Re: My Alt keys don't work!
I guess there's no software way around my problem (my built-in keyboard
has a stuck Alt key so I had to disable it with Xmodmap, but that also
disabled the Alt key on the external keyboard because it has the same
key code). I tried remapping various keys on the external keyboard to
Alt: Caps Lock, Alt Gr, Left Control, but none of them quite worked. The
old-school keyboard doesn't have a handy key for this situaion, like Fn
or Win key or the built-in keyboard's 'grab' keys. I think its due to
the old IBM keyboard hardware, but it seems that certain keys such as
Caps Lock cannot be held down and used as a modifier in quite the way
that Alt is used, and certain keys cannot be pressed at the same time as
others. In short, it looks like the only way you'll be able to do things
like Alt+Tab,Tab,Tab (pressing tab multiple times without releasing alt)
or Ctrl+Alt+Tab is by using the actual Alt key.
So I fixed it by disassembling the OLPC XO-1 laptop and fixing the stuck
Alt key with a bit of electrical tape, following the instructions on the
OLPC wiki, so that I no longer need to disable Alt in Xmodmap. It worked
almost perfectly, could do with a slightly thicker piece of tape I
think.
So now I can use my external keyboard happily, although the broken pipe
+ backslash key still doesn't work, and I haven't gotten round to
sorting out the process of switching between the two different keyboard
layouts at software level when I switch keyboards.
Unfortunately when I put the laptop back together the touchpad had
stopped working! This is hopefully just a loose connection that I can
fix by disassembling and reassembling it again. My cheap screwdrivers
are starting to strip some of the screws, so I decided to deal with this
another day.
On Wed, Sep 23, 2009 at 07:36:03PM +0100, chombee wrote:
> Ok, sticking to fixing my Alt keys for now. First I was wrong, Alt Gr is
> working as it should, it allows me to type that | character that is the
> third character on its key, and various other characters that are not
> labelled on the keys. It does not function as an Alt modifier however
> (of the kind that would let me Alt-Tab for example).
>
> Keycodes from xev:
>
> Left Alt: 64
> Alt Gr: 108.
>
> They are the same keycodes for the built-in and the external keyboard.
> So that's my first problem. The built-in keyboard has a stuck left alt
> key so I have to disable keycode 64. I have to do this even when I'm
> using my external keyboard, because the built-in keyboard is still there
> pressing Alt by itself. Is there a way to disable keycode 64 or the
> built-in keyboard only, or to disable the built-in keyboard entirely
> when I'm using the external keyboard?
>
> If there isn't then I think I'll have to lose my Alt key on the external
> keyboard as well and remap something else (Caps Lock seems like the best
> candidate on the external keyboard) to act as the Alt key should.
>
>
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