Arch Linux

s0101

Member

Registered: 2010-06-14

Posts: 6

Media keys keycodes not recognized by X if modifiers are not pressed

The audio media keys do not work in X on my XPS 15 laptop, latin american keyboard. By media keys I mean the F keys when pressed with the fn key. They are recognized by my system: "showkey -k" shows keycodes for them. But on X, xev shows weird events, such as the following:

KeymapNotify event, serial 27, synthetic NO, window 0x0,
    keys:  2   0   0   0   0   0   0   0   0   0   0   0   0   0   0   0   
           0   0   0   0   0   0   0   0   0   0   0   0   0   0   0   0 

They are the same for any of the audio keys. If I use them with Control, however, they are magically recognized:

KeyPress event, serial 27, synthetic NO, window 0x1e00001,
    root 0xaf, subw 0x0, time 3054267, (796,404), root:(797,419),
    state 0x0, keycode 37 (keysym 0xffe3, Control_L), same_screen YES,
    XLookupString gives 0 bytes: 
    XmbLookupString gives 0 bytes: 
    XFilterEvent returns: False

KeyPress event, serial 27, synthetic NO, window 0x1e00001,
    root 0xaf, subw 0x0, time 3054598, (796,404), root:(797,419),
    state 0x4, keycode 173 (keysym 0x1008ff16, XF86AudioPrev), same_screen YES,
    XLookupString gives 0 bytes: 
    XmbLookupString gives 0 bytes: 
    XFilterEvent returns: False

KeyRelease event, serial 27, synthetic NO, window 0x1e00001,
    root 0xaf, subw 0x0, time 3054672, (796,404), root:(797,419),
    state 0x4, keycode 173 (keysym 0x1008ff16, XF86AudioPrev), same_screen YES,
    XLookupString gives 0 bytes: 
    XFilterEvent returns: False

xbindkeys -k also shows output only when using control.

"(Scheme function)"
    m:0x4 + c:173
    Control + XF86AudioPrev

If I add 8 to the showkey keycode, I get the one on my keymap that corresponds to the media key (like 165 and 173 for AudioPrev) and the above keycode.

What can I do? What is preventing the media keys from being recognized? I've read a similar unsolved post for ubuntu with the same problem here:

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1070408.

I'm on xmonad.