2

I bought a new HP notebook (elitebook) with an extremely awful keyboard functionality. For example, I don't have an insert key, but I have a phone-dial and phone-hangup key (right upper corner): HP Keyboard Layout

The thing is, I am extremely used to the insert key. Therefore I was looking for a way to remap the second key from the right (hangup-key) to the insert key. However, none of the proposed solutions work for me (1, 2, 3).

E.g., when I run xev | grep keycode and press the desired key, I get the following output:

    state 0x0, keycode 37 (keysym 0xffe3, Control_L), same_screen YES,
    state 0x4, keycode 64 (keysym 0xffe9, Alt_L), same_screen YES,
    state 0xc, keycode 37 (keysym 0xffe3, Control_L), same_screen YES,
    state 0x8, keycode 64 (keysym 0xffe9, Alt_L), same_screen YES,

This seems like that key is mapped to the left ALT key? Trying CTRL+ALT+T confirms that suspicion, as it opens the terminal.

Does anybody have any idea how to map that key to the INSERT key I don't have?

  • EDIT *

As requested, the LEFT CTRL and LEFT ALT KEY pressed:

    state 0x0, keycode 37 (keysym 0xffe3, Control_L), same_screen YES,
    state 0x4, keycode 37 (keysym 0xffe3, Control_L), same_screen YES,
    state 0x0, keycode 64 (keysym 0xffe9, Alt_L), same_screen YES,
    state 0x8, keycode 64 (keysym 0xffe9, Alt_L), same_screen YES,

Thanks!

JJ Abrams
  • 275
  • in the box that you display the output of xev which buttons were you actually pressing, exactly? I find strange that the ALT and CTRL are intertwined. When I press any key in xev I always get the key down and key up event, so I would expect to see ALT (down), ALT (up) and then CTRL (down), CTRL (up). In any case, can you also provide the xev output of pressing the actual left alt and left ctrl keys? Are they EXACTLY the same? – avila Jun 16 '21 at 11:59
  • also, according to this link you might be able to lock the function key state by pressing FN+LEFT, and you might get other (or none) behaviour from this key. Also worth checking. – avila Jun 16 '21 at 12:03
  • Oh, sorry, I was off for some time and didn't get here before. Thanks for the response @avila ! I literally only pressed the "hangup key" (second key from the right). I updated the question with the LEFT CTRL and LEFT ALT key pressed :) – JJ Abrams Jun 29 '21 at 21:38
  • Btw, thanks for the hint @avila with the FN key. I tried that, but it didn't change anything (neither the functionality, nor the xev output...) – JJ Abrams Jun 29 '21 at 21:41
  • On my last comment I wrote FN+Left, but meant to write FN+Left Shift. (Left shift is also marked as FN LOCK). Did you try that? If it does not work, I can only think of workaround such as mapping a third function to another key, such as RightAlt + Delete = Insert, or something in this direction. – avila Jun 29 '21 at 21:59
  • Yep, tried FN and left shift (read the actual thread you linked). Thanks for your help though! Maybe I need to try the keymapper below. I just tried to avoid installing a third party application. – JJ Abrams Jun 29 '21 at 22:05
  • how you found a solution? these stupid HP keys are so useless – yeahman Jul 09 '22 at 06:06

1 Answers1

0

You can do this with Key Mapper...

https://github.com/sezanzeb/key-mapper

Screenshot of Key Mapper

Install Key Mapper as follows...

sudo apt install git python3-setuptools
git clone https://github.com/sezanzeb/key-mapper.git
cd key-mapper; ./scripts/build.sh
sudo apt install ./dist/key-mapper-1.0.0.deb
sudo apt -f install  # install dependencies if necessary

Usage instructions are here...

https://github.com/sezanzeb/key-mapper/blob/main/readme/usage.md

Enterprise
  • 12,352