Tell me more ×
Super User is a question and answer site for computer enthusiasts and power users. It's 100% free, no registration required.
up vote 0 down vote favorite

A lot of people say that Thinkpad Buttons prevents the CPU from saving power and shouldn't be used but it is the only solution for Thinkpads I know that shows OSD for volume keys. hotkey-setup that came with Ubuntu Jaunty can't even intercept those keys. Is there a better alternative, that is good enough with CPU sleeping states and can show OSD?

share|improve this question
What do you mean with tpb? What is it short for? – Johan Sep 7 '09 at 10:19
1  
It's short for "ThinkPad Buttons". It's one of the tools under Linux that can make Thinkpad special buttons work. The only one if you need OSD though. – vava Sep 7 '09 at 10:58
ok, never heard of it. – Johan Sep 7 '09 at 11:53
When you say OSD, do mean getting visual feedback when you volume up / down? I have jaunty installed on a t40 and a t61p and I get this behavior by default. – DaveParillo Sep 17 '09 at 14:32
Hm, I don't, there's no OSD at all. – vava Sep 18 '09 at 1:39
show 1 more comment

2 Answers

up vote 2 down vote

The modern equivalent is hald. When hald is running you can:

  1. Get or Set properites
  2. Find device objects by property matching or by capability matching
  3. List all the hal devices

Try:

lshal | grep input

or

hal-find-by-capability --capability input | xargs -n1 lshal -u

for a list of all the input devices & buttons known to hald

Update I'm using Gnome. If you're running KDE, you can try kcontrol. Refer to this HowTo - it's a bit dated. kcontrol is kde3, systemsettings in kde4. I think the nvram group setting are still applicable.

share|improve this answer
sure but there's no OSD :) – vava Oct 24 '09 at 12:22
I'm currently running Ubuntu 9.04 on a T61p, my volume keys work and there is associated partially translucent OSD when adjusting the volume. Maybe I don't get you're question really. I haven't installed anything special to make this happen. – DaveParillo Oct 24 '09 at 16:19
My OSD looks like this: sites.google.com/site/daveparillo/downloads/superuser/… – DaveParillo Oct 24 '09 at 16:47
@DaveParillo, hm, no, I don't have any visual confirmation when I use volume button or any other special kind of button for that matter. I hope that upgrade to 9.10 will cure the problem then. – vava Oct 25 '09 at 8:07
up vote 0 down vote

I don't have a ThinkPad to try these on, but googling for "thinkpad buttons linux" gave me these two promising links:
1. http://www.thinkwiki.org/wiki/How%5Fto%5Fget%5Fspecial%5Fkeys%5Fto%5Fwork
2. http://www.thinkwiki.org/wiki/ThinkPad%5FButton

share|improve this answer

Your Answer

 
discard

By posting your answer, you agree to the privacy policy and terms of service.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged or ask your own question.