Irfan’s Corner on the Web On Mac, Linux, Grid, Virtualization and Software Technology

How to make use of the extra Multimedia keys in Laptops and Keyboards in Linux

I bought my notebook some months ago, OpenSUSE 10.2 turned out to have excellent hardware support for it and supported nearly all hardware, except those multimedia keys which come embedded on the notebook. This tutorial will show how you can easily add support for these keys to your Linux computer. This tutorial can not just be used for adding support for the extra multimedia keys on notebooks, but also for multimedia keyboards for Desktops.

In this tutorial we will add support for the "MediaDirect" key and the multimedia keys in the front of the Dell Inspiron.

Some keys such as Mute, Volume UP/Down are supported by default. We will add support for the additional keys and integrate the functionality with Amarok, my favorite media player.

First of all you will need the necessary program, xbindkeys. Download it and install it.

xbindkeys offers the following CLI interface:

xbindkeys 1.8.2 by Philippe Brochard
usage: xbindkeys [options]
where options are:
-V, --version Print version and exit
-d, --defaults Print a default rc file
-dg, --defaults-guile Print a default guile configuration file
-f, --file Use an alternative rc file
-fg, --file-guile Use an alternative guile configuration file
-h, --help This help!
-X, --display Set X display to use
-v, --verbose More information on xbindkeys when it run
-s, --show Show the actual keybinding
-k, --key Identify one key pressed
-mk, --multikey Identify multi key pressed
-g, --geometry size and position of window open with -k|-mk option
-n, --nodaemon don't start as daemon


Intially you need to create a stub configuration file

xbindkeys --defaults-guile > ~/.xbindkeysrc.scm

Now you need to identify the keycodes for the multimedia buttons, this is done by first invoking xbindkeys with the following switch

xbindkeys -mk

Some window pop ups, and now start pressing the buttons, one after another, when you press a button some information is printed on the console as depicted in the screenshot

The "m:0x10 + c:160" part of the output identifies the specific button to the computer. You can now open up the configuration file and associate a command with this. KDE is such an advanced environment that it allows users to interact with programs from the console through the Desktop Communications Protocol (DCOP). I had pressed the mute button, so I will associate the mute action in KDE with it, by invoking:

dcop kmix Mixer0 toggleMute 0

so in the configuration file this would look like:

"dcop kmix Mixer0 toggleMute 0 "
m:0x10 + c:160

So here are some parts of my configuration file, which associate different keys to different actions, like if I press the MediaDirect key amarok should open, If I press forward, it should go to the next playlist item, If I press previous it should go to the previous playlist item etc..

"amarok"

m:0x10 + c:237
"dcop amarok player play"
m:0x10 + c:162

"dcop amarok player prev"
m:0x10 + c:144

"dcop amarok player next"
m:0x10 + c:153

"dcop amarok player stop"
m:0x10 + c:164

So this is how basically you can add support for special multimedia keys to your Linux environment. Now the key mappings will not have an effect until you do not run xbindkeys in the background, you can do that by simply saying

xbindkeys &

You could also add it to your startup files so the key mappings work automatically.

Finally Got my Webcam to work in Linux!

I bought this extremely cheap webcam from the market, named "Pasaris". It came packaged with a Windows driver, it worked fine on Windows. However because I wanted to use it on my notebook I needed to make it work on Linux. I installed all relevant modules from the kernel, believing that udev will pick the right one. However it did not work this way. Next I looked up this massive list, hoping that it is supported by the spca5xx driver. But in the entire list there doesn't seem to be any vendor called "Pasaris".

I shelved the webcam away, hoping to get a new one which would have Linux support. Today while reading Greg KH's book "Linux kernel in a nutshell", I decided to have another look at that webcam. I used lsusb to find the Vendor and Product ID, which turned out to be:

0x0c45:0613b, the kernel doesn't support any such device, so I had another look at the spca5xx support webcam list.
And viola! I found that device filed under "Sonix" brand. I was over joyed! I immediately downloaded the driver, and downloaded an application to test the setup, gqcam, and it worked pretty well!

So the moral of the story: Never be deceived by the branding on a device made in China! All of them are mostly from a single source