AltGr and Alt keys don't work on EeePC 1015PEM

netbookcraze · 2021-05-26 23:21:15

I have followed the tutorial for setting up arch for the first time on my asus eeePC 1015PEM and ended up with a reasonable if not barebones multimedia-capable i3 Desktop.
The only thing bothering me now is the pesky Alt-Gr key and the associated backslash (/) and question mark (?) characters usually reached through this modifier. I really need those for vim, URL query strings and special latin characters!
I have set up my (brazillian) keyboard with:

localectl set-x11-keymap br asus-laptop

. However, even though the ABNT-2-specific keys produce the expected characters when pressed after this command, AltGr still doesn't work!
Upon further investigation, "showkey --keycodes" does not respond to Alt or AltGr by themselves; the usual suspects AltGr+Q, AltGr+W just return the letters instead of '/' and '?', both in the installed environment and the live USB installation media.
With this context i just gave you, does any simple mishap cross your mind? have i done something stupid during installation? is my ancient laptop defective on just these 2 keys? am i supposed to tweak something deeper than in X11 configurations and localectl?

seth · 2021-05-27 05:41:56

https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Map_sc … o_keycodes
https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Keyboa … _scancodes

If nothing shows up there, you'd need some specific kernel module for the HW.
However, https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/ASUS_Eee_PC_1005P doesn't mention them and it /is/ old hardware.
You could grab an ancient live system (ubuntu from 2012 or so) and see whether the HW works there - if not, chances are that it's a HW defect.

netbookcraze · 2021-05-27 13:15:35

Ok, so i ran evtest on the raw "AT translated set 2 keyboard" device and all keys i tried printed a scancode event... except for AltGr and Alt.
i plugged in a cheap keyboard i had laying around and all the keyboard test utilities do detect the Alt keys on it; the keyboard on another laptop i just tested with the live media works fine, too.
I'll go figure out how to load different keyboard modules, reeeealy hoping the gods of olympus have not decided to play an absolute prank on me with 2 dead keys...

seth · 2021-05-27 13:59:48

seth wrote:

You could grab an ancient live system (ubuntu from 2012 or so) and see whether the HW works there - if not, chances are that it's a HW defect.

If the thing has some keys (cough, caps lock, cough) to spare, you could map the 3rd level shift there.

netbookcraze · 2021-05-27 14:05:51

seth wrote:

seth wrote:
You could grab an ancient live system (ubuntu from 2012 or so) and see whether the HW works there - if not, chances are that it's a HW defect.
If the thing has some keys (cough, caps lock, cough) to spare, you could map the 3rd level shift there.

holy crap, that's a great idea! much better than mapping ctrl+shift_R+Q to '?'.
I'm gonna set that redundant right-click key on the built-in keyboard to AltGr, the right-shift key is also a good candidate.
Many thanks!

Arch Linux

#1 2021-05-26 23:21:15

AltGr and Alt keys don't work on EeePC 1015PEM

#2 2021-05-27 05:41:56

Re: AltGr and Alt keys don't work on EeePC 1015PEM

#3 2021-05-27 13:15:35

Re: AltGr and Alt keys don't work on EeePC 1015PEM

#4 2021-05-27 13:59:48

Re: AltGr and Alt keys don't work on EeePC 1015PEM

#5 2021-05-27 14:05:51

Re: AltGr and Alt keys don't work on EeePC 1015PEM

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