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#1 2018-02-06 22:10:46

scrip
Member
Registered: 2018-02-06
Posts: 3

'Fn' keys not working, not a hardware issue

Hi !
I'm new to Arch and I like it so far but one thing is grinding my gears : all F1 to F12 keys (I access those keys by pressing Fn + F_ ) don't do anything in chrome, terminal, etc...

The weird thing is I installed screenkeys to check if it was a hardware problem or a wrong mapping, but the latter is indeed showing me F_ when I type the coressponding key.

I already tried forcing a mapping with

xmodmap -e "keycode 88 = F12 F12 F12 F12 F12 F12"

but It does not seem to change anyhing. I also discovered that

showkey

and

xmodmap -pk

were inconsistant (the 'a' keycode wasn't mapped to 'a')

What can be wrong here ?

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#2 2018-02-07 12:59:22

seth
Member
Registered: 2012-09-03
Posts: 49,992

Re: 'Fn' keys not working, not a hardware issue

Desktop environment (gnome?) and "xev -event keyboard" output?

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#3 2018-02-07 13:13:35

scrip
Member
Registered: 2018-02-06
Posts: 3

Re: 'Fn' keys not working, not a hardware issue

Oh yeah sorry, forgot to mention I'm using Deepin.

"xev -event keyboard" is giving me something when I type a letter or anything but nothing when I type Fn + F_

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#4 2018-02-07 13:25:31

seth
Member
Registered: 2012-09-03
Posts: 49,992

Re: 'Fn' keys not working, not a hardware issue

Ie. the keys are not mapped by the input driver, ensure you're not using wayland as display server and then simply try using xf86-input-evdev instead of xf86-input-libinput.
Also check the behavior of "xinput test <id>" and evtest and take a look at the output of "xinput" on whether the keyboard registers as two devices - one might be responsible for the Fx keys and disabled.

Just to be sure: is this a macbook with a touchbar or are those "real" keys?

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#5 2018-02-07 14:52:52

scrip
Member
Registered: 2018-02-06
Posts: 3

Re: 'Fn' keys not working, not a hardware issue

No not a macbook at all haha, it's a Lenovo 700-isk. If you want to checkout what the keyboard looks like :

https://www3.lenovo.com/medias/lenovo-l … 2MyOGFiNTc

I checked and I'm not using wayland but X11. I've tried installing xf86-input-evdev but nothing changed...

xinput gives me this:

https://i.imgur.com/j3tXqs0.png

It seems that the keyboard is registered as two devices indeed (id 5 and 13). The one with id 13 triggers the keypress events when I press Fn + F12 (it shows as 'keypress 96' on image) and other F keys too.
I don't really understand what those key press <number> are. Are those keycodes ?

Moderator edit -- Please watch the size of posted photos.  https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Co … s_and_code Converted img tags for over sized picture to url tags

Last edited by ewaller (2018-02-07 15:04:21)

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#6 2018-02-07 15:02:56

seth
Member
Registered: 2012-09-03
Posts: 49,992

Re: 'Fn' keys not working, not a hardware issue

Please remove the oversized images and in future paste text instead of pictures of text (see the board rules)

Those are keycodes, Fx should be 67-96, the virtual core keyboard is a technical detail, no secondary keyboard.
This is a bit odd - the only thing that I could think of is that those keys are grabbed (for shortcuts) - please try the entire thing in a failsafe X11 session (xterm only)
Also: how do you login? Desktop Manager (GDM, SDDM, ...)? Try using startx: https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Xinit

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#7 2018-02-10 10:53:46

ichinix
Member
Registered: 2016-11-05
Posts: 6

Re: 'Fn' keys not working, not a hardware issue

I have a simular issue with my Dell Latitude E6540, same as Mr. scrip is explaining.
If i try to re-mod the keys via plasma's system-settings it does register the key combination which is odd. But the function it self (Weather it be Brightness up/down or suspent all FN buttons) do not seem to react.
Interestingly enough when i check journalctl i do see the system is triggering when i try to suspend the laptop getting the message: "systemd-logind[467]: Suspend key pressed."

Just some background info, AS you have probably guessed i run Plasma-meta packages with newest packages of the repo. Any more information i can provide please let me know.

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#8 2018-02-10 15:16:49

seth
Member
Registered: 2012-09-03
Posts: 49,992

Re: 'Fn' keys not working, not a hardware issue

I'm not sure this is the same issue. Try to bind those keys to a functionality you know to work (eg. showing krunner or whatever) and check whether that works for those keys as well. (The implication would be that you've problems with the feature itself, not w/ the input)

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#9 2018-02-12 07:41:39

ichinix
Member
Registered: 2016-11-05
Posts: 6

Re: 'Fn' keys not working, not a hardware issue

Hello all,

For me the matter is closed
In the Plasma System Settings>Shortcuts>Global Shortcuts the affected keybindings which had the problem were in the "KDE Daemon" section, I checked further in the section "Power Management" and changed the keybindings there to the FN buttons which I needed, which works fine.

It seems that the following key bindings in the section "KDE DAEMON" are not working:
- Decrease Screen Brightness
- Increase Screen Brightness
- Suspend

At least these ones ive found so far, Other FN related key bindings in other sections (For example in the "Audio Volume") seem to work just fine.

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#10 2018-02-15 19:49:29

tchubinsky
Member
Registered: 2018-02-15
Posts: 1

Re: 'Fn' keys not working, not a hardware issue

Thank you ichinix!!!

I had the same problem. Your fix solved my issue.

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