How to get special keys to work

Overview

The following table gives an overview over the special keys found on ThinkPads and what is needed to make them work.

key	standard function1	tools supporting key2	configurability3	remarks
Fn	-	xmodmap, tpb	full	on release without completed key combination
FnF1	-	ibm-acpi	full
FnF2	lock screen	ibm-acpi	full	in models from T/X/Z 60 onwards
FnF3	blank screen	ibm-acpi, thinkpad-acpi	full
FnF4	suspend to ram	ibm-acpi, thinkpad-acpi	full	may generate ACPI event when not enabled in the ibm-acpi hotkey mask
FnF5	switch bluetooth	ibm-acpi, thinkpad-acpi	full	in models starting from 2002
FnF6	-	ibm-acpi	full
FnF7	toggle display	ibm-acpi, thinkpad-acpi, tpb	additional actions	Sample Fn-F7 script
FnF8	toggle trackpoint/touchpad	ibm-acpi, thinkpad-acpi, tpb	additional actions
FnF9	eject from dock	ibm-acpi, thinkpad-acpi	full
FnF10	-	ibm-acpi	full
FnF11	-	ibm-acpi	full
FnF12	hibernate	ibm-acpi, thinkpad-acpi	full	may generate ACPI event when not enabled in the ibm-acpi hotkey mask
FnHome / FnPos1	brightness up	ibm-acpi, tpb, KMilo	additional actions
FnEnd	brightness down	tpb, KMilo	additional actions
FnPageUp	toggle thinklight	tpb, KMilo	additional actions
FnSpace	toggle zoom	tpb, KMilo	full
FnIns	-	ibm-acpi	full
FnDel	-	ibm-acpi	full
FnBackspace	-	ibm-acpi	full
NumLock	-	xmodmap	make working
Windows	-	xmodmap	remapping
Access IBM or ThinkPad or ThinkVantage	help application	tpb, KMilo	full
Home	open web browser	xmodmap, tpb, KMilo	full	only A30, A30p, A31, A31p and ext. keyboards
Search	open search application	xmodmap, tpb, KMilo	full	only A30, A30p, A31, A31p and ext. keyboards
Mail	open mail application	xmodmap, tpb, KMilo	full	only A30, A30p, A31, A31p and ext. keyboards
Favorites	open favorites	xmodmap, tpb	full	only A30, A30p, A31, A31p and ext. keyboards
Reload	reload web page	xmodmap, tpb	full	only A30, A30p, A31, A31p and ext. keyboards
Abort	abort loading page	xmodmap, tpb	full	only A30, A30p, A31, A31p and ext. keyboards
Backward	previous page	xmodmap, tpb	full	ext. keyboards and ThinkPads starting from 2002
Forward	next page	xmodmap, tpb	full	ext. keyboards and ThinkPads starting from 2002
Volume up	volume up	tpb, KMilo	additional actions
Volume down	volume down	tpb, KMilo	additional actions
Volume mute	mute volume	tpb, KMilo	additional actions
Play/Pause	start/pause playback	xmodmap	full	X60s (Fn+Arrow Down)
Stop	stop playback	xmodmap	full	X60s (Fn+Arrow Up)
Next	play next	xmodmap	full	X60s (Fn+Arrow Right)
Previous	play previous	xmodmap	full	X60s (Fn+Arrow Left)
Power	shutdown	ibm-acpi	full	triggered on pressing 3secs, but notebook goes off on 5sec press
Display lid	blank screen	ibm-acpi	full
Ultrabay lid	announce ultrabay change	ibm-acpi	full
Dock eject	eject from dock	ibm-acpi	full
Tablet power	shutdown	ibm-acpi	full	triggered on pressing 3secs, but notebook goes off on 5sec press
Tablet orientation	rotates screen	setkeycodes	full
Tablet shortcut	shortcut menu	setkeycodes	full
Tablet Esc	esc key	setkeycodes	full
Tablet Enter	enter key	setkeycodes	full
Tablet Up	up key	setkeycodes	full
Tablet Down	down key	setkeycodes	full
Tablet (unlabeled)	down key	setkeycodes	full

Triggering key events

ibm-acpi events

Some of the following events require a # echo enable,0xffff >/proc/acpi/ibm/hotkey in order to make acpi able to get information on them. These events can be used to configure acpid.

events triggered by ibm-acpi for /etc/acpi/events files.

