[olpc-help] Special keys from external keyboard

[Doug Jones]

I was hoping to be able to generate these special keycodes by using 
Alt-codes, but apparently these don't work on XO.

(In other words:  Hold down the Alt key, type in the desired numeric 
code on the numeric keypad, then release the Alt key to send the keycode.)

I just tried this, and it doesn't seem to work.  I have a theory why:

The NumLock has to be on for this to work.  My external keyboard has a 
NumLock key, and the corresponding indicator light, but this key doesn't 
work when the keyboard is plugged into the XO.  (Makes some sense, after 
all XO itself doesn't have NumLock, or CapsLock, or ScrollLock.)

When I boot up the XO, the indicator lights for those three Lock keys do 
briefly flash, just as when booting any other computer.  But after that 
they stay off, no matter what key you push.

Perhaps if the XO was told to turn on NumLock on any connected external 
keyboard, the Alt-codes would work?






Chih-yu Chao wrote:
> Hi Tami,
> 
> Perhaps you can try running the keyboard diagnostics with the external
> keyboard -- not sure whether this will work out, though:
> http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Support_FAQ#How_do_I_test_my_keyboard_for_sticky.2Fbroken_keys.3F
> 
> Good luck,
> Chih-yu
> 
> On Dec 30, 2007 8:02 PM, tamichan <community-support at lists.laptop.org> wrote:
>> Hi,
>>
>> I could connect my keyboard to XO using USB without any problems.  Although it works as expected, I could not find a way to input special keys on XO keyboard.  Are there any tips?  The keys I am interested in are #150 and #129 in the picture found at http://wiki.laptop.org/go/OLPC_Keyboard_layouts .  Thanks.
>>
>> ------------------------
>> Tami (Masaaki) Takamiya