kubuntu 10.10 maverick logitech multimedia keyboard volume control doesn't work regression

[Ariel Faigon]

On the upgrade from Kubuntu 10.04 (Lucid) to 10.10 (Maverick) the volume control dial on my logitech multimedia keyboard has stopped working.

Stopped working means the following:

    When using volume control on Multimedia keyboard
        1) There's no visual feedback (applet-style on-screen volume indicator)
        2) It doesn't affect the volume

Expected behavior:
    Turning the volume key on the keyboard should:
    1) Show visible on-screen feedback volume indicator moving Up/Down
    2) Volume should change up or down according to direction of turning the button

$ lsb_release -rd
Description: Ubuntu 10.10
Release: 10.10

Eliminating suspects:

* Sound works fine. Using pulseaudio in various applications (clementine, banshee, rhythmbox, amarok, firefox on youtube etc.)
* Volume can be changed via kmix by dragging slider with the mouse, (or in alsamixer using the arrow keys)
* The Logitech keyboard is correctly recognized and turning the volume control button generates the correct events to Xorg:
  in 'xev' (keycodes: 122 123 mapped to Xorg XF86AudioRaiseVolume and XF86AudioLowerVolume events)
  Here's what I see in 'xev':
   Volume Up:
        KeyPress event, serial 34, synthetic NO, window 0xa00001,
        root 0x15a, subw 0xa00002, time 2741608838, (46,40), root:(50,63),
        state 0x0, keycode 123 (keysym 0x1008ff13, XF86AudioRaiseVolume),
        same_screen YES,
        XLookupString gives 0 bytes:
        XmbLookupString gives 0 bytes:
        XFilterEvent returns: False
    Volume Down:
        KeyPress event, serial 34, synthetic NO, window 0xa00001,
        root 0x15a, subw 0xa00002, time 2741609758, (46,40), root:(50,63),
        state 0x0, keycode 122 (keysym 0x1008ff11, XF86AudioLowerVolume),
        same_screen YES,
        XLookupString gives 0 bytes:
        XmbLookupString gives 0 bytes:
        XFilterEvent returns: False

I run KDE4.5.1 (Based on 'About KDE' in the Application launcher)

I found this workaround:
  1) Installed gkbd-capplet in order to pull in various gnome-control-center components
  2) run gnome-keyboard-properties

The moment gnome starts intercepting the keyboard volume up/down events, volume control starts working fine (although the visual is not as nice as the KDE one I was used to)

So it seems that the problem is neither in the sound system, nor in the keyboard drivers (Xorg input events) but in the linking between the two. gnome gets it right. The KDE desktop env doesn't.

This is the most painful regression I personally noticed since the upgrade. Otherwise, I'm noticing mostly improvements.

[Ariel Faigon (ariel.faigon)]

Update:

My keyboard volume indicator and level works again, as expected. Also in order to work correctly there's no need to run gnome-keyboard-properties. I get the standard elegant KDE volume on-screen indicator.

The bad news is I'm not sure what exactly fixed it.

Among the things I changed since the report are several standard karmic upgrades, and perhaps more meaningfully a removal of an old package called 'hotkeys' which is not Ubuntu supported (multiverse repo?)

Anyway, I think this should be closed as invalid since everything is working fine again with the current set of karmic standard packages.

[Maarten Bezemer (veger)]

This bug report is being closed due to your last comment regarding this being fixed with an update. For future reference you can manage the status of your own bugs by clicking on the current status in the yellow line and then choosing a new status in the revealed drop down box. You can learn more about bug statuses at https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Bugs/Status. Thank you again for taking the time to report this bug and helping to make Ubuntu better. Please submit any future bugs you may find.