Oh. Well, that explains why I can't get the keymap code, thank you. I guess that explains why it's a fix in the BIOS too, if the BIOS will do it. But I need the keymap code. Need to do CTRL-C and CTRL-V a zillion times/day, but the distance between CTRL and C and V in this keyboard is too short. If CTRL was an inch to the left, life would be normal & arthriitic effects would be reduced. Thank you very much, Mike. Liz On 3 July 2012 18:32, Mike Frysinger wrote:

On Tuesday 03 July 2012 17:10:12 E Johnson wrote:

...

I can run xev to get the keymap codes, for all keys but this FN key. Apparently the FN key won't give any output by itself, at least not using this method.

many (most?) keyboards process FN in hardware. the OS doesn't get a chance to see it. so if you do FN+down arrow to get page down, it's the keyboard itself that is sending the "page down" key. the OS doesn't see "FN+down arrow" and translate it to "page down" in software. -mike

How did you create the custom action?? (need the commnds) Thanks Liz On 3 July 2012 22:22, Chuck Anderson wrote:

More specifically, it is handled by the ACPI BIOS in SMM (system management mode). You might be able to hook it via acpid, but probably not in a suitably complete way to emulate Ctrl for all uses. I was able to create a custom action Fn+F9 on my laptop to power down the optical/hard drive bay so I could eject it.

On Tue, Jul 03, 2012 at 06:52:21PM -0400, E Johnson wrote:

...

Oh. Well, that explains why I can't get the keymap code, thank you.

I guess that explains why it's a fix in the BIOS too, if the BIOS will do it.

But I need the keymap code. Need to do CTRL-C and CTRL-V a zillion times/day, but the distance between CTRL and C and V in this keyboard is too short. If CTRL was an inch to the left, life would be normal & arthriitic effects would be reduced.

Thank you very much, Mike.

Liz

On 3 July 2012 18:32, Mike Frysinger wrote:

...

On Tuesday 03 July 2012 17:10:12 E Johnson wrote:

...

I can run xev to get the keymap codes, for all keys but this FN key. Apparently the FN key won't give any output by itself, at least not using this method.

many (most?) keyboards process FN in hardware. the OS doesn't get a chance to see it. so if you do FN+down arrow to get page down, it's the keyboard itself that is sending the "page down" key. the OS doesn't see "FN+down arrow" and translate it to "page down" in software. -mike

...

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Thanks Chuck. I had seen the Lenovo fixes, but that didn't seem to fit this situation. At least now, in these explanations, I can see why it's often suggested to remap the CapsLock as an extra CTRL key. Others suggest physically rewiring the thing; switching the wires. That isn't possible in this one. This is a $30 plastic keyboard that should have cost 9 bucks max. I'll rewire the nice but sick one, whenever the soldering iron is dropped off here. Thanks again everyone. Liz On 4 July 2012 02:49, Chuck Anderson wrote:

See here for the gory details. As you can see, there is pretty much no easy way to turn Fn into a generic key, especially not a Ctrl key. There may be a hard way that involves loading a custom ACPI DSDT and creating custom actions for every combination of Fn and every other key--if there are even enough non-overlapping codes to do it. Also bare in mind that these are IBM/Lenovo ThinkPad specific docs:

http://www.thinkwiki.org/wiki/How_to_get_special_keys_to_work

http://www.thinkwiki.org/wiki/How_to_hotswap_Ultrabay_devices

On Tue, Jul 03, 2012 at 10:29:27PM -0400, E Johnson wrote:

...

How did you create the custom action?? (need the commnds) Thanks Liz

On 3 July 2012 22:22, Chuck Anderson wrote:

...

More specifically, it is handled by the ACPI BIOS in SMM (system management mode). You might be able to hook it via acpid, but probably not in a suitably complete way to emulate Ctrl for all uses. I was able to create a custom action Fn+F9 on my laptop to power down the optical/hard drive bay so I could eject it.

On Tue, Jul 03, 2012 at 06:52:21PM -0400, E Johnson wrote:

...

Oh. Well, that explains why I can't get the keymap code, thank you.

I guess that explains why it's a fix in the BIOS too, if the BIOS will do it.

But I need the keymap code. Need to do CTRL-C and CTRL-V a zillion times/day, but the distance between CTRL and C and V in this keyboard is too short. If CTRL was an inch to the left, life would be normal & arthriitic effects would be reduced.

Thank you very much, Mike.

Liz

On 3 July 2012 18:32, Mike Frysinger wrote:

...

On Tuesday 03 July 2012 17:10:12 E Johnson wrote:

...

I can run xev to get the keymap codes, for all keys but this FN key. Apparently the FN key won't give any output by itself, at least not using this method.

many (most?) keyboards process FN in hardware. the OS doesn't get a chance to see it. so if you do FN+down arrow to get page down, it's the keyboard itself that is sending the "page down" key. the OS doesn't see "FN+down arrow" and translate it to "page down" in software. -mike

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