Is there a way to reprogram the thinkvantage button to assign a shell bash program to it?

Question

Is there a way to reprogram the lenovo think vantage button to open and run a shell bash program on ubuntu 14.04 lts?

I have tried system preferences > keyboard >shortcuts > custom

and assigned a short cut to that button and it still doesn’t work

Thanks

Answer 1

xbindkeys should be able to do this. Install it with:

sudo apt-get install xbindkeys  

Now run:

xbindkeys -k  

and press the think vantage button. Your output should look something like:

Press combination of keys or/and click under the window.
You can use one of the two lines after "NoCommand"
in $HOME/.xbindkeysrc to bind a key.
"NoCommand"
    m:0x0 + c:159
    NoSymbol  

Now create a file named .xbindkeysrc in your home directory:

touch ~/.xindkeysrc  

open the file in your favourite editor and add:

"bash /path/to/your/script.sh"
m:0x0 + c:159  

Replacing m:0x0 + c:159 with whatever you got from your output earlier.

If you want a terminal window to open replace the first line with:

"gnome-terminal -e './path/to/script.sh"

Log out/back in or reboot for the changes to take effect.

(re)sources: ThinkWiki: ThinkPad Button

Answer 2

Possibly something has changed for the better on Xubuntu 18 Xfce 4.12.

I was able to assign a script to the ThinkVantage-button on a T420 from the built-in Keyboard control panel. Did not install any additional software.

The ThinkVantage button has shortcut "XF86Launch1" - it was ridiculously simple. Now I can toggle touchpad on/off with the Thinkpad button. Sweet.