Spontaneous numlock

[wdt]

If you have systemsettings5..........
input devices ->keyboard -> hardware tab -> keyboard model
For me,, Generic | Generic 86-key PC
layout tab
us English (US) us

[ab1jx]

Probably everybody has localectl since it's command line, My Debian and Manjaro both have it without installing anything special.  In Debian I see:

Code:

System Locale: LANG=C.UTF-8       VC Keymap: n/a       X11 Layout: us       X11 Model: pc105

I was just booted into Manjaro and I was seeing a UK keyboard layout.  " displayed as @ was the first thing I noticed about it.

Try apropos keyboard.  or setxkbmap -query  Linux has been dealing with keymaps since there was Linux.  And some documentation is outdated too.

[ab1jx]

I think we want to look at scancodes to start, not the keycodes they're mapped to.  A scancode involves a row and column on the physical keyboard.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keyboard_layout

AKA keysyms

showkey -s will give scancodes.  dumpkeys, loadkeys, keymaps, xmodmap are all involved.

showkey -s tells me that Esc has a scancode of 0x01 which I believe because of the rows and columns thing.  But like most Linux documentation it may be 20 years old and wrong.  Yup, the showkey man page is dated 1 Feb 1998.  Some things and be old and still correct.  Somewhere else it mentions some scenario where when you ask for scancodes they're generated from keycodes by applying an inverse mapping.

[KC9UDX]

I suspect the keyboard doesn't send scan codes over USB. I could be wrong. But what I'm thinking is that if it did, you'd get one for Fn and the like.

[ab1jx]

Yes, the modifier keys like shifts have their own scancodes.  I got this with dumpkeys -f while on my PBP in Debian.  But I'm not sure it's not just dumping some theoretical table in ROM instead of reading through the USB.  The full 127 maps went over the 65k limit for a post so I only kept 3.

Looks the same when I do it on a Raspberrry Pi with a 101-key USB keyboard.

Code:

keymaps 0-127 (only 3 here) keycode   1 = Escape           Escape           Escape keycode   2 = one              exclam           one keycode   3 = two              at               two keycode   4 = three            numbersign       three keycode   5 = four             dollar           four keycode   6 = five             percent          five keycode   7 = six              asciicircum      six keycode   8 = seven            ampersand        seven keycode   9 = eight            asterisk         eight keycode  10 = nine             parenleft        nine keycode  11 = zero             parenright       zero keycode  12 = minus            underscore       minus keycode  13 = equal            plus             equal keycode  14 = Delete           Delete           Delete keycode  15 = Tab              Meta_Tab         Tab keycode  16 = +q               +Q               +q keycode  17 = +w               +W               +w keycode  18 = +e               +E               +e keycode  19 = +r               +R               +r keycode  20 = +t               +T               +t keycode  21 = +y               +Y               +y keycode  22 = +u               +U               +u keycode  23 = +i               +I               +i keycode  24 = +o               +O               +o keycode  25 = +p               +P               +p keycode  26 = bracketleft      braceleft        bracketleft keycode  27 = bracketright     braceright       bracketright keycode  28 = Return           Return           Return keycode  29 = Control          Control          Control keycode  30 = +a               +A               +a keycode  31 = +s               +S               +s keycode  32 = +d               +D               +d keycode  33 = +f               +F               +f keycode  34 = +g               +G               +g keycode  35 = +h               +H               +h keycode  36 = +j               +J               +j keycode  37 = +k               +K               +k keycode  38 = +l               +L               +l keycode  39 = semicolon        colon            semicolon keycode  40 = apostrophe       quotedbl         apostrophe keycode  41 = grave            asciitilde       grave keycode  42 = Shift            Shift            Shift keycode  43 = backslash        bar              backslash keycode  44 = +z               +Z               +z keycode  45 = +x               +X               +x keycode  46 = +c               +C               +c keycode  47 = +v               +V               +v keycode  48 = +b               +B               +b keycode  49 = +n               +N               +n keycode  50 = +m               +M               +m keycode  51 = comma            less             comma keycode  52 = period           greater          period keycode  53 = slash            question         slash keycode  54 = Shift            Shift            Shift keycode  55 = KP_Multiply      KP_Multiply      Hex_C keycode  56 = Alt              Alt              Alt keycode  57 = space            space            space keycode  58 = Caps_Lock        Caps_Lock        Caps_Lock keycode  59 = F1               F13              Console_13 keycode  60 = F2               F14              Console_14 keycode  61 = F3               F15              Console_15 keycode  62 = F4               F16              Console_16 keycode  63 = F5               F17              Console_17 keycode  64 = F6               F18              Console_18 keycode  65 = F7               F19              Console_19 keycode  66 = F8               F20              Console_20 keycode  67 = F9               F21              Console_21 keycode  68 = F10              F22              Console_22 keycode  69 = Num_Lock         Num_Lock         Hex_A keycode  70 = Scroll_Lock      Show_Memory      Show_Registers keycode  71 = KP_7             KP_7             Hex_7 keycode  72 = KP_8             KP_8             Hex_8 keycode  73 = KP_9             KP_9             Hex_9 keycode  74 = KP_Subtract      KP_Subtract      Hex_D keycode  75 = KP_4             KP_4             Hex_4 keycode  76 = KP_5             KP_5             Hex_5 keycode  77 = KP_6             KP_6             Hex_6 keycode  78 = KP_Add           KP_Add           Hex_E keycode  79 = KP_1             KP_1             Hex_1 keycode  80 = KP_2             KP_2             Hex_2 keycode  81 = KP_3             KP_3             Hex_3 keycode  82 = KP_0             KP_0             Hex_0 keycode  83 = KP_Period        KP_Period        KP_Period keycode  84 = Last_Console     Last_Console     Last_Console keycode  85 = VoidSymbol       VoidSymbol       VoidSymbol keycode  86 = less             greater          bar keycode  87 = F11              F23              Console_23 keycode  88 = F12              F24              Console_24 keycode  89 = VoidSymbol       VoidSymbol       VoidSymbol keycode  90 = VoidSymbol       VoidSymbol       VoidSymbol keycode  91 = VoidSymbol       VoidSymbol       VoidSymbol keycode  92 = VoidSymbol       VoidSymbol       VoidSymbol keycode  93 = VoidSymbol       VoidSymbol       VoidSymbol keycode  94 = VoidSymbol       VoidSymbol       VoidSymbol keycode  95 = VoidSymbol       VoidSymbol       VoidSymbol keycode  96 = KP_Enter         KP_Enter         Hex_F keycode  97 = Control          Control          Control keycode  98 = KP_Divide        KP_Divide        Hex_B keycode  99 = VoidSymbol       VoidSymbol       Control_backslas keycode 100 = Alt              Alt              Alt keycode 101 = Break            Break            Break keycode 102 = Find             Find             Find keycode 103 = Up               Up               Up keycode 104 = Prior            Scroll_Backward  Prior keycode 105 = Left             Left             Left keycode 106 = Right            Right            Right keycode 107 = Select           Select           Select keycode 108 = Down             Down             Down keycode 109 = Next             Scroll_Forward   Next keycode 110 = Insert           Insert           Insert keycode 111 = Remove           Remove           Remove keycode 112 = Macro            Macro            Macro keycode 113 = F13              F13              F13 keycode 114 = F14              F14              F14 keycode 115 = Help             Help             Help keycode 116 = Do               Do               Do keycode 117 = F17              F17              F17 keycode 118 = KP_MinPlus       KP_MinPlus       KP_MinPlus keycode 119 = Pause            Pause            Pause keycode 120 = VoidSymbol       VoidSymbol       VoidSymbol keycode 121 = KP_Period        KP_Period        KP_Period keycode 122 = VoidSymbol       VoidSymbol       VoidSymbol keycode 123 = VoidSymbol       VoidSymbol       VoidSymbol keycode 124 = VoidSymbol       VoidSymbol       VoidSymbol keycode 125 = Alt              Alt              Alt keycode 126 = Alt              Alt              Alt

