Fn keys imitate previous fn keypress

erethar · 2013-08-04 16:06:44

I'm running arch on an Asus Zenbook with KDE and trying to get the Fn keys to work properly. The Fn keys for wifi and screen controls worked automatically, but fn+F9 through Fn+F12 (toggle touchpad, mute, volume down, volume up) didn't. After running "modprobe asus_nb_wmi" these keys began responding, but exhibit weird behavior where, after pressing one of these fn keys, the next 10 or so presses of any of the keys within this range returns the exact same keycode as the first one I pressed.

For example, if I press Fn+F11 (volume down, 0x1008ff11 according to xev), the volume will decrease, as expected.

Then, if I begin pressing Fn+F12 (volume up), the volume will continue to decrease, and xev reports the same code as Fn+F11. However, after about 10 presses, Fn+F12 will suddenly start returning the correct keycode (0x1008ff13) and increasing the volume. If I were to start pressing Fn+F11 again, it would continue to increase the volume for several presses before it actually started decreasing the volume, and so on.

Time does not seem to be the issue - if I press volume down, wait a bit, and then start pressing volume up, it will still continue to decrease volume for several keypresses.
It is only the volme keys and the touchpad enable/disable that do this - other fn key combinations (like brightness control) seem to consistently return the correct keycode regardless of what was pressed first.

Any suggestions for how to fix this would be appreciated.

Trilby · 2013-08-04 17:50:35

I have no experience with this particular one, so I don't mean to bad mouth it specifically, but I've never been impressed with any of thse machine-specific modules like the asus_nb_wmi you mention. I don't know that they are ever needed, and they often cause unusual behavior.

If you don't use that module, what do those key presses show in xev? If they show properly in xev without the module, ditch the module and just bind those keys to the appropriate action (this can be done with xbindkeys, or through your WM/DE).

erethar · 2013-08-04 20:30:47

If I don't load the module, xev shows no output for the fn keys.

Oddly enough, some other fn keys, like the brightness controls, work fine without the module even though xev shows no output for them.
Is there a way to find out how these are being processed and process the sound keys in the same way?

When I try to set shortcuts through KDE without loading the module, fn key combinations aren't detected.

Trilby · 2013-08-04 20:35:56

erethar wrote:

Is there a way to find out how these are being processed and process the sound keys in the same way?

Possibly (probably). The next step, if xev doesn't detect the keys, would be to try `showkey`. For best results, showkey will need to be run in a console rather than an emulator under X.

See here for details.

erethar · 2013-08-04 21:09:59

No response for any of the fn key combos running showkey (including the brightness controls, which work properly). I switched to a virtual terminal (ctrl+alt+f1) to test it.

EDIT:
Based on your link, tried pressing fn keys and reading
dmesg|tail -5
but got no response for the keys regardless of whether module was loaded.

If I load the module, showkey lists the volume keys as keycodes 113-115, but they still imitate the previous keycode a few times before showing the correct one.

Last edited by erethar (2013-08-04 21:23:14)

Arch Linux

#1 2013-08-04 16:06:44

Fn keys imitate previous fn keypress

#2 2013-08-04 17:50:35

Re: Fn keys imitate previous fn keypress

#3 2013-08-04 20:30:47

Re: Fn keys imitate previous fn keypress

#4 2013-08-04 20:35:56

Re: Fn keys imitate previous fn keypress

#5 2013-08-04 21:09:59

Re: Fn keys imitate previous fn keypress

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