[Techtalk] Enabling "web" keys in Linux

[Akkana Peck]

Angelina Carlton writes:
> Try searching on "multimedia keys" and including the brand/model number
> of your keyboard perhaps?  

Thanks! "multimedia" was the keyword I was missing in my google
searches. That led me to
http://gentoo-wiki.com/HOWTO_Use_Multimedia_Keys
and a few other pages saying more or less the same thing.

Apparently the 2.6 kernel has a lot of undefined key codes, but
dmesg or /var/log/messages will show messages like:

atkbd.c: Unknown key pressed (translated set 2, code 0x9e on isa0060/serio0).
atkbd.c: Use 'setkeycodes e01e <keycode>' to make it known.

Indeed, setkeycodes does make the key visible to xev. Strangely,
it doesn't make it visible at the keycode I assign -- if I say
setkeycodes e01e 158, then xev shows a keycode of 234, where
converting decimal 158 to octal gives 236. So I don't quite grok
that, but the important thing is that it does make the keys show
up to X in a way that lets them be mapped.

	...Akkana