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I bought a new HP notebook (elitebook) with an extremely awful keyboard functionality. For example, I don't have an insert key, but I have a phone-dial and phone-hangup key (right upper corner): HP Keyboard Layout

The thing is, I am extremely used to the insert key. Therefore I was looking for a way to remap the second key from the right (hangup-key) to the insert key. However, none of the proposed solutions work for me (1, 2, 3).

E.g., when I run xev | grep keycode and press the desired key, I get the following output:

    state 0x0, keycode 37 (keysym 0xffe3, Control_L), same_screen YES,
    state 0x4, keycode 64 (keysym 0xffe9, Alt_L), same_screen YES,
    state 0xc, keycode 37 (keysym 0xffe3, Control_L), same_screen YES,
    state 0x8, keycode 64 (keysym 0xffe9, Alt_L), same_screen YES,

This seems like that key is mapped to the left ALT key? Trying CTRL+ALT+T confirms that suspicion, as it opens the terminal.

Does anybody have any idea how to map that key to the INSERT key I don't have?

  • EDIT *

As requested, the LEFT CTRL and LEFT ALT KEY pressed:

    state 0x0, keycode 37 (keysym 0xffe3, Control_L), same_screen YES,
    state 0x4, keycode 37 (keysym 0xffe3, Control_L), same_screen YES,
    state 0x0, keycode 64 (keysym 0xffe9, Alt_L), same_screen YES,
    state 0x8, keycode 64 (keysym 0xffe9, Alt_L), same_screen YES,

Thanks!

JJ Abrams
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  • in the box that you display the output of `xev` which buttons were you actually pressing, exactly? I find strange that the ALT and CTRL are intertwined. When I press any key in `xev` I always get the key down and key up event, so I would expect to see ALT (down), ALT (up) and then CTRL (down), CTRL (up). In any case, can you also provide the `xev` output of pressing the actual left alt and left ctrl keys? Are they EXACTLY the same? – avila Jun 16 '21 at 11:59
  • also, according to this [link](https://h30434.www3.hp.com/t5/Notebook-Video-Display-and-Touch/Disabling-End-Call-Call-Answer-Call-and-Share-Screen-buttons/m-p/7578651/highlight/true#M212775) you might be able to lock the function key state by pressing FN+LEFT, and you might get other (or none) behaviour from this key. Also worth checking. – avila Jun 16 '21 at 12:03
  • Oh, sorry, I was off for some time and didn't get here before. Thanks for the response @avila ! I literally only pressed the "hangup key" (second key from the right). I updated the question with the LEFT CTRL and LEFT ALT key pressed :) – JJ Abrams Jun 29 '21 at 21:38
  • Btw, thanks for the hint @avila with the FN key. I tried that, but it didn't change anything (neither the functionality, nor the xev output...) – JJ Abrams Jun 29 '21 at 21:41
  • On my last comment I wrote FN+Left, but meant to write FN+Left Shift. (Left shift is also marked as FN LOCK). Did you try that? If it does not work, I can only think of workaround such as mapping a third function to another key, such as RightAlt + Delete = Insert, or something in this direction. – avila Jun 29 '21 at 21:59
  • Yep, tried FN and left shift (read the actual thread you linked). Thanks for your help though! Maybe I need to try the keymapper below. I just tried to avoid installing a third party application. – JJ Abrams Jun 29 '21 at 22:05
  • how you found a solution? these stupid HP keys are so useless – yeahman Jul 09 '22 at 06:06

1 Answers1

0

You can do this with Key Mapper...

https://github.com/sezanzeb/key-mapper

Screenshot of Key Mapper

Install Key Mapper as follows...

sudo apt install git python3-setuptools
git clone https://github.com/sezanzeb/key-mapper.git
cd key-mapper; ./scripts/build.sh
sudo apt install ./dist/key-mapper-1.0.0.deb
sudo apt -f install  # install dependencies if necessary

Usage instructions are here...

https://github.com/sezanzeb/key-mapper/blob/main/readme/usage.md

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