4. The Solutions, Continued

The dv1000's multimedia function keys - resplendent in their backlit glory - along with the accompanying remote control are certainly interesting and attractive accoutrements of the dv1000. But as any seasoned Linux notebook user already knows, these could become nothing more than useless gizmos without configurable keyboard shortcuts. Fortunately, there's a way to make this stuff work with Linux. Under Gnome, navigate the menu bar from System > Preferences > Keyboard Shortcuts to find an application that facilitates the assignment (or reassignment) of keyboard inputs, and enables each keypress sequence to be arbitrarily mapped to an event or application. That's how it's done nowadays, and will take half an hour or more to work through, but those efforts will be rewarded.

Not surprisingly, the remote control power button works instantly - no configuration required - indicating that the infrared subsystem on the dv1000 also works with Linux right out of the box. The corresponding volume up/down, mute, fast-forward, rewind, play, pause, and stop buttons are not automatically mapped to any event by default, but this may be easily corrected using the keyboard shortcuts configuration panel described in the preceding paragraph, along with the X Windows event viewer (xev) utility. As proof positive this really does work, the following screenshot depicts the dv1000 multimedia function keys mapped to appropriate X Windows events.

Figure 3: Keyboard mapping work pays off for those who want to use multimedia function keys.

The next screenshot depicts the volume control pop-up that appears when using the remote.

Figure 4: Volume controls appear in a remote-provoked pop up window

We have saved you the time and trouble of discovering the other key codes; they are listed in Table 3. These key codes are numeric values by which all keypresses are identified to the rest of the system. We also summarize important remote and function keys in Table 4.

Table 3

This works so well that we linked the eject disc feature to the CTL+ALT+e sequence with immediate success. Can it get any easier?

Alternate function keys - which are activated by holding the "fn" key in combination with a multi-purpose key - are another matter. Brightness controls worked right away, as did the sleep key, but the remainder of the top-row alternate function keys did not. Ten-key emulation through the alternate function keys also worked flawlessly for applications like gedit, a simple Gnome text editor, and the Gnome terminal.

A table of integer values that correspond to easily identifiable remote control keys follows. Several other keys use a sequence of values that we skipped because we could not summarize them easily.

Table 4