fn+f8 switch video mode does not work (keycodes scancodes keymaps)

[Dimitar Toshev]

On 9 October 2011 21:01, =JeffH <Jeff.Hodges at kingsmountain.com> wrote:
> Hi,
>
> I have a Dell E6500 (with nvidia Quadro NVS 160M GPU) with (k)ubuntu 10.04
> installed (and up-to-date), and upon which I've installed the proprietary
> nvidia driver (which seems to work fine (and sleep works)).
>
> Out-of-the-box most everything seems to work (sound & sound buttons,
> dim/brighten display, sleep button (fn+f1)), however, the display video
> switch
> fn+f8 does not work.
>
> I've groveled through the ubuntu forums and web at large and see that other
> people have noted this but don't (yet) see a documented fix.
>
> fwiw, I also have a Dell D820 upon which I've run (k)ubuntu since ubuntu
> 6.10,
> and it's fn+f8 sleep button has always worked, and upon which I also am
> running
> ubuntu 10.04.
>
>
> So, I've done some poking about on both the D820 and the E6500 trying to
> figure
> out what is going on and what changed between the two systems that might be
> causing this.
>
> AFAICT, at least part of the issue is that they keyboard scan codes emitted
> by
> the E6500 keyboard are different (for at least some of the keys, fn+f8 in
> particular) than they are on the D820. It appears that the ACPI sleep
> initiation is not properly mapped to the  scancodes emitted by the E6500
> keyboard.
>
> For example, if a command shell is the active task (i.e. the insertion point
> is
> sitting at a command prompt), and one presses fn+f8, a character "p" is
> placed
> at the command prompt, as if one had typed "p".
>
> Using acpi_listen to investigate...
>
>  > sudo acpi_listen -c 1
> p
> ^C
>
> The above command should have exited on it's own after receiving an acpi
> event
> for fn+f8, but instead just a letter "p" was echoed and then I cntl-C'd out
> of
> it. For comparison, if I use acpi_listen again and press fn+upArrow (LCD
> brighten)...
>
>  > sudo acpi_listen -c 1
> video LCD 00000086 00000000
>  >
>
> ..the event is received, displayed, and acpi_listen properly exits.
>
> So it seems the that an ACPI event isn't even being generated for fn+f8 on
> the
> E6500. Further poking about shows that the /lib/udev/keymaps/dell file is
> the
> same on both the D820 and the E6500 (should it be? (I'm doubting it)), and
> also
> that some of the various outputs of "dumpkeys" are the same on both systems.
>
> However, using "showkey" on both systems gives markedly different results,
> which are shown below.
>
> Does anyone know what might be going on and what I can do to get fn+f8 to
> properly switch video display on the E6500 ?
>
> thanks,
>
> =JeffH
> ------
>
>
> On the D820:
> ------------
>
>  > sudo showkey -s         # I pressed and released fn-f8 once
> kb mode was RAW
> [ if you are trying this under X, it might not work
> since the X server is also reading /dev/console ]
>
> press any key (program terminates 10s after last keypress)...
> 0xe0 0x56 0xe0 0xd6 0xe0 0x56 0xe0 0xd6
> 0xe0 0x56 0xe0 0xd6
>
>  > sudo showkey           # pressed and released fn-f8 once, after releasing
> enter key
> kb mode was RAW
> [ if you are trying this under X, it might not work
> since the X server is also reading /dev/console ]
>
> press any key (program terminates 10s after last keypress)...
> keycode  28 release    # Enter key release
> keycode 227 press      # pressed fn and nothing showed up here
>                        #  until I also pressed fn8
> keycode 227 release    # while fn was still pressed,
>                        # quickly released and got all three "press-release"
> keycode 227 press      # pairs listed here
> keycode 227 release
> keycode 227 press
> keycode 227 release
>
>
>
>
> On the E6500:
> -------------
>
>  > sudo showkey -s         # I pressed and released fn-f8 once
> kb mode was RAW
> [ if you are trying this under X, it might not work
> since the X server is also reading /dev/console ]
>
> press any key (program terminates 10s after last keypress)...
> 0x9c
> p0xe0 0x5b 0x19 0x99      # Note the "p" char
> 0xe0 0xdb
>
>
>  > sudo showkey
> kb mode was RAW
> [ if you are trying this under X, it might not work
> since the X server is also reading /dev/console ]
>
> press any key (program terminates 10s after last keypress)...
> keycode  28 release  # Enter key release (?)   scancode 0x9c ?
> pkeycode 125 press   # fn ?  scancodes 0xe0 0x5b ?
> keycode  25 press    # f8 ?  scancode 0x19 ?
> keycode  25 release  # f8 ?  scancode 0x99 ?
> keycode 125 release  # fn release ?  scancodes 0xe0 0xdb ?
>
>
> ---
> end
>
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Hi. My guess would be that fn+f8 sends winkey + p, since that is the
standard "presentation mode" shortcut on windows 7. This would also
explain the 'p' you're seeing.

P.S. sorry for duplicate mail, forgot to cc the mailing list.