Re: [vox-tech] keys and keybinding

[Pavan <xxxxxx@uiucMAPS.edu>]

> pageup, as i already knew), but not the keys i'm interested in...
> (no log messages either)
>
> this sucks, since i'm going for func-f5, for one, since under windows, that's
> the key combo that dims the lcd... :/
>

I run Windows 2000 on my notebook - but I've always wondered about the
function key's operation.  So, you're basically saying you don't have the
option _at all_ to dim the notebook LCD in Linux?

I'm _very_ curious about this problem.  I had always assumed that the most
intelligent thing to do, as a vendor, would have been to intercept certain
key combinations and not transmit scan codes, but adjust settings on the
notebook hardware as a direct result of the keypress (using some
proprietary hardware or another) instead of of transmitting a scan code,
and having low-level software take care of things.  This, I figured, would
be the easiest way to avoid having software support, so a minimal
functionality for controlling hardware would be available no matter what
OS was running.  For example, there's really no reason to have software
handle the volume of the speakers on the notebook going up and down - so
why not just intercept the keypress and just handle the volume from there.

Although, this implementation could vary from vendor to vendor, I suppose.
But, I'm more recently led to believe a lot of vendors just take the easy
way out and let software handle things - because I notice slowdowns in software
performance with certain keystrokes on my system... (On my Thinkpad 600,
the sound in mp3's flakes out momentarily when I turn off the screen with
fn-f7...)

I'm interested in looking into the low-level details of this... Maybe there
is a possibility here for a low-level software hack. Perhaps you can't dim
the screen, but maybe we can signal applications software somehow to show
the key has been pressed.

-- 
Pavan xxxxxx (xxxxxx@uiuc.edu)   http://www.students.uiuc.edu/~xxxxxx
Computer Engineering Student     University of Illinois @ Urbana-Champaign