Make the zoom slider of Microsoft Natural Ergonomic Keyboard 4000 and 7000 scroll up and down, in 14.04 (Trusty)

Question

I tried to use this tutorial to make scroll switch work on my Microsoft Natural Ergonomic Keyboard 4000. But I face following error:

sudo: /lib/udev/keymap: command not found

I have udev version 204-5ubuntu20.2 (the version found in Trusty)

I noticed that this version doesn't include keymap tool. But I notices that greater udev versions (which available for Debian, for example) include this tool.

Could somebody explain this diff for me? =) And what should I do in this case - install package from Debian repo?

Do you want to resolve this issue using udev or are you fine with alternatives? I would be a bit reluctant to install unpackaged udev debian packages on ubuntu. — jobin, May 29 '14 at 04:37
I've updated my tutorial (that you linked to) to include the below answer. Thanks :-) — Terence Eden, Nov 13 '14 at 11:28
Possible duplicate of how to get Microsoft Natural Ergonomic Keyboard 4000's zoom slider (and other buttons) to work? (both questions give valid but similar answers) — A.L, Jan 30 '21 at 14:50

score 38 · Answer 1 · answered Nov 26 '15 at 11:21

38

Ubuntu 15.10: I had no success with previous answers.

I have successfully used approach similar to the previous ones - instructions were mentioned in /lib/udev/hwdb.d/60-keyboard.hwdb.

I've created new hwdb file using sudo nano /etc/udev/hwdb.d/70-keyboard.hwdb containing:

# Microsoft Natural Ergonomic Keyboard 4000 - remap zoom in/out to page up/down
evdev:input:b0003v045Ep00DB*
 KEYBOARD_KEY_c022d=pageup
 KEYBOARD_KEY_c022e=pagedown

after that I've run

sudo udevadm hwdb --update
sudo udevadm control --reload

and replugged the keyboard and it worked.

For model 7000 use evdev:input:b003v045Ep071D*

answered Nov 26 '15 at 11:21

Adam Chýlek

481

9

This is correct answer for Ubuntu 16.04 – Greg Dan Apr 26 '16 at 10:43
2

Thanks. It indeed looks like the keyboard: definitions no longer work on Ubuntu 1604 and it needs to be evdev:. There is even a default mapping in /lib/udev/hwdb.d/60-keyboard.hwdb for the 4000 model that maps them to zoomin/zoomout - however X completely ignores the events (xev shows nothing) so you still need a configuration change like this. – laanwj Sep 19 '16 at 12:08
2

The b0003 looks like it's bus-specific (so it might only work in some USB ports). If something like b*v045Ep071D* works, that might be better. – Oli Dec 12 '16 at 14:23
3

Thanks, it's working in Ubuntu 16.04 (evdev:input:XXX instead of keyboard:usb:YYY). You can also use different mapping instead of pageup/pagedown. For example, I am using scrollup and scrolldown to do real scrolling. – Martin Grůber Jan 05 '17 at 09:43
Thank you guys. Finally convinced my ancient Microsoft Corp. Digital Media Keyboard 1.0A to switch songs in Spotify. https://gist.github.com/mauron85/5f4b640aa4e5e968e0496ac5a0878715 – mauron85 Apr 19 '17 at 07:26
1

Works in Kubuntu 17.10 as well – OOPMan Dec 18 '17 at 08:29

score 28 · Accepted Answer · edited Sep 24 '14 at 22:23

28

If you look at /lib/udev/rules.d/60-keyboard.rules you'll see that everything has been messed around with. This is just part of the udev merger into systemd that has gone on.

All hardware rules are compiled into a binary hardware database. These follow a really strange format. The existing rules for keyboards that ship with udev live in /lib/udev/hwdb.d/60-keyboard.hwdb. Look at that but don't edit it (updates will probably overwrite it).

To add your custom rules, we'll create a new file in /etc/udev/hwdb.d/ by running sudoedit /etc/udev/hwdb.d/61-keyboard-local.hwdb. All you need to do is paste in the following -

If you are using the 4000 model:

keyboard:usb:v045Ep00DB*
 KEYBOARD_KEY_0c022d=pageup
 KEYBOARD_KEY_0c022e=pagedown

If you are using 7000 model:

keyboard:usb:v045Ep071D*
 KEYBOARD_KEY_0c022d=pageup
 KEYBOARD_KEY_0c022e=pagedown

This is adapated from the tutorial you posted so you might need to tweak based on your keyboard. Look at lsusb and make sure the vendor:product code above (as v####p####) is correct. It won't work if they don't match.

