amarok and multimedia buttons (once again)

[pholthau]

hey.
i am wondering about the strange(?) behaviour of amarok. When i use the "configure global shortcuts"
menu to make amarok use the laptops multimedia keys, the keys are recognized.
if i press play/pause, next, prev and stop with the amarok window active, they also work.
mute, vol+ and vol- are caught by kmilo. so i do not expect amarok to react on them while kmilo is running.

but:
if kmilo is NOT running, amarok still doesn't recognize the volume keys.
if i want to make use of any multimedia key outside amarok, it does not react in any way.


some configuration details - ask for more details if needed

Code: Select all

KDE: 3.5.5

media-sound/amarok-1.4.4  USE="aac arts kde mysql opengl real -debug -ifp -ipod -mtp -njb -noamazon -postgres -visualization -xinerama (-xmms%)" LINGUAS="de -af -ar -az -bg -br -ca -cs -cy -da -el -en_GB -es -et -fi -fr -ga -gl -he -hi -hu -is -it -ja -ka -km -ko -lt -ms -nb -nl -nn -pa -pl -pt -pt_BR -ro -ru -rw -sk -sl -sq -sr -sr@Latn -sv -ta -tg -th -tr -uk -uz -zh_CN -zh_TW"

kde-base/kmilo-3.5.5  USE="arts -debug -kdeenablefinal -kdehiddenvisibility (-pbbuttonsd) -xinerama"

Keyboard model in control center: Laptop/notebook Dell Inspiron6xxx/8xxx (This machine is a Inspiron 9400)

so does anyone know how to make my multimedia keys work PROPERLY and ALWAYS?

[pholthau]

no one has a clue? please!

[vorgas]

The problem that you are having is that most apps don't spend time watching the keyboard queue. So if the window isn't active, it doesn't watch and won't know if you pressed a key. I don't know about the global shortcuts for a fact, but I'm pretty sure that you can't have any active windows in order for it to be received.


You can use xmodmap to map the keys to the VOLUME_UP and VOLUME_DOWN keysyms. Search around for xmodmap.

There is also an app called mmm3k that maps events on the evdev framework to arbitrary commands. These commands can change based on the active window, or on profiles that you establish. It's a fairly young app and may be buggy, but the author responds pretty quickly to requests. You can send command line events to amarok, such as amarok --pause or amarok --play. amarok also has a dcop interface letting you control just about everything.

[RageOfOrder]

I use xmodmap myself.. Used it to map all of my media keys since they weren't picked up by default. Volume works perfectly, no matter what the active window is.

travis@rez ~ $ cat .Xmodmap
keycode 161 = XF86Calculator
keycode 162 = XF86AudioPlay
keycode 164 = XF86AudioStop
keycode 160 = XF86AudioMute
keycode 144 = XF86AudioPrev
keycode 153 = XF86AudioNext
keycode 176 = XF86AudioRaiseVolume
keycode 174 = XF86AudioLowerVolume


Then just run $ xmodmap .Xmodmap
in a startup script somewhere. Done

[pholthau]

I am currently not on my computer, so i cant try your suggestions for now. But i will do that asap. Thanks.

But i am not sure if xmodmap can help me, because the keys _are_ recognized sometimes...
I thought maybe the xmodmap stuff could be left out, if you select an inspiron keyboard model in kde control center.
Hope it helps anyways

[pholthau]

xmodmap had not had any effect.

[pholthau]

no one out there who could help me? id love to get these keys working.

[Tlaloc]

After the xmodmap step you could use khotkeys in the control center to map these keys to dcop calls, maybe that works for you. lineak could also be an option.
Bye, Val.

[superstoned]

it should work, but i find these buttons' working also rather flaky. never had trouble with amarok, tough. maybe try to remove some relevant config file. i also had some luck running khotkeys, the daemon sometimes doesn't work very well (it doesn't, right now, for example... so no vol up and down and mute (kmix) but the amarok keys DO work).