key	event
FnF1	ibm/hotkey HKEY 00000080 00001001
FnF2	ibm/hotkey HKEY 00000080 00001002
FnF3	ibm/hotkey HKEY 00000080 00001003
FnF4	ibm/hotkey HKEY 00000080 00001004
FnF5	ibm/hotkey HKEY 00000080 00001005
FnF6	ibm/hotkey HKEY 00000080 00001006
FnF7	ibm/hotkey HKEY 00000080 00001007
FnF8	ibm/hotkey HKEY 00000080 00001008
FnF9	ibm/hotkey HKEY 00000080 00001009
FnF10	ibm/hotkey HKEY 00000080 0000100a
FnF11	ibm/hotkey HKEY 00000080 0000100b
FnF12	ibm/hotkey HKEY 00000080 0000100c
FnBackspace	ibm/hotkey HKEY 00000080 0000100d
FnIns	ibm/hotkey HKEY 00000080 0000100e
FnDel	ibm/hotkey HKEY 00000080 0000100f
FnHome/FnPos1	ibm/hotkey HKEY 00000080 00001010
ThinkVantage	ibm/hotkey HKEY 00000080 00001018
Power	button/power PWRF 00000080 xxxxxxxx
Display lid	button/lid LID 00000080 xxxxxxxx
Ultrabay eject	ibm/bay MSTR 00000003 00000000
Ultrabay inserted	ibm/bay MSTR 00000001 00000000
Dock eject	ibm/dock GDCK 00000003 00000001
Wireless switch	ibm/hotkey HKEY 00000080 00007000

By disassembling and editing the DSDT, more events can be added. HKEY events are triggered by calls to the MKHQ function, e.g. \_SB.PCI0.LPC.EC.HKEY.MHKQ(0×1007) will trigger "ibm/hotkey HKEY 00000080 00001007". Most of these can be found in _Qxx methods within the DSDT, which are executed on embedded controller events, e.g. _Q10 is triggered by pressing Fn-F7. You can add a call to MKHQ into an existing _Qxx method to get it recognized by ibm-acpi as well as creating new _Qxx methods, which if you're lucky will correspond to an EC event that IBM never used (e.g. A 770 will send Fn-Home/End/PgUp/PgDn to ibm-acpi if hacked in this fashion). For example, this is a modified block of DSDT for a G40.

Pure ACPI events

A few keys can generate ACPI events of their own on certain ThinkPads, as long as they are masked off in the ibm-acpi hotkey's mask (or the hotkey feature is disabled in ibm-acpi).

If you want the ThinkPad's BIOS and ACPI methods to know about these keys being pressed, you probably want to leave them masked out from ibm-acpi, and use their non-HKEY events listed below, instead.

events triggered by ACPI when hotkey is masked out or disabled.

key	event
FnF4	button/sleep SLPB 00000080 00000001
FnF12	ibm/hotkey HKEY 00000080 0000100c

tpb configuration

configuration keywords for tpb (to put in /etc/tpbrc)

key	config keyword
Access IBM or ThinkPad	THINKPAD
Home	HOME
Search	SEARCH
Mail	MAIL
Favorites	FAVORITES
Reload	RELOAD
Abort	ABORT
Backward	BACKWARD
Forward	FORWARD
Fn	FN
FnSpace	CALLBACK (zoom on/off)
FnPageUp	CALLBACK (thinklight on/off)
FnF7	CALLBACK (display lcd/crt/both)
FnF8	CALLBACK (expand on/off)
FnHome / FnPos1	CALLBACK (brightness <percent>)
FnEnd	CALLBACK (brightness <percent>)
Volume up	CALLBACK (volume <percent>)
Volume down	CALLBACK (volume <percent>)
Volume mute	CALLBACK (mute on/off)

To all parameter keywords should be assigned the full path to the executables supposed to be started on key press. The exectable provided for the CALLBACK keyword should take the parameters given in parentheses and act according to them. If you want to use xmodmap for the HOME, SEARCH, MAIL, FAVORITES, RELOAD, ABORT, BACKWARD, FORWARD and FN keys you should provide a XEVENTS OFF in your /etc/tpbrc. You can use an appropriate executable to inject fake keystrokes.

For Debian users, tpb is started from /etc/X11/Xsession.d/90tpb.

Sound Button configuration

Note: Tested on T60p with Ubuntu 6.06 LTS

Most Thinkpads have a hardware sound mixer, thus the volumes buttons should work without configuration. However, this change is not reflected in the software mixer. tpb has a switch to enable software mixer support via OSS. The manual recommends this only for devices without a hardware mixer, but it also works for other hadware mixer enabled devices, even with the ALSA system. Just put MIXER ON in your /etc/tpbrc file and you can see the effect immediately in any ALSA mixer (e.g. kmix). For this to work you need write permissions to /dev/nvram.

