Microsoft Wireless Keyboard 700

The Microsoft Wireless Keyboard 700 Microsoft Wireless Keyboard 700

This is a fairly basic wireless keyboard, great for someone wanting a small, light, inexpensive wireless keyboard and is not concerned about keyboard traffic being snooped. The receiver makes this keyboard appear to the PC as a typical USB keyboard. Power for the keyboard comes from two AA size batteries. This keyboard is normally sold with a small matching wireless mouse.

The point that makes this keyboard interesting from a MythTV viewpoint are the extra function keys above the normal F1 - F12 keys. The "extra" buttons above the function keys can be used to make this keyboard act like an over-sized remote control.

Mythbuntu 11.04 (Natty Narwhal) Instructions

Media Buttons

To use the media buttons we edit (or if it doesn't already exit we create) the .Xmodmap file in the home directory of the user(s) that are running MythTV. Most of the time this means we are working with the /home/{user name}/.Xmodmap file.

 ! Keymap for Microsoft Wireless 
 ! Keyboard 700
 ! Skip Back
 keycode 173 = Left
 ! Skip Forward
 keycode 171 = Right
 ! Stop
 keycode 174 = Escape
 ! PlayPause
 keycode 172 = P
 ! VolUp
 keycode 123 = bracketright
 ! VolDn
 keycode 122 = bracketleft
 ! Mute
 keycode 121 = bar
 ! e-mail - switch between screen modes
 keycode 163 = W

Unlike the fast forward or volume buttons there is no clearly linked function for the e-mail button. In my case I tied that to the switch between screen modes, but go with what ever "extra" function works for you...

Save the above. To bring the above functions up immediately enter:

 xmodmap /home/{user name}/.Xmodmap

Otherwise the script /etc/gdm/Xsession which is auto-run at boot time will do the above for you.

KnoppMyth Instructions

Not sure how much of any of the following is of value, given that KnoppMyth has been replaced by LinHES, but is left here for possible historical interest.

Media Buttons

To use the media buttons we edit (or if it doesn't already exit we create) the .xmodmaprc file in the home directory of the user(s) that are running MythTV. Most of the time this means we are working with the /home/mythtv/.xmodmaprc file.

 ! Keymap for Microsoft Wireless Keyboard 700
 ! Skip Back
 keycode 144 = Left
 ! Skip Forward
 keycode 153 = Right
 ! Stop
 keycode 164 = Escape
 ! PlayPause
 keycode 162 = P
 ! VolUp
 keycode 176 = bracketright
 ! VolDn
 keycode 174 = bracketleft
 ! Mute
 keycode 160 = bar
 ! e-mail - switch between screen modes
 keycode 236 = W

Unlike the fast forward or volume buttons there is no clearly linked function for the e-mail button. In my case I tied that to the switch between screen modes, but go with what ever "extra" function works for you...

Save the above. To bring the above functions up immediately enter:

 xmodmap /home/mythtv/.xmodmaprc

Now you need to make sure the above will come up each time the MythTV system is rebooted. Under KnoppMyth Release 5 version F27 this can be done by editing the file /usr/local/bin/KnoppMyth-run and changing the line:

 CMD2='exec mythfrontend --logfile /var/log/mythtv/mythfrontend.log'

to:

 CMD2='exec xmodmap /home/mythtv/.xmodmaprc | exec mythfrontend --logfile /var/log/mythtv/mythfrontend.log'

Lastly if you are running diskless frontends with the above keyboard, you need to make sure the client machines will act appropriately. Under KnoppMyth you will need to edit the following file (and add the above information):

  /nfsroot/{machine name}/home/mythtv/.xmodmaprc