[mlybarger]

this topic really irks me with the whole xmms is dead issue that hit the gentoo community lately.

forthcoming rant...

i've used xmms for years now. i don't really care what i use to play music as long as it's easy to use. xmms worked flawlessly with my multimedia keyboard. it would pause/play no matter what the active window was. the only time it wouldn't function was if the session was locked because i have a 15 minute lock on my desktop. then i just log back in, and the keys work fine.

now the gentoo folks decide that xmms is dead. i've spent a few hours searching on how to get my multimedia keyboard working with any of the suggested replacements. amarok looks the best of what i've seen, and has some cool bells and whistles. but to get a keyboard to work, i just can't select one from a list? i have to do some xmodmap voodo? or do some lineak? or some other daemon configuration tweaks to get a multimedia keyboard to work. this is absolutely pathetic.

[Tlaloc]

This and this should be enough information to get it working, and it is even window manager independent.

Bye, Val.

[pholthau]

after an "emerge xbindkeys" this is what i configured (according to xev output):

Code: Select all

pholthau@thrall ~ $ cat .xprofile
xmodmap .Xmodmap
xbindkeys

pholthau@thrall ~ $ cat .Xmodmap
keycode 162 = XF86AudioPlay
keycode 164 = XF86AudioStop
keycode 160 = XF86AudioMute
keycode 144 = XF86AudioPrev
keycode 153 = XF86AudioNext
keycode 176 = XF86AudioRaiseVolume
keycode 174 = XF86AudioLowerVolume

pholthau@thrall ~ $ cat .xbindkeysrc
"dcop amarok player prev"
XF86AudioPrev
"dcop amarok player stop"
XF86AudioStop
"dcop amarok player playPause"
XF86AudioPlay
"dcop amarok player next"
XF86AudioNext

but still no luck. amarok wont respond. even stranger: if i type "dcop amarok player playPause" into my Konsole window, amarok responds fine. :/

[RageOfOrder]

That's weird...
Mine works fine using xmodmap

[superstoned]

there must be a bug somewhere, as it simply should work after setting the global keybindings without any voodoo... if XMMS works with those keys, amarok should work as well... try it as another user to see if it's some config problem?!?

[pholthau]

ok ill try another user later on. additionally i will shut down kmilo and try again...

[pholthau]

a new user did not have any positive effect.
if i disable kmilo, the mute / raise / lower volume keys work in amarok but the others still wont (as it was before).

could this be an issue with beryl? i have it installed but i use kwin as my window manager.
maybe selecting "inspiron 6xxx/8xxx" is the fault? this is an inspiron 9400.

i have no idea what this is about.

[mlybarger]

mine works ok with modmap now too, but it's just too much editing config files and voodoo to make it work IMO.

the only remaining issue is that when the current session goes idle and locks (set to 15 minutes), the buttons don't work until the user re authenticates. would be nice to pause play without having to authenticate

[superstoned]

well, i wonder if our problems are the same, or different, and what is to blame. i can use play/pause/next/stop easily, but volume up/down/mute haven't been working since ages - and i can't get 'em to work... frankly, i attribute it to some general 'linux is just not ready' thing. i'm tired of trying to find out what is wrong, and just use the volume on my speakers for the time being, that is until it's fixed...

[superlaundry]

If you're using KDE, try going the the Control Panel->Regional & Accessibility->Keyboard Layout and choose your keyboard model. Then go to Input Actions. Create new actions and choose Action type:DCOP Call. Then go to the Keyboard Shortcut tab, and press your button. Finally go to DCOP Call Settings. Click on Run KDCOP and find the commands you want. (Probably under amarok->player). If you get something like void stop(), go back to the call settings and enter Remote Application:amarok, Remote Object:player, Called Function:stop. For the last one, you can also use volumeDown, volumeUp, playPause, etc. Hope that helps!

[pholthau]

already been through that procedure... still doesnt work.
maybe this is because my exact keyboard model cannot be selected there.
(i have an inspiron 9400, there are 6XXX and 8XXX selectable.)