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I have installed 16.04 on t430s laptop. FN key is not working, which means that none of the FN key-combos work. (e.g. FN+F8 should decrese screen brightness.

running xev in terminal shows that nothing registers when I pres FN. FN keycombo only registers the normal Fkey (e.g. FN + F8 shows the same keyevent in xev as F8does.

dmesg | grep thin returns this:

[   15.600090] thinkpad_acpi: ThinkPad ACPI Extras v0.25
[   15.600093] thinkpad_acpi: http://ibm-acpi.sf.net/
[   15.600094] thinkpad_acpi: ThinkPad BIOS G7ET60WW (2.02 ), EC unknown
[   15.600096] thinkpad_acpi: Lenovo ThinkPad T430s, model 2356LNG
[   15.608778] thinkpad_acpi: detected a 16-level brightness capable ThinkPad
[   15.608878] thinkpad_acpi: radio switch found; radios are enabled
[   15.608895] thinkpad_acpi: This ThinkPad has standard ACPI backlight brightness control, supported by the ACPI video driver
[   15.608896] thinkpad_acpi: Disabling thinkpad-acpi brightness events by default...
[   15.610449] thinkpad_acpi: rfkill switch tpacpi_bluetooth_sw: radio is blocked
[   15.611064] thinkpad_acpi: rfkill switch tpacpi_wwan_sw: radio is unblocked
[   15.614049] thinkpad_acpi: Standard ACPI backlight interface available, not loading [   15.600090] thinkpad_acpi: ThinkPad ACPI Extras v0.25
[   15.600093] thinkpad_acpi: http://ibm-acpi.sf.net/
[   15.600094] thinkpad_acpi: ThinkPad BIOS G7ET60WW (2.02 ), EC unknown
[   15.600096] thinkpad_acpi: Lenovo ThinkPad T430s, model 2356LNG
[   15.608778] thinkpad_acpi: detected a 16-level brightness capable ThinkPad
[   15.608878] thinkpad_acpi: radio switch found; radios are enabled
[   15.608895] thinkpad_acpi: This ThinkPad has standard ACPI backlight brightness control, supported by the ACPI video driver
[   15.608896] thinkpad_acpi: Disabling thinkpad-acpi brightness events by default...
[   15.610449] thinkpad_acpi: rfkill switch tpacpi_bluetooth_sw: radio is blocked
[   15.611064] thinkpad_acpi: rfkill switch tpacpi_wwan_sw: radio is unblocked
[   15.614049] thinkpad_acpi: Standard ACPI backlight interface available, not loading native one
[   15.623189] input: ThinkPad Extra Buttons as /devices/platform/thinkpad_acpi/input/input8
[ 4532.846826] thinkpad_acpi: deprecated sysfs attribute: access by process with PID 4434
[ 4532.846832] thinkpad_acpi: WARNING: sysfs attribute hotkey_enable is deprecated and will be removed. Hotkey reporting is always enabled
[ 4665.791698] thinkpad_acpi: deprecated sysfs attribute: access by process with PID 4491
[ 4665.791706] thinkpad_acpi: WARNING: sysfs attribute bluetooth_enable is deprecated and will be removed. Please switch to generic rfkill before year 2010native one
[   15.623189] input: ThinkPad Extra Buttons as /devices/platform/thinkpad_acpi/input/input8
[ 4532.846826] thinkpad_acpi: deprecated sysfs attribute: access by process with PID 4434
[ 4532.846832] thinkpad_acpi: WARNING: sysfs attribute hotkey_enable is deprecated and will be removed. Hotkey reporting is always enabled
[ 4665.791698] thinkpad_acpi: deprecated sysfs attribute: access by process with PID 4491
[ 4665.791706] thinkpad_acpi: WARNING: sysfs attribute bluetooth_enable is deprecated and will be removed. Please switch to generic rfkill before year 2010

When I venture down to /sys/devices/platform/thinkpad_acpi and do a ls -l hotkey_* | cut -d' ' -f9 I get 9 files back:

hotkey_all_mask
hotkey_bios_enabled
hotkey_bios_mask
hotkey_enable
hotkey_mask
hotkey_poll_freq
hotkey_radio_sw
hotkey_recommended_mask
hotkey_source_mask

Which have theese values (cat hotkey*)

0x07fffffb
0
0x00000808
1
0x078c7ffb
10
1
0x078c7ffb
0x00000000

So basically - I have no idea how to get FN keys working. Any help much appreciated

1 Answer 1

0

It apears my problem must have been due to a faulty / dead FN key. A hardware issue that is.

My 'solutoin': To swap ctrl and FN via the relevant bios option. Then I was without a left ctrl key. So I swapped left ctrl with caps lock.

the xmapmod for this is availble via google, but for the sake of posterity the process is:

First Backup your current xmodmap: xmodmap -pke > Xmodmap_orig. The create a copy og the existing xmodmap: xmodmap -pke > .Xmodmap. Now edit this file: vim .Xmodmap and paste the following at the bottom of the file

! Switch caps lock and (left) control
remove Lock = Caps_Lock
remove Control = Control_L
keysym Control_L = Caps_Lock
keysym Caps_Lock = Control_L
add Lock = Caps_Lock
add Control = Control_L 

Save and source the modified xmodmap: xmodmap .Xmodmap

p.s I you are new to vim, the maybe choose nano instead.

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