Once you're done editing, recompile the hwdb that udev uses:

sudo udevadm hwdb --update

And then you might need to re-plug. If it's a PS/2 keyboard you might need to reboot. In some cases you also need to reboot.

edited Sep 24 '14 at 22:23

matanox

1,871

answered May 29 '14 at 08:28

Oli

299,936

Thx for reply! hwdb.d dir is empty, rules.d contains only 3 files(70-persistent-cd.rules, 70-persistent-net.rules, README). So, did you mean that I must create a new file? Or I must have some to edit? – Dmitry Belaventsev Jun 01 '14 at 12:05
Yeah you should be creating a new file. The existing keyboard rules are sitting in /lib/udev/hwdb.d/60-keyboard.hwdb but edits to it will be lost after udev updates. – Oli Jun 01 '14 at 14:26
2

unfortunately, doesn't make target button to work – Dmitry Belaventsev Jun 01 '14 at 16:43
device id was checked with lsusb as you mentioned – Dmitry Belaventsev Jun 01 '14 at 16:44
Hmm, looking at things again, the v:p codes might need to be caps. Try keyboard:usb:v045Ep00DB* – Oli Jun 01 '14 at 17:25
hmmm.. doesn't work for me too, even when changing lib/udev/hwdb.d/60-keyboard.hwdb itself. Interestingly, the zoom scroll doesn't zoom either, even though it is picked up by evtest (at least in Chrome and Firefox). – matanox Sep 24 '14 at 21:42
Now it works! (Microsoft Natural Ergonomic Keyboard 7000, not 4000). Must have required that reboot after sudo udevadm hwdb --update even though the 7000 is not a PS/2 keyboard.
Maybe udevadm trigger is necessary after the update but haven't tried that and you should read about that command before trying it, for myself I haven't used it before.
– matanox Sep 24 '14 at 22:08
I tried everything on my 4000! I updated the hardware database and put the letters in all caps and everything! I noticed that before KEYBOARD_KEY (both times) there is a space. Would it help if I replaced that with a tab instead? – John Scott Dec 28 '14 at 22:55
BTW, any way of making it work for both keyboard models, with the same configuration? – matanox Jun 27 '15 at 07:35
1

@matt, you can put multiple aliases as here – user.dz Jul 03 '15 at 05:11
Oh great, good to know!! – matanox Jul 03 '15 at 10:52
On Debian Jessie 8.5 this didn't work. Answer below by @user261903 is the right choice in this case. – Nicolás Jul 11 '16 at 03:05
2

Instead of plugging|unpluging one can use udevadm trigger /dev/input/by-id/usb-Microsoft-* to trigger the update – Oleksandr Pryimak Jul 24 '17 at 22:55
I found the scrolling using pageup and pagedown key bindings to be too fast. Instead on can use up and down for a slower scrolling. – Ariel Aug 03 '17 at 14:16

score 7 · Answer 3 · answered Apr 29 '15 at 22:21

7

The original solution posted by Oli did not work for me, but it works after I changed the key numbers "0c022d" and "0c022e" to "c022d" and "c022e". I'm using a 4000 model, so I can't verify if the same change is needed for the 7000 model.

To repeat Oli's answer, here is what I did: create a new file by running sudo nano /etc/udev/hwdb.d/61-keyboard-local.hwdb. Paste the following lines to the file (for the 4000 model):

keyboard:usb:v045Ep00DB*
 KEYBOARD_KEY_c022d=pageup
 KEYBOARD_KEY_c022e=pagedown

After editing the file, recompile the hwdb that udev uses:

sudo udevadm hwdb --update

Then replug the keyboard.

answered Apr 29 '15 at 22:21

user261903

71

Thanks. Oddly enough I needed to perform this change too now, and also a restart was required after it all (not just replugging). – matanox Jun 28 '15 at 06:14
This worked for me on Debian Jessie 8.5. – Nicolás Jul 11 '16 at 03:04
I want to buy an economic keyboard, and I am curious, whether it works with 16.04 LTS? Or there is not a problem like this there. – Arpad Horvath Aug 29 '16 at 10:15

score 4 · Answer 4 · answered May 27 '16 at 02:16

4

Adding to Oli's answer, If you want line scrolling like how it is on a mouse, you can modify pageup/pagedown to up/down in your custom rule. Like:

keyboard:usb:v045Ep00DB*
 KEYBOARD_KEY_c022d=up
 KEYBOARD_KEY_c022e=down

answered May 27 '16 at 02:16

r11

73
4

By the way: Up/Down is default in 18.04. – LinuxLuigi Sep 24 '18 at 12:14

score 1 · Answer 5 · answered Jul 15 '16 at 17:34

Nice solution is here, and I can only add that you can map the keys to unused X keys like that:

$ cat /lib/udev/rules.d/95-keymap.rules
...
ENV{ID_VENDOR}=="Microsoft", ENV{ID_MODEL_ID}=="00db", RUN+="keymap $name 0xc022d katakana 0xc022e katakanahiragana
...

Proper names to use instead of katakana can be found here.

After reboot ;-) you can test that zoomin and zoomout keys are mapped successfully, and also to find out a proper names of the keys (to use in rc.xml for OpenBox WM, for example) using xev:

$ xev
...
KeyRelease event, serial 46, synthetic NO, window 0x3c00001,
    root 0x291, subw 0x0, time 1492891, (-261,-61), root:(573,380),
    state 0x0, keycode 101 (keysym 0xff27, Hiragana_Katakana), same_screen YES,
    XLookupString gives 0 bytes: 
    XFilterEvent returns: False
...

Now you can connect new keys to completely arbitrary action. In my case of OpenBox window manager I used something like this:

$ cat <whatever>/rc.xml
...
<keybind key="Katakana">
  <action name="Execute">
    <command>volume_up.sh</command>
  </action>
</keybind>
<keybind key="Hiragana_Katakana">
  <action name="Execute">
    <command>volume_down.sh</command>
  </action>
</keybind>
...

Make the zoom slider of Microsoft Natural Ergonomic Keyboard 4000 and 7000 scroll up and down, in 14.04 (Trusty)

5 Answers5

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