Note: Tested on X21 with Ubuntu 6.06 LTS

On the ThinkPad X21 (and maybe some other older models) ACPI causes problems with tpb. On an X21 using acpi the volume buttons would work occasionally, and the OSD for tpb functions would rarely work. If a volume buttons was pressed too often, sometimes the computer would enter a low power (unplugged state) and would require a reboot. The solution is to use APM instead of ACPI. Instructions can be found in How_to_make_APM_work.

KMilo configuration

The programs to be executed by KMilo are configured via the KDE Control Center (kcontrol), under System Administration --> IBM Thinkpad Laptop. Note that you can use appropriate commands to inject fake keystrokes.

xmodmap configuration

xmodmap enables you to edit the modifier map and keymap tables that are used to translate keycodes into keysyms. Understood? Well, basically it allows you to give the X server a dictionary for the translation of keycodes like "97" into more human readable synonyms like "Home". This way xmodmap allows you to make the special keys of your keyboard known to X applications.

To discover the keycode that a certain keypress produces, use the tool $ xev

Usually you should write your keycode-keysym associations into the file ~/.Xmodmap. This file is usually read by the X session startup scripts of your system, so that the mappings automatically get included everytime you run the X server.

The ~/.Xmodmap lines for our purpose are in the form of

keycode <keycode> = <keysym>

Load the assocation using the command

$ xmodmap ~/.Xmodmap

(some configurations do this automatically upon X startup).

The following table shows the keycodes generated by the ThinkPad special keys and sensible keysyms to assign them to.

keycodes and recommended keysyms

key	keycode	keysym
Access IBM or ThinkPad	159	XF86LaunchA
Backward	234	XF86Back or F19
Forward	233	XF86Forward or F20
Play/Pause	162	XF86AudioPlay
Stop	164	XF86AudioStop
Next	153	XF86AudioNext
Previous	144	XF86AudioPrev
Home	178	XF86HomePage
Search	229	XF86Search
Mail	236	XF86Mail
Favorites	230	XF86AddFavorite or XF86Favorites
Reload	231	XF86Reload
Abort	232	XF86Stop
Fn	227	F35

Note: You can also use xkeycaps (an X tool to display and edit the X keyboard mapping) to generate proper .Xmodmap.

Note: if you are running tpb you might need to add the line XEVENTS=off into your tpbrc to stop it from grabbing the key events and allow them to get through to X instead. See [[1]] for more detailed instruction on how to use tpb and xmodmap.

Note: XF86Forward and XF86Back do not work correctly in Firefox. You may want to map them to F19 and F20 instead if you use Firefox.

Note: The "XF86AudioPlay" etc. just works with a few programs. To make it work with more multimedia programs you have map the key to use something like ReMoot. ReMoot is a command line wrapper that control 18 of the most common multimedia applications.

Enabling the Windows and Menu Keys

On some systems the Windows and Menu keys may not be recognized. You can enable then by making the following changes:

       keycode 115 = F13
       keycode 227 = F35

F13 and F35 are used for the Windows and and Menu keys respectively. Labelling keycpode 227 as "Menu" may conflict with the right-mouse-click event.

Using Caps Lock as Super L (Windows key)

You can easily use Caps Lock as Win key by adding the following in your ~/.Xmodmap:

       ! No Caps Lock
       clear lock
       ! Caps Lock as Win key
       add mod4 = Caps_Lock

NumLock

On the ThinkPad 600, T20, T21, T22, T30, X20, X21, X31, X40, T42p, T43, R51, R52 and possibly other models, X does not recognize the keycode for NumLk = Shift+ScrLk. To fix this, add the following to ~/.Xmodmap in your home directory or /etc/X11/Xmodmap and run xmodmap, ex: xmodmap ~/.Xmodmap:

keycode 77 = Num_Lock

This configuration also enables the respective LED.

Please note, pressing the Shift+ScrLk key combination, without first following the above configuration, will start an accessibility feature, which will allow the numeric keypad to maneuver the mouse pointer. Starting this accessibility feature and subsequently running xmodmap, as described above, results in the accessibility feature and the numeric lock LED functioning simultaneously. As such, the above configuration should be completed before the accessibility feature is started in order to produce numbers.

