 115 there.
I tried prefixing it with an ~ so that it is replayed to other clients, just in case. Still nothing.

Also the 114/115 were from showkeys in the console, which I just read are different than in X anyway.
https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Ex … s#Keycodes

In X, they are 122, 123. I tried them in sxhkd anyway but nothing at all that way, it needs the names.

The xev method of showing keys shows up properly, but 'skips'. So, something to do with X.

xmodmap -pke shows this. I'm not sure if the NoSymbol part is normal (it does that for all modifiers and media keys)...

keycode 122 = XF86AudioLowerVolume NoSymbol XF86AudioLowerVolume
keycode 123 = XF86AudioRaiseVolume NoSymbol XF86AudioRaiseVolume

Thanks again.

Last edited by brutalregistry (2013-10-19 16:10:08)

jasonwryan · 2013-10-19 18:27:28

I don't have any experience with sxhkd: I just bind keys to actions in my WM, like so:

	{ 0,                            0x1008ff11,spawn,          SHCMD("$HOME/Scripts/volume down") },

I would try to get it working independent of sxhkd; try and remove as many of the moving parts as possible in order to identify which one is glitchy...

brutalregistry · 2013-10-21 01:23:04

In terms of keybindings, above X all I had was sxhkd. So that is the only 'moving part'. I tried xbindkeys instead, with the same result -- the keys skip every few times.

It must just be X. I probably need something special in xorg.conf I'm guessing. Right now I'm running off of a default xorg config (no xorg.conf).

Arch Linux

#1 2013-10-14 01:16:51

Function / Multimedia keys sometimes "skip"

#2 2013-10-18 23:58:31

Re: Function / Multimedia keys sometimes "skip"

#3 2013-10-19 00:05:51

Re: Function / Multimedia keys sometimes "skip"

#4 2013-10-19 06:07:48

Re: Function / Multimedia keys sometimes "skip"

#5 2013-10-19 06:10:11

Re: Function / Multimedia keys sometimes "skip"

#6 2013-10-19 14:48:39

Re: Function / Multimedia keys sometimes "skip"

#7 2013-10-19 18:27:28

Re: Function / Multimedia keys sometimes "skip"

#8 2013-10-21 01:23:04

Re: Function / Multimedia keys sometimes "skip"

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