Many of the multimedia keys of my Microsoft Wireless Comfort Keyboard 1.0a are not predefined
on Ubuntu Lucid Lynx 10.04.
Unfortunately KeyTouch doesn't work for me. Fortunately there are a number of good tutorials to fix this problem. I followed this one:
and it's a very good howto that I don't want to copy here. I want to report here my own parameters to fully take advantage of my keyboard.
Pressing my multimedia keys one by one and using sudo dmesg -c in a gnome-terminal, I discovered the scancodes from outputs like this:
atkbd.c: Unknown key pressed (translated set 2, code 0xe002 on isa0060/serio0).
atkbd.c: Use 'setkeycodes e002 ' to make it known.
Now, before going on, a little explanation: my keyboard has a special button, called "F Bloc" (Function blocks), to enable/disable particular functions for F1, F2...F12 keys and I want to fully take advantage of it.
Here it is, my /etc/rc.local, you can see the new functions for F1, F2...F12 keys in case of F Bloc disabled :
#!/bin/sh -e
#
# rc.local
#
# This script is executed at the end of each multiuser runlevel.
# Make sure that the script will "exit 0" on success or any other
# value on error.
#
# In order to enable or disable this script just change the execution
# bits.
#
# By default this script does nothing
setkeycodes e00b 180 # Zoom in
setkeycodes e011 181 # Zoom out
setkeycodes e005 182 # Messenger
setkeycodes e015 183 # Calendar
setkeycodes e016 184 # Disconnect
setkeycodes e073 185 # Favorites 1
setkeycodes e074 186 # Favorites 2
setkeycodes e075 187 # Favorites 3
setkeycodes e076 188 # Favorites 4
setkeycodes e077 189 # Favorites 5
setkeycodes e078 190 # Favorites - Star
setkeycodes e03b 191 # Help -> F1
setkeycodes e008 192 # Undo -> F2
setkeycodes e007 193 # Redo -> F3
setkeycodes e03e 194 # New -> F4
setkeycodes e03f 195 # Open -> F5
setkeycodes e040 196 # Close -> F6
setkeycodes e041 197 # Reply -> F7
setkeycodes e042 198 # Fwd -> F8
setkeycodes e043 199 # Send -> F9
setkeycodes e023 200 # Spell -> F10
setkeycodes e057 201 # Save -> F11
setkeycodes e058 202 # Print -> F12
exit 0
after that, I added the missing keysyms to the right keycodes in
/etc/xmodmap.conf:
clear Mod1
add Mod1 = Alt_L
clear Mod4
add Mod4 = Tab
clear Mod5
add Mod5 = Alt_R
keycode 188 = XF86ZoomIn NoSymbol XF86ZoomIn
keycode 189 = XF86ZoomOut NoSymbol XF86ZoomOut
keycode 190 = XF86Messenger NoSymbol XF86Messenger
keycode 191 = XF86Calendar NoSymbol XF86Calendar
keycode 192 = XF86LogOff NoSymbol XF86LogOff
keycode 193 = XF86Launch0 NoSymbol XF86Launch0
keycode 194 = XF86Launch1 NoSymbol XF86Launch1
keycode 195 = XF86Launch2 NoSymbol XF86Launch2
keycode 196 = XF86Launch3 NoSymbol XF86Launch3
keycode 197 = XF86Launch4 NoSymbol XF86Launch4
keycode 198 = XF86Launch5 NoSymbol XF86Launch5
keycode 199 = XF86Support NoSymbol XF86Support
keycode 200 = Undo NoSymbol Undo
keycode 201 = Redo NoSymbol Redo
keycode 202 = XF86New NoSymbol XF86New
keycode 203 = XF86Open NoSymbol XF86Open
keycode 204 = XF86Close NoSymbol XF86Close
keycode 205 = XF86Reply NoSymbol XF86Reply
keycode 206 = XF86Forward NoSymbol XF86Forward
keycode 207 = XF86Send NoSymbol XF86Send
keycode 208 = XF86Spell NoSymbol XF86Spell
keycode 209 = XF86Save NoSymbol XF86Save
keycode 210 = XF86Launch6 NoSymbol XF86Launch6
Note 1: If I put xmodmap.conf in my home directory, it doesn't work.
Note 2: I added some extra commands at the top of the file (clear ..., add ...): clear is used to remove all entries in the modifier map for the given modifier, where valid name are: Shift, Lock, Control, Mod1, Mod2, Mod3, Mod4, and Mod5.
add is a command to reassign all keys containing the given keysyms to the indicated modifier map.
If I don't use these commands, some functions keys (F5, F7, F8, F9) don't work as expected and gnome-keybindind-properties cannot detect them correctly.
Now I can use gnome-keybinding-properties or xbindkeys-config to bind actions to my fresh configured keys:
I took a screenshot of xbindkeys-config to show my settings, but actually I'm using gnome-keybinding-properties because it allows me to zoom in and zoom out without extra configurations.
As for F1, F2...F12 keys in case of F Bloc disabled, they are used with an email client, according to their labels and Microsoft docs, so I thought to use xdotool to send predefined and existing shortcuts to Evolution.
I'm writing a script to handle these shortcuts. It's possible to pass arguments to the script in this way: "myEvolutionShortcuts new" to start a new message, "myEvolutionShortcuts reply", "myEvolutionShortcuts send" and so on:
#!/bin/sh
# Search and store Evolution - Mail window id
myEvolutionID=`xdotool search --title "In arrivo"`
# Search and store Evolution - Compose message window id
myComposeMessageID=`xdotool search --title "Componi messaggio"`
case $1 in
# New message
new)
sleep .3
xdotool windowactivate $myEvolutionID
xdotool windowfocus $myEvolutionID
xdotool key "Shift+Control+M" ;;
# Open message
open)
sleep .3
xdotool windowactivate $myEvolutionID
xdotool windowfocus $myEvolutionID
xdotool key "Control+O" ;;
# Close Evolution
close)
sleep .3
xdotool windowactivate $myEvolutionID
xdotool windowfocus $myEvolutionID
xdotool key "Control+W" ;;
# Reply message
reply)
sleep .3
xdotool windowactivate $myEvolutionID
xdotool windowfocus $myEvolutionID
xdotool key "Control+R" ;;
# Forward message
forward)
sleep .3
xdotool windowactivate $myEvolutionID
xdotool windowfocus $myEvolutionID
xdotool key "Control+F" ;;
# Send message
send)
sleep .3
xdotool windowactivate $myComposeMessageID
xdotool windowfocus $myComposeMessageID
xdotool key "Control+F" ;;
# Spell check
abc)
sleep .3
xdotool windowactivate $myComposeMessageID
xdotool windowfocus $myComposeMessageID
xdotool key "F7" ;;
# Save message
save)
sleep .3
xdotool windowactivate $myComposeMessageID
xdotool windowfocus $myComposeMessageID
xdotool key "Shift+Control+S" ;;
# Print message
print)
sleep .3
xdotool windowactivate $myComposeMessageID
xdotool windowfocus $myComposeMessageID
xdotool key "Control+P" ;;
esac
exit 0
The very early version of the script works in this way: it searches the evolution's window id using the first words of its window title, activates and gives focus to the window, finally send the window a predefined shortcut. It's easy to get info about a particular window using the xprop command.
At this time the script doesn't handle exceptions but it works fine for now and I can use all of my multimedia keys.
Best regards.
