[ltp] [x200 && debian/sid] lost media control keys

[Richard Neill]

Dot Deb wrote:
> These last days I lost the control of my media players (audacious,
> rhythmbox) via the nice keys that can be activated through "Fn".
> 
> What I'd like to do is to understand how those keys work and how to
> debug my problem.
> 

The Fn-x  keys are special - they aren't regular keypresses (as seen by 
X), but triggers for ACPI (bios) events. They should be monitored by acpid.

To monitor them, try tail -f /var/log/acpid.

Each key is configured in /etc/acpi/events

The result of a keypress is the corresponding script in /etc/acpi/
    (or sometimes /etc/acpi/actions/ ).

That script can do what you like. It can run commands, such as
   rhythmbox-clien --play
or it can fake an Xorg keypress  (of a keysym that usually isn't present 
on the keyboard), by means of acpi_fakekey.

Hopefully that will get you started.


Alternatively, you may prefer to just assign the keyboard shortcuts to 
some alternative keypress - the regular Gnome/KDE keybindings (or 
xbindkeys) work with any of the other keys on the keyboard, except the 
Fn-combinations.

Hope that helps,

Richard