[SOLVED] Dell XPS L702X - 3 Touch Keys mapping

[phenest]

I have a Dell XPS 17 L702X running vanilla Wheezy. The laptop has 3 special soft touch keys above the keyboard. Using Dell software in Windows you can configure these for whatever, but in Debian/Linux they share the same functions as keyboard keys.
Key 1 -> Super_L Q
Key 2 -> Brightness Down
Key 3 -> Doesn't seem to do anything and xev doesn't report any key codes

Apparently other XPS models have similar keys with the same problem. It's not a show stopper but it would be nice to have them working.

[phenest]

I found this in the Ubuntu Wiki (https://wiki.kubuntu.org/HardwareSuppor ... ell/XPS/15):

The special touch keys are strangely mapped by default. One changes brightness, one does next track. They seem to be linked to the same key sequences as the Fn+F# keys that do the same job. To fix this, create the keymap file as /lib/udev/keymaps/dell-xps-l502x:

0x85 prog1 # Second touch key
0x84 media # Third touch key
you can test it works with:

/usr/lib/udev/keymap input/event4 /lib/udev/keymaps/dell-xps-l502x
Note that "input/event4" comes from executing:

sudo /lib/udev/findkeyboards
To add this rule permanently add in /etc/udev/rules.d/99-l502x-keys.rules :

# Keymap Dell Touch keys
SUBSYSTEM=="input", KERNEL=="event4", RUN+="keymap $name dell-xps-l502x"

Although this is for the L502x, it should work for the L702x. But I can't get it to work. The /lib/udev/keymaps directory doesn't exist on my system.

Does anyone have some idea what to do?

I'm using Debian Stretch/Testing.

[phenest]

Apparently it can be done via /lib/udev/hwdb.d/60-keyboard.hwdb but I've no idea how or what exactly to change.

EDIT: Getting somewhere now...

Edit /lib/udev/hwdb.d/60-keyboard.hwdb (about line 265)

Code: Select all

# Dell XPS
evdev:atkbd:dmi:bvn*:bvr*:bd*:svnDell*:pnXPS*:pvr*
 KEYBOARD_KEY_8c=!unknown
 KEYBOARD_KEY_84=volumeup
 KEYBOARD_KEY_85=volumedown

Added 2 extra lines here to remap keys 2 & 3 to volumedown and volumeup. At least that makes them more useful, but I'd prefer some better mappings to use them for launching an app of my choice.

[phenest]

I've worked it out with the help of http://thinkpad-scripts.readthedocs.io/ ... -keys.html. You will need the information from here to get your specific keyboard modalias. It may be possible to create a more generic modalias, but this will do for now.

Create a file called /lib/udev/hwdb.d/70-keyboard.hwdb

Code: Select all

# Dell XPS L702x
evdev:atkbd:dmi:bvnDellInc.:bvrA19:bd09/07/2012:svnDellInc.:pnDellSystemXPSL702X:pvr:rvnDellInc.:rn03RG89:rvrFAB1:cvnDellInc.:ct8:cvr0.1:
 KEYBOARD_KEY_84=scale
 KEYBOARD_KEY_85=cyclewindows

(there is a single space before the KEYBOARD lines)

The 2nd line begins as...
evdev:atkbd:
...and ends with your keyboard modalias (if mine doesn't work for you).

Then as root:

Code: Select all

udevadm hwdb --update

... and reboot.

Button 1 defaults to <Super>q
Button 2 is now TaskPane
Button 3 is now LaunchA

This gives 3 programmable buttons. Et voila!

EDIT: This works on Stretch/Testing, but not on Jessie.