# Microsoft Digital media 3000 keyboard problem

## opascariu

Hi,

I'm having trouble using Custom1-5 keys(the keys above F4-F8 ) on a Microsoft Digital Media 3000 keyboard (most of the special keys are working).

I tried to follow the instructions from the Multimedia Keys wiki page, but with no luck.

The problem is that I can't obtain the scancode/keycode for those keys. I've tried to obtain the showkey, xev, xkbevd but nothing seems to happen when those  keys are pressed/released. I've also tried to assign a command to one of those keys using keytouch-editor, but again, keytouch-editor didn't react when those keys were pressed. 

I've downloaded getscancodes from keytouch website, and still I could not obtain the scancode.

When I try to start the keytouch daemon, I get many errors like the following

```

/etc/init.d/keytouch start

 * Running keytouch-init ...

keytouch-init: Failed to set keycode:

keycode 177 to scancode 139 (0x8b)

```

I'm using xorg-server 1.9.0.901.

I'm using evdev to detect the keyboard&mouse so I didn't add any InputDevice section in /etc/X11/xorg.conf.

The keyboard is detected by evdev as you can see here

Should I add an InputDevice section to xorg.conf and specify some parameters for these keys to work?

emerge --info can be found here

Does anyone has an idea of what else should I do to make those keys work?

Thanks

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## luscinius

Hi

I remember having read some time ago that some of the keys produce scan codes larger that 255, and these cannot be currently handled by X. That would explain why nothing can see them. For me some of the special keys on a Logitech keyboard do not work either, nothing shows up in xev.

UPD: I installed evrouter as suggested by the multimedia keys wiki page, and it does not see any event for the extra keys (even those recognized by X).

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## opascariu

I know the X does not handle scan codes greater than 255, but I belive that there is another problem, beside that.

There are some special keys(zoom in and zoom out keys), with a scan code larger than 255 for which I can obtain the keycode with xev, or any other similar program (if I remember well those keys have a scan code of 417 and 418). I can not a assign a certain function in X for those keys but at least I can obtain the scan code, I can see than something happens when those keys are pressed/released.

I read on some forum that there are some similar issues with USB keyboards. I'll buy a USB to PS2 adapter and I'll try to see if I can get the scan code for those keys. Only after I will obtain the scan code I'll try to find a way to assign a certain function to them.

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