Thinkpad T42 Volume Buttons OSD KDE4

[Bret]

I have been searching all over these forums as well as google, but to no avail.  In KDE 3.x I was able to use kmilo to get the Thinkpad volume buttons, but I cannot seem to get any OSD in KDE4.

The volume goes up and down when I push the buttons, but nothing shows on screen.  Has anyone been able to get this to work in KDE4? 

On another partition, I have OpenSUSE installed and OSD does work as it's supposed to, so I know KDE4 can do it - I prefer to use PCLinuxOS though.

Thanks.

[akirafactor]

I have a IBM A31p with the same prob with PCLinuxOS 2010.1 KDE4. Didn't see any sign of tpb or kmilo so I just downloaded tpb "ftp://mirrors.kernel.org/mandrake/Mandrakelinux/official/2007.0/i586/media/contrib/release/tpb-0.6.4-2mdv2007.0.i586.rpm" from the Mandriva repos and installed it and that worked. I would prefer a KDE4 Kmilo for PCLinuxOS 2010.1 though.

You do have to add "chmod 644 /dev/nvram" to rc.local so it doesn't need to be root.

Then just add "tpb -d" to KDE autostart with the -d switch for daemon mode.

Another benefit is that the browser keys on the left side of the keyboard now work with Firefox.

[everge48]

I've had similar problems with multimedia keys on various Thinkpad models over the years. They always seem to get resolved with newer kernels but u never know how long that will be.
I would not recommend installing a Mandriva KD3 package on PCLOS KDE4. Also installing packages from outside the PCLOS repositories will make your system officially unsupported and may cause problems doing upgrades in the future; up to you.
In the meantime 'acme' is the quickest easiest band aid solution if you don't have the time or energy to put into mapping out your keys using 'keytouch'.
'acme' sits in the system tray and is easy to setup/customize. It's a Gnome app but I've always used it in KDE with no problems.

[parnote]

I'm running Phoenix 2010 on my T42, and I also don't get an on-screen display ... so I don't think it's specific to the DE ... but my volume buttons **do** work ... just without an on-screen display.

parnote

[everge48]

I have been searching all over these forums as well as google, but to no avail.

I don't know how I forgot to mention this before...
thinkwiki should be right up there with scroogle for any Thinkpad owner.
So for future searches might I mention thinkwiki as an excellent resource for Thinkpad owners.

http://www.thinkwiki.org/wiki/How_to_get_special_keys_to_work