Arch Teapot Notes 12-02-18

Multimedia Keys

We learned that multimedia keys are available by using xev. To use it, start xev | grep keycode and press the buttons in question.

Notice: if your window manager evaluates the pressed keycodes, nothing will show up.

The shown keycodes should be placed in ~/.Xmodmap

Example (ThinkPad X61):

keycode 113 = Volume Mute
keycode 114 = Volume Down
keycode 115 = Volume Up
keycode 143 = FnKey itsel
keycode 148 = ThinkVantage Button
keycode 152 = ScreenLock (Fn+F2)
keycode 163 = Media Next
keycode 164 = Media Play/Pause
keycode 165 = Media Previous
keycode 166 = Media Stop
keycode 191 = Trackpoint/Touchpad Switch (Fn+F8)
keycode 194 = Dock Eject (Fn+F9)
keycode 224 = Brightness Down
keycode 225 = Brightness Up
keycode 227 = Monitor (Fn+F7)
keycode 236 = Battery (Fn+F3)
keycode 238 = WLAN (Fn+F5)
keycode 372 = Fn+Space

The terminal based program showkeys won’t work, since kernel keycodes differ from X11.

ArchWiki Xmodmap

These keysyms can be used for your favorite window manager‘s configuration.

Example (awesome):

  -- Multimedia Keys
    awful.key({ }, "XF86AudioRaiseVolume", function () awful.util.spawn('mpc -h localhost volume +1') end),
    awful.key({ }, "XF86AudioLowerVolume", function () awful.util.spawn('mpc -h localhost volume -1') end),
    awful.key({ }, "XF86AudioMute", function () awful.util.spawn('mpc -h localhost volume 0') end),
    awful.key({ }, "XF86AudioNext", function () awful.util.spawn('mpc -h localhost next') end),
    awful.key({ }, "XF86AudioPrev", function () awful.util.spawn('mpc -h localhost prev') end),
    awful.key({ }, "XF86AudioPlay", function () awful.util.spawn('mpc -h localhost toggle') end)

PulseAudio

PulseAudio is a sound system enabling us to control application volumes individually and use other computers soundcards over the network.

Recommended packages:

• pulseaudio (the daemon, required)
• pavucontrol (GTK based mixer application)
• paprefs (GTK based configuration tool)

Note: in order to discover remote soundcards, one has to start avahi-daemon!