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

[=JeffH]

Well it turns out I probably shudda queried the xorg at freedesktop.org list long 
ago because some folks there were on top of this problem and apparently my 
googling skills are lacking.

Fn+F8 is now working on my E6500 and I've successfully migrated to it as my 
primary system (whew).


Yes, the evil one had something to do with this particular problem, which 
apparently began showing up in existing fielded systems upon a bios update..

   Video out hot key sends super + p + return on many upcoming
   Dell & HP systems
   https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/linux/+bug/539477/comments/3

See also..

   http://mjg59.livejournal.com/121851.html

as well as..

https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/linux/+bug/539477/comments/25
 >
 > Here is the Microsoft presentation with more info on this behavior:
 >
 > 
http://download.microsoft.com/download/5/E/6/5E66B27B-988B-4F50-AF3A-C2FF1E62180F/MBL-T579_WH08.pptx
 >
 >  See slides 21 - 22 & 36 specifically.


Below's my thank-you post to xorg at freedesktop.org fyi/fwiw.

thanks,

=JeffH

------- Forwarded Message

Date:    Tue, 18 Oct 2011 10:07:01 -0700
From:    =JeffH <Jeff.Hodges at KingsMountain.com>
To:      Dimitar Toshev <mo6eeeb at gmail.com>,
	 Alan Coopersmith <alan.coopersmith at oracle.com>
cc:      xorg at freedesktop.org
Subject: Re: fn+f8 switch video mode does not work (keycodes scancodes keymaps)

thanks for your help folks, this was the info I'd been looking for. I guess my
various searches had just be lame.

Dimitar helpfully noted..
  >
  > I meant that when you press fn+f8, the hardware actually generates
  > winkey+p. Try running xev and press fn+f8. Here's a bug report
  > indicating that this is indeed the case
  >
  > https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/linux/+bug/539477


Alan also helpfully noted..
  >
  > It doesn't matter what keys you press, but what keycodes the BIOS reports,
  > and whether the BIOS follows Microsoft's suggestion to lie to the OS to
  > make Windows 7 work better and other OS'es work worse:
  >
  > 	http://mjg59.livejournal.com/121851.html


Well, blow me down. Ok then...

So I applied this fix in /etc/default/grub:

    GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet splash acpi_osi=\\\"!Windows 2009\\\""

..from..

    https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/linux/+bug/539477/comments/47

and ran "sudo update-grub", and apparently it's all fixed (for now).


I'm curious though -- why can't this be solved by remapping keycodes, or down
lower in the X stack ?

Apparently the gnome folk have resorted to putting a fix into
gnome-settings-daemon, which has the downside of breaking various users'
keymappings for various applications. (the gnome-settings-daemon fix doesn't
work for me since I'm on (k)ubuntu 10.04 LTS which they're apparently declining

to backport this fix to :(

Plus presumably KDE has had to do their own fix, and other desktop regimes may
also need to (or already have)...

Anybody have pointers to the presumably existing KDE bug for this problem?

thanks,

=JeffH

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