Thinkpads Forum

Posted: **Sat Sep 10, 2016 4:31 pm**

HI

I got an old X41 Tablet, it runs Linux Mint 18(32bit) XFCE, I use it for painting with MyPaint...

looking to get the buttons under the screen to work..
found this link:
http://www.thinkwiki.org/wiki/Tablet_Hardware_Buttons
but did not got it to work.

does any one know or had any success of getting those buttons to work under Linux ?

Thanks

G

Posted: **Sun Sep 11, 2016 1:52 am**

One approach to solving the problem is to:
A) figure out what output it generated by pushing each button, and then
B) map that output to the correct behavior/function and save this as a configuration file
C) [may not be necessary] set your OS to automatically load the configuration file at startup

Try 'xev' from the command line -- and output the lines which say "keycode":

Code: Select all

xev|grep keycode

xev - print contents of X events

DESCRIPTION
Xev creates a window and then asks the X server to send it events
whenever anything happens to the window (such as it being moved,
resized, typed in, clicked in, etc.). You can also attach it to
an existing window. It is useful for seeing what causes events to
occur and to display the information that they contain; it is
essentially a debugging and development tool, and should not be
needed in normal usage.

The output of pressing Enter, Esc, Page up, Page down from my x60 is:

Code: Select all

    state 0x0, keycode 36 (keysym 0xff0d, Return), same_screen YES,
    state 0x0, keycode 9 (keysym 0xff1b, Escape), same_screen YES,
    state 0x0, keycode 117 (keysym 0xff56, Next), same_screen YES,
    state 0x0, keycode 112 (keysym 0xff55, Prior), same_screen YES,

Then figure out how to remap your keycode to the correct value (Return, Escape, Next, Prior) in your OS and windows manager by searching for 'remap key xev mint xfce'

This may work:

Code: Select all

xmodmap -e "keycode 000 = Next Next"

replace 000 with the keycode you get when pushing the 'next' button on the tablet screen.

Posted: **Sun Sep 11, 2016 2:45 pm**

HI jaspen-meyer
and thank you for your replay.

I did not got any sight from the buttons with the command

Code: Select all

xev|grep keycode

but you gave me a direction and I did more search and found that the command

Code: Select all

sudo evtest

pop out a small menu and when choosing option number 3 -"AT Translated Set 2 keyboard "
it gives to fallowing results:

Tablet button Enter = value 69
Tablet button Esc = value 6b
Tablet button left arrow = value 6e
Tablet button right arrow = value 6d

also in the output of the command "sudo evtes" there is a list with numbers of all other keyboard keys...

So now with the command:

Code: Select all

sudo setkeycodes 69 28 6b 1 6e 114 6d 115

I can set:
Tablet button Enter to do Enter
Tablet button Esc to do Esc
Tablet button left arrow to do Volume down
Tablet button right arrow to do Volume up

in order to make those changes permanent I put this command without the sudo in the file :

Code: Select all

/etc/rc.local

it works Just like magic

Thanks allot

Thinkpads Forum

X41 Tablet Hardware Buttons with linux Mint 18 XFCE

X41 Tablet Hardware Buttons with linux Mint 18 XFCE

Re: X41 Tablet Hardware Buttons with linux Mint 18 XFCE

Re: X41 Tablet Hardware Buttons with linux Mint 18 XFCE (Solved)