[conspire] help: linux scancode/keycode problem on Dell E6500 ?

[=JeffH]

Rick observed..
 >
 > Quoting =JeffH (Jeff.Hodges at KingsMountain.com):
 >
 >> Hi Rick, thx for your reply.
 >
 > No problem.  Again, apologies for being rushed, but I'm stealing time to
 > draft this really quick comment.
 >
 >> What are the risks for breaking currently-working things by running
 >> a newer kernel?
 >
 > None, really, because you carefully avoid _removing_ your installed
 > distro kernel, but instead merely compile a new one separately and
 > add an additional stanza to your bootloader configuration so that you
 > can boot the new kernel, without removing or messing with the
 > bootloader's reference to your distro kernel as the default boot
 > object.  Make sense?

yes, I understand that.


 > In any event, this would be mainly for information-gathering.  If you
 > determine that the problem is fixed upstream, then you know what to
 > watch out for in revisions to the distro kernel.

yes, tho i have to "steal time" to manage my system and was sorta hoping to not 
learn how to compile my own kernel  :-/    (at this juncture anyway)

[ there are apparently decent instructions for doing so, it's more a time 
thing, i may do it in any case ]


Mike Higashi offered..
 >
 > Try this:  Forget about the keyboard and use the xrandr command-line
 > utility to talk directly to the hardware.

yes, I'm aware of xrandr, and  apparently, the Fn+F8 sequence is wired up to 
scripts fired thru ACPI magic, which allegedly use xrandr to switch the screen.

I tried grepping around to find the xrandr commands in said scripts but have 
been curiously unsuccessful so far, but haven't spent enough time on it most 
likely. web searching for documentation hasn't yielded much, tho maybe my 
searches are lame.

So nobody here is an xmodmap wizard ?

thanks,

=JeffH

ps: yes, i'm aware of the various x.org mailing lists and may do some querying 
there too.