Got a "new to me" Wireless Multimedia Keyboard

[Anonymous]

“It will be cool to press one obvious key and have the right program just pop up almost effortlessly.”

The unbearable lightness of being

(L’Insoutenable Légèreté de l’être / Milan Kundera)

Isn’t that something completely normal that you get things pop up effortlessly?

That’s why you’re using Microsoft Windows (TM) with fully functional software and a programmable keyboard.

Something like Microsoft Sidewinder X6 (TM) will do almost anything you want.

(It doesn’t make me coffee and brings it, so I don’t really get the most needed programmable function though.)

Image Gallery: Sidewinder Keyboard and Mice

— —

@masinick

“I consider the feel of most common keyboards to be “spongy”.”

That’s truth, but there are some “spongy” mechanical ones too and, there are also some hybrids, “half-mechanical” keyboars around.
Those are using “spongy” membrane technology underneath, but are having nice klicky feel because of well executed mechanics.

— —

@ile

“Have you ever helped someone with their computer to find that the markings are worn off the keys? all blank.”

Some people even pay extra, not to get any markings printed on their keyboards!

That’s what you get for a couple of hundreds …

(I heard that keycaps printing technique is so sophisticated that the letters never wear out.) 😉

— —

Since many years, still my favorite: Cherry G84-4100 mechanical mini keyboard.

Best Mechanical Keyboards For Typing (2019)

[Member BobC]

NoClue,

Bill Gates will never see a nickel of the $4.99 I spent. Next time I boot Windows I might try it. It works just great for antiX, providing 5 or 6 more keys than the LogiTech Multimedia keyboard I was using to test with. Either of those, or even a crappy $10 made in China generic is better than suffering with the silly layouts on my laptops which many times are missing basic functionality, let alone multimedia capability.

If you want to say something to me, please don’t write it in veiled prose.

I’m dense as all heck, but never give up till things work.

PS: There are 5 “My Favorites 1 – 5”, and “My Documents, My Pictures and My Music” keys, as well as a “Messenger” and “Log Off” key up top that didn’t seem to send anything. I’ll have to investigate if I can get them to work for Linux.

• This reply was modified 10 months, 3 weeks ago by BobC.

[Anonymous]

First you’d need to know which keys to change …

Probably you’ll need to play a bit with ‘xew’ and ‘showkey’ first.

https://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/49650/how-to-get-keycodes-for-xmodmap

Some additional application might also come handy:

https://askubuntu.com/questions/254424/how-can-i-change-what-keys-on-my-keyboard-do-how-can-i-create-custom-keyboard

[Member BobC]

Thanks, I already tried xev, and these keys did nothing, so will check if keyboard model needs to be different, and investigate the other links you gave.

Thanks for the help. 🙂

• This reply was modified 10 months, 3 weeks ago by BobC.

[Forum Admin rokytnji]

Fancy stuff. I won’t post pictures pf my ancient Micro Soft ergonomic Desktop Keyboard.

I played with remapping keys once on a netbook before I sold it.

https://antixlinux.com/forum-archive/right-arrow-key-physically-broken-solved-t4505.html

In case it helps on finding out anything with your rocket ship keyboard.

Sometimes I drive a crooked road to get my mind straight.
Not all who Wander are Lost.

Linux Registered User # 475019
How to Search for AntiX solutions to your problems

[Moderator masinick]

Roki,

If I ever have to mess around with keymaps again this is a great note. I’ve made modifications to keymaps in the past, but I do not recall modifying an arrow or shift key, usually either a function key, a Ctrl key sequence, or an Esc key sequence, so this information provides really useful detail. Thanks!

rokytnji wrote:

Fancy stuff. I won’t post pictures pf my ancient Micro Soft ergonomic Desktop Keyboard.

I played with remapping keys once on a netbook before I sold it.

https://antixlinux.com/forum-archive/right-arrow-key-physically-broken-solved-t4505.html

In case it helps on finding out anything with your rocket ship keyboard.

Brian Masinick

[Member BobC]

Interesting the results of
xmodmap -pk

Thanks Roky

[Member BobC]

I think I was able to find a way to program all but 5 of the keys. The ones that produce no codes are My Favorites #1 thru #5.

These were the best sites

https://sourceforge.net/projects/keytouch/

http://www.pal-blog.de/linux/ubuntu-1404-trusty-mapping-usb-keyboards.html

https://hal.freedesktop.org/quirk/quirk-keymap-list.txt

$ lsusb
Bus 002 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0003 Linux Foundation 3.0 root hub
Bus 001 Device 004: ID 03eb:8a96 Atmel Corp. 
Bus 001 Device 003: ID 8087:0a2a Intel Corp. 
Bus 001 Device 002: ID 1bcf:2b8a Sunplus Innovation Technology Inc. 
Bus 001 Device 014: ID 045e:009d Microsoft Corp. Wireless Optical Desktop 3.0

$ sudo getscancodes /dev/input/event18
Input driver version is 1.0.1
Input device ID: bus 0x3 vendor 0x45e product 0x9d version 0x111
Input device name: "Microsoft Microsoft Wireless Optical Desktop® 2.10"
786870 (0xc01b6)
786871 (0xc01b7)
786841 (0xc0199)
786844 (0xc019c)

Therefore /etc/udev/hwdb.d/ms1011-keyboard.hwdb will contain:
keyboard:usb:v045ep009d*
KEYBOARD_KEY_0xc0183=media
KEYBOARD_KEY_0xc01b6=graphicseditor
KEYBOARD_KEY_0xc01b7=audio
KEYBOARD_KEY_0xc0199=messenger
KEYBOARD_KEY_0xc019c=exit`

So I want to program those to run

XF86Video - KEYBOARD_KEY_0xc0183=media
XF86Pictures - KEYBOARD_KEY_0xc01b6=graphicseditor
XF86Music - KEYBOARD_KEY_0xc01b7=audio
XF86Messenger - KEYBOARD_KEY_0xc0199=messenger
<code>XF86Logoff - KEYBOARD_KEY_0xc019c=exit</code>
I tried adding a key to my keys file
<code>key &quot;graphicseditor&quot; mtpaint</code>

And save, and restart IceWM, then reset udev database:

Testing a HWDB change

Either reboot your computer to make your new configuration file active or run the udevadm command to update the internal database from your file and reload it into the running system:

<code>$ sudo udevadm -d hwdb --update;sudo udevadm -d control --reload</code>

I saw my changes were read at the end

Now unplug your USB keyboard, wait two or three seconds (or more) and plug it in again. Press the reconfigured key and you should get the action defined in the config file (I used mute for testing, because it’s a visible action in Ubuntu).

But it had no effect. I will try rebooting next…

Reply To: Got a "new to me" Wireless Multimedia Keyboard

The reboot didn’t fix it. xev produces nothing on the My Pictures key instead of pressing the graphicseditor key and bringing up mtpaint.

Any ideas?

• This reply was modified 10 months, 3 weeks ago by rokytnji.
• This reply was modified 10 months, 3 weeks ago by rokytnji.
• This reply was modified 10 months, 3 weeks ago by rokytnji.

[Forum Admin rokytnji]

See if dmesg has anything to say about keyboard errors is all I can think of for a idea. It might mention a error. /var is where logs are at. I used to poke around in there for hours cuz I’m stubborn.

Now? I’m not stubborn as I used to be, but go with the flow more. Must be age.

Good luck.

Sometimes I drive a crooked road to get my mind straight.
Not all who Wander are Lost.

Linux Registered User # 475019
How to Search for AntiX solutions to your problems

[Author]

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