Seems like I've seen, for some keyboards, the scan codes the keyboard can output in a 2d array printed on a data sheet.  It's rows and columns, when you push a key a switch there connects the row wires with the column wires at that point.  It would probably be in a manufacturer's datasheet, thought I had one for this.  The left and right shifts, ctrl, alt are different from each other.  Software can tell which shift key you use. OK, shift is 42 and 54 here.

[ab1jx]

In Debian we can just do:
dpkg-reconfigure keyboard-configuration
if you can remember that.  It's what raspi-config calls on a Raspberry Pi, but they borrowed it from Debian.

Nothing in there about how many keys a keyboard has, I'm set to a 105 key one which is probably why my numlock doesn't work, it's on the wrong keycode.  It asks for numbers of keys or brand and model, then in the 2nd step it asks for country.

Screenshot image:
https://imgur.com/gallery/qPcs0jp

Ah, /usr/share/console-setup/KeyboardNames.pl.  And it comes down to the way it's been done since 1995.  http://xfree86.org/current/XKBproto.pdf

It's not that hard to make a custom layout I think but first there's this 155 page PDF to at least skim.

But wait, you don't have to do it by hand, there's xkeycaps (in the debs).
https://imgur.com/gallery/4oCkVAA


Looks like the Athena widget set I think. Right-click in the top of a scrollbar to scroll up. Click in the bottom to scroll down. The scrollbars are why I like Motif better.

[KC9UDX]

Try it with Fn. I suspect it doesn't report at all for Fn and most keys at the same time as Fn.

[ab1jx]

Try it with Fn.  I suspect it doesn't report at all for Fn and most keys at the same time as Fn.

I have been.  If it's in blue I use Fn.  My NumLock is on the Print Screen and Pause buttons for some reason.  Which are both keycode 69 by showkey.  NumLock shows as 70.  Using Fn.

I can do showkey -s and get scancodes instead but each key shows 2 numbers, one for press and one for release I think.  My numlock key gets 0x46 and 0x66.  I thought I had better specs on this keyboard.

[KC9UDX]

What I'm getting at though I'd that you're not seeing hardware scan values. Else a key with Fn would be the same code as if you pressed it without Fn, and Fn would report as a separate key, the way the other modifier keys do.

[ab1jx]

I guess you're right.  Fn  by itself doesn't register.

I was working along the top row keys and something killed my mouse cursor.  Letting it sit off and using a phone.