Need help with media keys on my thinkpad

yak · 2024-06-07 15:16:48

Hey there!
I have a weird problem...

I'm using BL on a Thinkpad e14 and I'm trying to map my media keys to start/stop my player and change track.
My Thinkpad doesn't have XF86Audio* keys, so I always used XF86Messenger to go to previous song, XF86Go to start/stop and Cancel to go to next song. They are on F9, 10 and 11 respectively and I never used them anyway so it's useful for me.

So my .xbindkeysrc looks like this:

## MULTIMEDIA

"playerctl play-pause"
	XF86Go

"playerctl previous"
	XF86Messenger

"playerctl next"
	Cancel

Now the weird thing is that, while the first two work flawlessly, the third command just doesn't work.
I tried to replicate the same in bl-rc.xml and I have the same problem, so it's not a problem related to xbindkeys.

This has always worked on every distro and setup I have used in the past, but it seems like on BL the Cancel key is used for something else.

It seems to do absolutely nothing, but on Geany pressing Shift + Cancel selects all text from my cursor until the end of file. So it is bind to something, but Cancel without Shift just do nothing and I haven't be able to do anything else on other programs with this key.

Do you have any idea how can I find out what is it mapped to, and how to map it to do what I want it to do?

Note that I'm really sure that the key name is right (xbindkeys --key and xev confirm it) and I have already tried to use the keycode instead of the name. Nothing changes.

I'm 100% sure that the command I'm trying to bind it is right too, since right now I have temporarily replaced it with

"playerctl next"
	XF86Display

and it's working without problems.

The issue is with that Cancel key (F11), somehow...it's just mapped to something else.

Any help would be hugely appreciated!

Bearded_Blunder · 2024-06-07 16:45:14

On my system it toggles the active window full screen, & I haven't touched any key-binds since installing, I'd have to look up how to change it & you've probably got more idea than me.

I hope the hint about what it currently does helps though. Must look into changing that myself sometime, since in my case the keycap indicates it should lock the computer, & I kinda like those things to match.

Anyhow, that's what it's currently mapped to (apparently, I just hit it to find out).

Unfortunately I don't see any of the F(x) keys listed in the keybinds file accessible from the menu, despite more than one being bound to things.

No idea where to edit those absent from the list, or not clearly stated (sorry).

Last edited by Bearded_Blunder (2024-06-08 02:21:03)

yak · 2024-06-07 17:30:49

Yes, that's F11.
It does it on my system too, but I'm talking about the function key.
On my thinkpad F11 has the symbol of a telephone, that's what I'm trying to assign, but it's mapped to something else...

johnraff · 2024-06-08 02:57:49

yak wrote:

...it seems like on BL the Cancel key is used for something else.

Not guilty! All the BL keybinds are in .xbindkeysrc and bl-rc.xml, and you've already checked over those. Individual apps like geany have their own keybinds, so make sure everything that might possibly be interfering is shut down when testing.

I don't even have a Cancel key on my keyboard: F11 has a play/pause symbol and xev reports:

keycode 95 (keysym 0xffc8, F11)

Bearded_Blunder wrote:

On my system it toggles the active window full screen

That seems to be only certain apps though. I've identified it with Firefox and Geany so far, but not with lxterminal or Thunar.

Bearded_Blunder · 2024-06-08 03:55:32

Bearded_Blunder wrote:

On my system it toggles the active window full screen

johnraff wrote:

That seems to be only certain apps though. I've identified it with Firefox and Geany so far, but not with x-terminal or Thunar.

I only noticed it happening with x-terminal-emulator (About all I tried with, doesn't happen with geany for me now I double check. that being my most used app, more or less permanently open). My problem being I don't really know where to change that.

Apparently given our relative experience, it's not even consistent.

johnraff · 2024-06-08 04:37:20

Bearded_Blunder wrote:

I only noticed it happening with x-terminal-emulator (About all I tried with, doesn't happen with geany for me now I double check. that being my most used app, more or less permanently open). My problem being I don't really know where to change that.
Apparently given our relative experience, it's not even consistent.

Hmm... Yes re-checked, for me it's definitely Firefox, Ristretto, Mousepad, Catfish & Geany (looks like a lot of the Gnomier apps) which fullscreen with F11, but not lxterminal, urxvt, Thunar or Catfish. Thunderbird does something quite different...

Anyway, this is clearly not a system-wide setting but something that individual apps are doing.

Last edited by johnraff (2024-06-08 04:40:17)

yak · 2024-06-09 12:49:52

Yeah, it seems a bit mysterious overall but I'll keep searching, in the meantime I'm just using another key

Thank you very much johnraff and Bearded_Blunder!!

yak · 2024-06-11 17:16:09

So, just to update in case anyone is searching for the solution, I managed to make it work!
I'm still not exactly sure what the problem was, but I solved by setting

"playerctl next"
	XF86AudioNext

in .xbindkeysrc, and, since I don't actually have that key on my keyboard, I found the keybind of my Cancel key (which was 231) with xev, and then I wrote this in .xmodmaprc:

keycode 231 = XF86AudioNext

Now, adding xmodmap ~/.xmodmaprc to my autostart it works perfectly!

Thanks again for your help.

johnraff · 2024-06-12 04:16:52

^thanks for the update.
It might help other people in similar situations.

#1 2024-06-07 15:16:48

Need help with media keys on my thinkpad

#2 2024-06-07 16:45:14

Re: Need help with media keys on my thinkpad

#3 2024-06-07 17:30:49

Re: Need help with media keys on my thinkpad

#4 2024-06-08 02:57:49

Re: Need help with media keys on my thinkpad

#5 2024-06-08 03:55:32

Re: Need help with media keys on my thinkpad

#6 2024-06-08 04:37:20

Re: Need help with media keys on my thinkpad

#7 2024-06-09 12:49:52

Re: Need help with media keys on my thinkpad

#8 2024-06-11 17:16:09

Re: Need help with media keys on my thinkpad

#9 2024-06-12 04:16:52

Re: Need help with media keys on my thinkpad

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