Dell Precision M90 hotkeys not working

[phenest]

Binary package hint: xkeyboard-config

Ubuntu 8.10 Alpha 5

Media keys on Dell Precision M90 don't respond. I can set the keys in the Keyboard Shortcuts in Gnome, but no application responds to them.

Volume up and down work as expected. Volume mute, play/pause, previous, next, stop, and the media button do not respond.

Output of setxkbmap -print:
xkb_keymap {
 xkb_keycodes { include "evdev+aliases(qwerty)" };
 xkb_types { include "complete" };
 xkb_compat { include "complete" };
 xkb_symbols { include "pc+gb(dvorak)+inet(evdev)" };
 xkb_geometry { include "pc(pc104)" };
};
Output of xkbcomp :0
Warning: Could not load keyboard geometry for :0
                  BadAlloc (insufficient resources for operation)
                  Resulting keymap file will not describe geometry

[komputes (komputes)]

Hi phenest,

Can you please post weather or not you are able to program the buttons for mute, play/pause, previous, next, stop in System > Preferences > Keyboard Shortcut

[phenest (steve-clark)]

I did mention that already, but yes I can. All media keys can be programmed in Keyboard Shortcuts.

[phenest (steve-clark)]

I have they will work but only after pressing them repeatedly. And especially after pressing the 'Apply System-Wide...' button in Keyboard Preferences>Layouts.

[phenest (steve-clark)]

I have also found that by pressing and holding the button for several seconds, they will work. But the action is only performed when you release the button.

[nullack (nullack)]

Moving to new as per user response

[ian (beercz)]

I have the same problem on my lenovo 3000 N200 laptop.

The media keys and the mute key fail to work at all, even if I hold down any of the media keys for several seconds. I have configured the media keys in keyboard shortcuts to no avail.

The volume up/down buttons work fine. It's just the stop/play/next/previous and mute buttons fail to respond.

[ian (beercz)]

Forgot to mention that the media keys worked fine in hardy, and the mute key worked in both hardy and intrepid until recently.

I am running intrepid.

[mercutio22 (macabro22)]

I Confirm this on a Dell XPS m1730. Media keys used to work on Hardy Heron, now only volume up and down do. Mute does not as well.

[bdoe (bdoe-att)]

Confirmed this as a problem on HP Pavilion laptops with media keys as well (dv9730us). Buttons worked fine under Hardy, but neither of the Quickplay buttons register at all on Intrepid (xev shows no response to those keys). The rest of the media keys register and work fine.

[davija (davija)]

I'm having this issue on an inspiron e1705.

Using xev, I get the following output on intrepid (worked fine in hardy).

Media Direct (was media or something like XF86Media) is now XF86Back
Play/pause seems to work.
Previous track is XF86AudioPrev
Next track is XF86AudioNext
Stop is XF86AudioLowerVolume

I've tried to map the XF86Back button to run an application and was unable to get it to function.

[Bryce Harrington (bryce)]

Please refer to https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Hotkeys/ (esp. the Troubleshooting sub-page) for assistance in troubleshooting hotkey issues. Report back here with relevant debug output that helps pinpoint the source of the problem.

[mercutio22 (macabro22)]

I've done that in a duplicate already

[phenest (steve-clark)]

I'm currently running Intrepid with latest updates and Rhythbox is responding. Even the mute button is working. I do find, however, that a simple press (enough for the button backlight to come on), is not always enough. A slightly longer press is required, but they will work.

I will test with some other apps, both Gnome and 3rd party.

[bdoe (bdoe-att)]

Just a bump to add that, while I cannot get anything within Gnome to recognize the "missing" keys (specifically the two QuickPlay keys on my HP Pavilion laptop), and xev doesn't even flinch when either of those keys are touched, I have managed to get xorg to log the events:

In Xorg.0.log:
(WW) AT Translated Set 2 keyboard: unable to handle keycode 387
(WW) AT Translated Set 2 keyboard: unable to handle keycode 389
(WW) AT Translated Set 2 keyboard: unable to handle keycode 465

(I have no idea what generated the keycode 465 event, but the 387 and 389 events correspond to my QuickPlay keys).

Please let me know if there's anything else I need to do/post that can help squash this bug.

[mercutio22 (macabro22)]

It seems to be a gnome problem. The media keys work fine in KDE 4.

[Mario Limonciello (superm1)]

Can someone please test this on a fully updated Jaunty installation? The architecture for all hotkeys has been properly defined and implemented recently in Jaunty, so it is expected that everything working there.

[phenest (steve-clark)]

Amazingly, they work again flawlessly! And here's why/how...

I deleted all the hidden files from the /home folder and reinstalled Intrepid. Et voila! I haven't done any updates yet, but I've never had the media buttons working in Intrepid before. Until now. Both Rhythmbox and Totem respond perfectly.

Go figure.

[phenest (steve-clark)]

I found the culprit. Check this bug: http://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=570751

[mercutio22 (macabro22)]

Thank you phenest! That was an annoying bug!

[bdoe (bdoe-att)]

No such luck with the HP Pavilions.

[bdoe (bdoe-att)]

I just wanted to add that updating to Jaunty fixed my problem. All HP media and Quikplay buttons work properly again.

[phenest (steve-clark)]

This is still an issue in Karmic.

[phenest (steve-clark)]

After trying Lucid alpha 1 I have found that this is now working. After enabling 'show position of pointer when the control key is pressed' in Mouse Preferences, the media keys continue to work.

[Martin Mai (mrkanister-deactivatedaccount-deactivatedaccount)]

Closing the bug due to your last comment stating that this is fixed in Ubuntu 10.04. Given the date of the commit (http://git.gnome.org/browse/gnome-settings-daemon/commit/?id=ba9e7dcb6fc38335c6c2bb216f1c619bdae807d1), it should also be fixed in Ubuntu 9.10.