Mapping keys with setkeycodes

You can use the setkeycodes command to remap certain keys. I.e. you can use # setkeycodes 6e 109 6d 104 69 28 6b 1 to map the Tablets Up and Down keys to the standard PageUp and PageDown keys and Tablet Escape and Enter to their respective keys.

The following table shows the keycodes generated by the ThinkPad keys.

keycodes

key	keycode
Tablet orientation	0x6d
Tablet Shortcut	0x6e
Tablet Esc	0x6b
Tablet Enter	0x69
Tablet Up	0x68
Tablet Down	0x6c
Tablet (unlabeled)	0x67

Example Applications

Web Browsers

Firefox

There are various ways to assign actions to the browser keys. The easiest way is to install keyconfig.xpi from http://mozilla.dorando.at, which adds a menu entry Tools->Keyconfig. Then you can assign any action you want to the F19/F20 keys (you still need to create ~/.Xmodmap as explained above).

The remaining discussion gives you various more complicated ways to achieve the same thing. To have firefox make use of the browser keys you need to modify one of its files⁴. To do this you will first need to extract it from the browser.jar archive. Do...

# cd <firefox-directory>/chrome

# unzip browser.jar

The file of interest is content/browser/browser.xul. Edit it {and don't forget to make a backup copy first}...

# vi content/browser/browser.xul

Look for the <keyset id="mainKeyset"> section and add the following lines within...

<key id="goBackKb" keycode="VK_F19" command="Browser:Back" />
<key id="goForwardKb" keycode="VK_F20" command="Browser:Forward" />

The Command you need for Next Tab

<key id="goBackTabKb" keycode="VK_F19" oncommand="gBrowser.mTabContainer.advanceSelectedTab(-1)" />

For the Previous Tab

<key id="goForwardTabKb" keycode="VK_F20" oncommand="gBrowser.mTabContainer.advanceSelectedTab(1)" />

Now save the file and repackage the browser.jar archive...

# zip -rD0 browser.jar content/browser/

That's it.

Hint:

For Firefox 2.0, just edit <firefox-directory>/chrome/browser/content/browser/browser.xul

Hint:

Outdated: Another interesting Page on Firefox is http://dqd.com/~mayoff/notes/thinkpad/dqdnavkeys/ It uses different key mappings (F19 resp. F20) but a ready .xpi is provided which is pretty comfortable. However, this xpi file does not install on Firefox 1.5. or later.

Hint:

You can also use the keyconfig extension to configure custom keys. This extension works with Firefox 1.5 and also with Firefox 2.0. The Command you need for Next Tab is gBrowser.mTabContainer.advanceSelectedTab(1,true); For Previous Tab its gBrowser.mTabContainer.advanceSelectedTab(-1,true); You can alternatively install the functions for keyconfig and set the variable f4kc_NextTab to F20 and f4kc_PrevTab to F19

.

Konqueror

KDE allows you set key mappings for KDE applications (Go to KMenu > System > Control Center > Regional & Accessibility > Keyboard Shortcuts). By default (at least in KDE 3.5), XF86Back and XF86Forward are set as alternatives to Alt-Left and Alt-Right, and are mapped to KDE Back and Forward navigation actions.

If you use Konqueror as your only browser, you only need to set up ~/.Xmodmap as described above to assign ThinkPad back/forward keys to the symbols XF86Back/XF86Forward. This also make these keys work for other KDE applications such as Quanta Plus, KPackage and so on (not all KDE applications honor this setting, e.g. KDE help system doesn't).

If you want to use Firefox, however, the above settings do not work. You will have to map ThinkPad back/forward keys to F19/F20 as described above, and change KDE navigation key settings to use F19/F20 instead of the default.

Opera

However this isn't a simple configration file, you can set your browser manually.
Go to Tool > Settings > Mouse and keyboard > Keyboard settings > Edit > Browser Window. There add F19 - Back and F20 - Forward. Now you can surf using your TP keys ;-)

Window Managers

fvwm

To get the Forward and Backward keys to cycle through pages in the virtual desktop, add this to your ~/.fvwmrc:

Key    XF86Back     A      A   Scroll     -100000   0
Key    XF86Forward  A      A   Scroll     +100000   0

If you use multiple virtual desktops, you could instead use the keys to flip between them by using GotoDesk.

fluxbox

To get the keys to cycle through pages in the virtual desktop, add this to your ~/.fluxbox/keys:

None F19 :PrevWorkspace
None F20 :NextWorkspace

pekwm configuration

You can make the two browser keys switch workspaces in pekwm, by adding the following two lines to the ~/.pekwm/keys file:

KeyPress = "Mod1 XF86Back" { Actions = "GoToWorkspace prev" }
KeyPress = "Mod1 XF86Forward" { Actions = "GoToWorkspace next" }

pwm

Another example how to use these two keys to switch between pwm tabs. These two lines should be added to ~/.pwm/keys-default.conf or /etc/pwm/keys-default.conf:

kbind "Back", "switch_rot", -1
kbind "Forward", "switch_rot", 1

IceWM

To make IceWM cycle workspaces using the Forward and Backward keys, change these two options in ~/.icewm/preferences (Provided you assigned keysyms F19 and F20 with xmodmap):

# "Previous workspace" shortcut
KeySysWorkspacePrev="F19"
# "Next workspace" shortcut
KeySysWorkspaceNext="F20"

Gnome/metacity

Follow the Ubuntu guide.

Other Uses

Console tools configuraton

To make the Forward and Backward keys useful in console, add this to your keymap (/etc/console/boottime.kmap.gz in Debian):

keycode 158 = Decr_Console
keycode 159 = Incr_Console

Alternatively you can load this script (perhaps on system startup) to enable Backward/Forward button console (VT) switch:

#!/bin/sh
echo keycode 158 = Decr_Console | loadkeys
echo keycode 159 = Incr_Console | loadkeys

It should work with any distro.

Cycling through tabs

In Gnome and Xfce4, Ctrl-PageUp/Ctrl-PageDown move to the previous/following open tab in all applications that have tabbed user interfaces (terminal emulator, web browser, ...). To make use of the Forward and Backward keys for this task, there're two possibilities.

For both ways, you should map the keycodes 233 and 234 to XF86Back and XF86Forward as described in xmodmap configuration.

Using xautomation

xautomation can be found here.

Create two files with permissions 755:

/usr/local/bin/tp_back: <bash>

1. !/bin/bash

/usr/bin/xte 'keydown Control_L' 'keydown Page_Up' 'keyup Page_Up' 'keyup Control_L' </bash>

/usr/local/bin/tp_forward: <bash>

1. !/bin/bash

/usr/bin/xte 'keydown Control_L' 'keydown Page_Down' 'keyup Page_Down' 'keyup Control_L' </bash>

Use your desktop's keyboard shortcut editor to assign XF86Back as a shortcut for tp_back and XF86Forward as a shortcut for tp_forward.

This should work in all distros and with all window managers (you might have to use other key combinations than Ctrl-PageUp and Ctrl-PageDown).

Redirecting XF86Back/XF86Forward

Create /etc/X11/xkb/compat/thinkpad:

// $XFree86$
//  XFree86 special keysyms
default partial xkb_compatibility "basic"  {
    interpret.repeat= True;

    interpret  XF86Back {
        action = Redirect(Key=<PGUP>, modifiers=Control);
    };
    interpret  XF86Forward {
        action = Redirect(Key=<PGDN>, modifiers=Control);
    };
};

Edit /etc/X11/xkb/compat/complete and add augment "thinkpad" so that it looks similar to the following:

// $XKeyboardConfig: xkbdesc/compat/complete,v 1.3 2005/10/17 00:42:11 svu Exp $
// $Xorg: complete,v 1.3 2000/08/17 19:54:34 cpqbld Exp $
default xkb_compatibility "complete"  {
    include "basic"
    augment "iso9995"
    augment "mousekeys"
    augment "accessx(full)"
    augment "misc"
    augment "xfree86"
    augment "level5"
    augment "thinkpad"
};

External Sources

• IBMs page on configuring the ThinkPad buttons (ThinkPad, Access IBM, Mail, Search, and Home buttons) under Linux
• Rob Mayoffs page on using IBM Keyboard Navigation Keys in Linux Mozilla and Firefox
• Ryan Barretts blog article about using the browser keys in Firefox
• DennisG's help to get the ibm-acpi buttons do useful things on a Z61e and possibly Z61m, Z61t and Z61p

FOOTNOTES [Δ]

1. Note that the associated functionality for Fn-F* key combinations is not consistent amongst all ThinkPads. We are maintaining a table of associated meanings.
2. if there are more than one tool listed, one is sufficient
3. 'full' means you can completely reassign any action to be triggered by the key, 'additional actions' means you can trigger actions in addition to the standard function of the key, which can not be changed.
4. Thanks go to Ryan Barrett for writing the little howto on his blog.