Multimedia Keys in Awesome Window Manager [SOLVED]

Question

Hey,
I've googled, searched, grepped and scanned about this for weeks, and I think I can't get it working on my own, although I'm sure the right answer is just out there waiting to be found, and one of you brighter minds might just know it already. Right, here's what happens.
I was using openbox, and the keybindings were working just fine. This should probably discard missing symbols or scancodes for the keys, IMHO. Then I switch over to Awesome, and fall in love. The awesome (pun intended) config files by anrxc made it even better, and these days I can't live without my awesome. But I also wanted my volume keys to work. Not like I mind opening a terminal and popping alsamixer... I got 15 of them open all the time anyway. But I still wanted to use the fancy buttons.
The strange thing is, the keys seem to "disappear" as soon as I map them somewhere. I've tried binding them in rc.lua:
awful.key({}, "#121", function () exec("pvol.py -m", false) end),
awful.key({}, "#122", function () exec("pvol.py -c -2", false) end),
awful.key({}, "#123", function () exec("pvol.py -c 2", false) end),
pvol.py is a script (made by anrxc too) that does stuff to the volume and displays a cute gtk progress bar to indicate current volume level. Invoking it from the terminal works fine.
I also tried using xbindkeys:
"pvol.py -m"
XF86AudioMute
"pvol.py -c -2"
XF86AudioLowerVolume
"pvol.py -c 2"
XF86AudioRaiseVolume
But the result was the same. Here's the output of xev with the keys unbound:
KeyPress event, serial 25, synthetic NO, window 0x1600001,
root 0x15a, subw 0x0, time 4706773, (74,267), root:(796,288),
state 0x10, keycode 123 (keysym 0x1008ff13, XF86AudioRaiseVolume), same_screen YES,
XLookupString gives 0 bytes:
XmbLookupString gives 0 bytes:
XFilterEvent returns: False
KeyRelease event, serial 28, synthetic NO, window 0x1600001,
root 0x15a, subw 0x0, time 4706853, (74,267), root:(796,288),
state 0x10, keycode 123 (keysym 0x1008ff13, XF86AudioRaiseVolume), same_screen YES,
XLookupString gives 0 bytes:
XFilterEvent returns: False
KeyPress event, serial 28, synthetic NO, window 0x1600001,
root 0x15a, subw 0x0, time 4712422, (74,267), root:(796,288),
state 0x10, keycode 122 (keysym 0x1008ff11, XF86AudioLowerVolume), same_screen YES,
XLookupString gives 0 bytes:
XmbLookupString gives 0 bytes:
XFilterEvent returns: False
KeyRelease event, serial 28, synthetic NO, window 0x1600001,
root 0x15a, subw 0x0, time 4712534, (74,267), root:(796,288),
state 0x10, keycode 122 (keysym 0x1008ff11, XF86AudioLowerVolume), same_screen YES,
XLookupString gives 0 bytes:
XFilterEvent returns: False
KeyPress event, serial 28, synthetic NO, window 0x1600001,
root 0x15a, subw 0x0, time 4713862, (74,267), root:(796,288),
state 0x10, keycode 121 (keysym 0x1008ff12, XF86AudioMute), same_screen YES,
XLookupString gives 0 bytes:
XmbLookupString gives 0 bytes:
XFilterEvent returns: False
KeyRelease event, serial 28, synthetic NO, window 0x1600001,
root 0x15a, subw 0x0, time 4713878, (74,267), root:(796,288),
state 0x10, keycode 121 (keysym 0x1008ff12, XF86AudioMute), same_screen YES,
XLookupString gives 0 bytes:
XFilterEvent returns: False
As you can see, they respond to the key codes 121. 122, and 123. Going to a console and running showkey, however, gives me the key codes 113, 114, and 115. I've tried mapping both, and the X11 symbols, with the same result. Below, a sample of xev's output when I bind the keys somewhere (out put for a single key, all result in the same output):
FocusOut event, serial 29, synthetic NO, window 0x1600001,
mode NotifyGrab, detail NotifyAncestor
FocusIn event, serial 29, synthetic NO, window 0x1600001,
mode NotifyUngrab, detail NotifyAncestor
KeymapNotify event, serial 29, synthetic NO, window 0x0,
keys: 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
And of course, nothing happens. The same happens whether I bind the keys in awesome or through xbindkeys. I have to admit, I'm pretty much out of ideas. Anyone seen this before?
Last edited by mkaito (2010-06-16 15:06:06)

Answer 1

d2ogch3n wrote:
Here's what I have
    -- Multimedia keys
    awful.key({ }, "XF86AudioRaiseVolume",    function () awful.util.spawn("amixer set Master 2+") end),
    awful.key({ }, "XF86AudioLowerVolume",    function () awful.util.spawn("amixer set Master 2-") end)
Just to clarify for anyone who comes across this, "%" is needed after the number. It should be:
awful.key({ }, "XF86AudioRaiseVolume", function () awful.util.spawn("amixer set Master 2%+") end),
awful.key({ }, "XF86AudioLowerVolume", function () awful.util.spawn("amixer set Master 2%-") end)
You should also be able to add Mute functionality:
awful.key({ }, "XF86AudioMute", function () awful.util.spawn("amixer set Master toggle") end)
Also, to get rid of the loading cursor, pass false as a second argument to all three of these:
awful.key({ }, "XF86AudioRaiseVolume", function () awful.util.spawn("amixer set Master 2%+", false) end),
awful.key({ }, "XF86AudioLowerVolume", function () awful.util.spawn("amixer set Master 2%-", false) end)
awful.key({ }, "XF86AudioMute", function () awful.util.spawn("amixer set Master toggle", false) end)
The AWM wiki is the source for this:
http://awesome.naquadah.org/wiki/Volume … nd_display