Re: bad scancode for USB keyboard

[Bernardo Innocenti <bernie@develer.com>]

Vojtech Pavlik wrote:
> On Wed, Jan 07, 2004 at 03:27:42AM +0100, Bernardo Innocenti wrote:
> 
>>>I have the same problem with a Logitech cordless desktop.
>>>I can easily change the keycode to generate the right characters when in 
>>>console-mode, but XFree gives that key and the Print Screen key the same 
>>>keycode.
>>>After changing the xmodmap I can get the unmodified character, 
>>>but modifiers doesn't work, it just gives me the same character not 
>>>matter what modifier I use (shift, alt, alt_gr etc.)
>>
>>I had fixed my console keymap too, but I've not been able to
>>figure out how to change the X keymap.  I've been looking in
>>the /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/xkb/ directory, but perhaps XKB is not
>>being used for old-style keyboard mapping?
>>
>>Could you provide detailed instructions?  C coding with missing
>>backslash and bar keys is quite hard :-)
>>
>>Of course, I still thing its' a 2.6 kernel bug and it should be
>>fixed.  Vojtech, do you have an idea why it's happening?
> 
> The reason is that this key is not the ordinary backslash-bar key, it's
> the so-called 103rd key on some european keyboards. It generates a
> different scancode.

Yes, I've found out it's 84 for the key besides/below the enter key.

> 2.4 used the same keycode for both the scancodes, 2.6 does not, so that
> it's possible to differentiate between the keys on keyboards that have
> both this one and also the standard backslash-bar.

I see...  So it appears the fix has to be done in the kbd package and in
XFree86.

The default console keymap should be changed like this:

 < keycode  84 = Last_Console
 > keycode  84 = backslash        bar

Andries Brouwer appears to be the current maintainer of kbd, so I've
pulled him into our thread.  This is also being cross-postied to
the devel@XFree86.org list.

In addition, I'm going to open two PRs for these packages in RedHat's
bugzilla to make sure the issue gets properly fixed before it hits the
masses.

fyi, this thread was started here:

  http://www.ussg.iu.edu/hypermail/linux/kernel/0401.0/0485.html

-- 
  // Bernardo Innocenti - Develer S.r.l., R&D dept.
\X/  http://www.develer.com/