Change keyboard mapping ONLY for Bluetooth Keyboard

Question

I have a Bluetooth "Camera Shutter" dongle. It emulates a Bluetooth keyboard. I've paired successfully, but I want to change how the buttons behave.

Currently, they're mapped to 123 (Volume Up) and 36 (Enter).

I'd like to change their mappings - but only for this Bluetooth keyboard. I want my laptop's keyboard to be unaffected.

My end goal is to have a Python program run when one of the keys is pressed.

Some things I found which didn't work:

I don't want to change the language of the external keyboard using setxkbmap.
Using xkb seems to remap keys on all keyboards.
xinput can remap mouse buttons but not keyboard keys.

I want to press "Volume Up" on my external keyboard and have a command run - without interfering with my internal keyboard's "Volume Up" key.

Any ideas? Ubuntu 14.04.4 LTS. Thanks.

Seems like you figured it out, you should post a self-answer! — Kasra Rahjerdi, Feb 20 '16 at 20:28

score 0 · Answer 1 · edited Mar 20 '17 at 10:18

As per https://superuser.com/a/869064/140864 - it's possible to use xkbcomp to change the assignment of specific keys.

remote_id=$(
    xinput list |
    sed -n 's/.*AB Shutter 3.*id=\([0-9]*\).*keyboard.*/\1/p'
)
[ "$remote_id" ] || exit

mkdir -p /tmp/xkb/symbols
cat >/tmp/xkb/symbols/custom <<\EOF
xkb_symbols "remote" {
    key <VOL+>  { [ XF86Launch1 ] };
    key <RTRN>  { [ XF86Launch2 ] };
};
EOF

setxkbmap -device $remote_id -print | sed 's/\(xkb_symbols.*\)"/\1+custom(remote)"/' | xkbcomp -I/tmp/xkb -i $remote_id -synch - $DISPLAY 2>/dev/null

This needs to be run every time the device is connected. The keys can then be assigned to a specific shortcut action in Gnome.

Change keyboard mapping ONLY for Bluetooth Keyboard

1 Answers1