[mythtv-users] Mapping multimedia keys: "pressed key not recognized"

[Colin McGregor]

On 6/19/08, OCG Technical Support <support at ocg.ca> wrote:
> I've tried a few approaches to making the multimedia keys on my kbd play
> nice with myth, but all have lead to dead ends.
>
> I decided to take the simple approach, and use the myth setup menu for
> keyboard mappings.  Now, I have myth (0.20) waiting for a key with "Press a
> key", but when I press the PLAY button on my keyboard, myth says "pressed
> key not recognized".
>
> How do I get myth to recognize the multimedia keys?

Three key steps:
- Find out what key code(s) those keys are generating. Fire up a
terminal window under X and see what you get with "xev" keep notes on
what you find.

- create (or modify) your system's MythTV user's .xmodmaprc file
(which is /home/mythtv/.xmodmaprc for KnoppMyth users). Here you want
to map the multimedia keys to "regular" keys.

- run "xmodmap". For MythTV users this can be done by using the
command "xmodmap /home/mythtv/.xmodmaprc". Then you will also have to
make sure the above is run after any re-boots as part of the start-up
sequence.

I have put the .xmodmaprc files I created for the multimedia keyboards
I have on the MythTV wiki (yes, I have a ...perverse... fondness for
Microsoft keyboards/mice even as I avoid their software...):

  http://www.mythtv.org/wiki/index.php/Category:Keyboards

If your keyboard is one of the four listed, well, your good to go now,
if not the above should be a good starting point, and please note what
you learn above....


Colin McGregor