# Multimedia keyboard keys [SOLVED]

## j3ff3r

Is there a way to get Gentoo to use the multimedia keys on a laptop (like the buttons for volume and internet).  I'm using an eMachines m6805.  Any help is appreciated.

Thanks,

JeffLast edited by j3ff3r on Wed Mar 09, 2005 2:30 am; edited 1 time in total

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## Wi1d

Check into either hotkeys or lineakd. I've used both on my MSmultimedia without any complaints.

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## echo6

This is a good question,  I want to be able to simply access the Fn key on my laptop to tie some of the Fn-Fx key functions with KMix,  e.g. Fn-F5 to decrease sound volume,  FnF6 to increase sound volume.

Which keyboard setting out of those available in hotkeys is likely to give access to Fn key presses?

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## SAngeli

Hi Wi1d,

I was looking around portage and the official website of lineak. It seems that for AMD64 there is not software for lineak. Instead, for hotkeys yes. I also learned about khotkeys but do not know if it will allow integration for both lineak and hoteys or just hotkeys. Thou, I see that for kineak there are many masked applications, one of which is khotkeys.

Any advice on what to choose? As you mentioned,  *Quote:*   

> I've used both on my MSmultimedia without any complaints.

  could you advice one of the two?

Thank you,

Spiro

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## totencham

Try xbindkeys, it's exactly what you need:  http://hocwp.free.fr/xbindkeys/xbindkeys.html

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## SAngeli

Hi totencham,

Thank you for your post.

xbindkeys is for X windows, correct? As for X it seems very good. But, as for KDE environment? Would xbindkeys do the work too? I think it is only for X. Please correct me if I am wrong.

Thank you,

Spiro

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## totencham

I've been using it succesfully with kde, so you shouldn't have any problems with it.

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## j3ff3r

I'll try it, thanks

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## echo6

So how can I use xbindkeys to configure Fn+F5 key to decrease the volume?

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## Legoguy

bind it to aumix +v[n] where n is percent to increase it. aumix -v[n] does the same but down. You need to emerge aumix first though.

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## j3ff3r

xbindkeys works great and lets me configure those keys...I was even pleased to find out there was an ebuild for it too!  Thanks for the help.

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## SAngeli

Hi,

because I am kind of interested in installing lineak, could it be that this will take care of the entire environment, both X and kde so that I do not have to mess with anything else?

Thanks,

Spiro

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## j3ff3r

In the context of binding keys, X and KDE are pretty much the same.  KDE is a desktop environment for X windows, so if you have something that runs on X windows, it will run in KDE.  This is not necessarily true the other way, though.  If you have something that is designed for KDE, it might not work with all of X windows...i.e. if you were running Gnome, it might not run the KDE program.  I am using the xbindkeys on KDE and it works great.

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## SAngeli

Hi j3ff3r,

xbindkeys is a program that allows you to launch shell commands with your keyboard or your mouse under X Window and is independant of the window manager (this is what I learned from the official website).

What about kde?

Does it mean that I have to install xbindkeys and lineak (or hotplug) together?

Also, looking at lineak in portage it seems it has the plugin for X. Perhaps, this could substitute xbindkeys so that I have one application that could do all the above?

Thank you,

Spiro

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## Legoguy

There seems to be a bit of misconception here. KDE runs on top of X, they don't run side by side. xbindkeys works on X, therefore it works on anything that runs on X, including KDE, Gnome, Fluxbox, the list goes on. KDE's builtin hotkeys support only works in KDE though, same with Gnome and Fluxbox. Which is why xbindkeys is so much better - you can bind things globally instead of just per-system. Granted, you won't get any fancy volume levels or indicators unless they're programmed into the programs xbindkeys runs. 

An additional benefit of xbindkeys is that it doesn't only handle keyboard shortcuts but also mouse buttons, which is what makes it popular among Logitech MX series mouse users.

xbindkeys itself is sufficient with appropriate setup of ~/.xbindkeysrc. No hotplug, xhkeys or Lineak required. Also, if you use fluxbox, it seems that all of the listed tools fail to correctly start up automatically on login - where xbindkeys has no problem (fluxbox bug?).

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## SAngeli

Hi Legoguy,

thank you for the clarification. It helped me better understand.

Spiro

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