MediaDirect Button

[Matthew Flaschen]

I noticed that Dell says "The MediaDirect button on the Inspiron E1505n
has no effect in Ubuntu 7.04."
(http://linux.dell.com/wiki/index.php/Clients/Products/Inspiron_1505n/MediaDirect_Button).
 The MediaDirect button is the house button near the power button.  I
have a Dell E1505 (that I bought a year ago), and I've figured out how
to get the button working.  I'm actually using Kubuntu Dapper and it's
not exactly the same hardware, but I think this should work:

1. Enter the command:

sudo gedit /etc/X11/Xmodmap

to create /etc/X1ll/Xmodmap as root.

2. Add the line:

keycode 237 = XF86VendorHome

Save.

3. Restart the computer and login.

4. Now the button should be detected by the OS.  You can verify this by
running the command at a console:

xev

then pressing the MediaDirect button.

You should see the text XF86VendorHome somewhere.

5. Now, you can configure the key as a global shortcut the same as any
other (I made it start Firefox).  In KDE I did this by going to System
Settings, Regional Accessibility,  Keyboard Shortcuts, Command
Shortcuts, then selecting a program to start.  I found (but haven't
tried) GNOME instructions at
http://www.gnome.org/learn/users-guide/latest/prefs-keyboard-shortcuts.html
.

Best,

Matt Flaschen