GNOME Bugzilla – Bug 102613
Multimedia keys missing functionality
Last modified: 2009-11-02 15:25:34 UTC
I just got a new Logitech Internet Navigator keyboard with all kinds of special keys, and I found good use of ACME. Unfortunately ACME doesn't support all the keys that I have. I am writing you this letter to explain what I am missing, so you can consider adding support for these in future releases. First of all it has a "Webcam" key which for instance could run "gnomemeeting", and it has a "Messager" key which could run "gaim" or so. ACME supports two keys for play and pause, but on my keyboard this is *one* key. Would it be possible to assign the same key to both play and pause? The internet part has a "location bar" key, which on Windows brings up a "open URL" dialog, or focuses the location bar if the webbrowser has focus (like Ctrl+l in Galeon). It also has a "internet search" key which runs google, so maybe you could add a "Search (Internet)" option. The keyboard also supports something Logitech call "F-lock". F-lock means that your keyboard doesnt have F-keys be default, or that the F-keys have icons on them and acts like special keys, unless you click on the F-lock key. When F-lock is activated they work like normal F1-F12 keys. The icons and texts are the following: F1 New document/email/whatever F2 Reply to F3 Forward F4 Send/Send as mail F5 Undo F6 Redo F7 Print F8 Save F9 My Computer (Maybe start-here:) F10 My Documents F11 My Pictures F12 My Music Have you considered adding "Predefined settings" for the different keyboards on the marked. At least in Denmark Logitech and Microsoft keyboards cover like 70% of the desktop marked. I think that would be pretty neat. Then the linux vendors could also make the keyboard selection a part of the Linux installation, and most things will work out of the box. Maybe you could add some kind of command line "--serialize" option, that would save the current setting into a file. Then people who have a specific keyboard could send you a well working config. Anyway, I hope some of this info might come handy.
I agree. First of all, adding gnomemeeting support is an *excellent* idea ;) I also have a Logitech Keyboard and I can't use ACME because ACME doesn't provide functionnality for some of my keys, I had to switch back to "hotkeys". Isn't it possible simply to add the possibility for an user to associate an action to keys that are not recognized by ACME? There could be a prefs dialog asking to press a key before associating an action...
Also, is there a possibility to bind an action to more than one key? I use my laptop with a docking station, but it has 4 multimedia keys of its own, which I would need to re-bind to use them when the laptop is not docked.
What I think would be nice here would be a configurable system of keybindings, instead of the current hard-coded system. For example, I don't want "calculator" to start some little gnome desktop calculator, I want it to start something decent like xmaxima or scilab. This is an area where, in my opinion, configurability is highly important. It should be possible to: (a) Create and remove keyboard shortcuts (b) Have the keyboard shortcuts run an arbitrary command, a function in a plugin-type architecture, or some hard-coded function like brightness adjustment.
I agree with most of comments above. I believe the support (missing since gnome1.4) should provide: - running arbitrary a shell command on multimedia-key press event (running default app with standard arguments only is pretty annoying) - it's impossible to use multimedia-keys with modifiers (even if xkb-lookup gives other symbol! Well it is, but it makes no difference regarding resulting action) - possibility to associate commands with keys "unknown" to acme (and also preferably include all keys as defined in /etc/X11/xkb/symbols/inet). It'd be best if acme could get the XkbModel description and show only relevant set, but that'd be only a cherry on top.
Agreement here as well. I have a MS Natural Keyb Pro, and find certain keys / functionalities missing. For example: - ACME has no forward / back function for a browser (gnome-mozilla-remote) - ACME has no Favorites function. Though I hate the word, it might be nice to be able to use the button for example to open the Mozilla Sidebar - Pause and Play (media) are on the same button here, which is something ACME can't handle. And, while I'm at it, pressing Mail or Web/Home crashes ACME. The rest (My Computer -> Nautilus(Home) etc.) work fine. Thanks for providing this app btw ;)
Reassigning to the control-center We need to go through the keys listed in there, and add the ones we feel are worth the trouble.
Webcam -> external app Messenger -> external app Play/Pause -> application support is needed, we already have a "Play or Play/Pause" label to that effect Location bar is a decently good idea (bind to XF86OpenURL?) Internet search can be bound as an external app Most of the Logitech "Fn-lock" keys aren't supported by Linux, try them, they generate the same keycodes and keysyms as other buttons on the keyboard (sometimes even the mouse) New document/email/whatever Reply to Forward Send/Send as mail Undo Redo Print Save Back/Forward (for Web browser) Favourites All those seem quite far stretched, I'm not too keen on adding those, but Jody and Jonathan can make up their own minds about it. external apps can be handled by: 1) add a sub-directory to /desktop/gnome/keybindings 2) add 2 string entries one named "binding", the other one named "action" 3) set "binding" to the key shortcut you want to set 4) set the "action" key to the command for the application you want to launch gnome-settings-daemon will handle those keys for you.
I'll be closing this. Applications are supposed to handle the application-keys (as opposed to the desktop-global keys) for themselves. We recently added all the XFree86 keysyms, including multimedia keys, to GDK. So for a web browser to support XF86OpenURL, you'd just add a shortcut for GDK_OpenURL in your app.