[NTLUG:Discuss] Map key entry

[kbrannen@gte.net]

Greg Edwards wrote:
> Well I guess I should have paid better attention ;)
> 
> I need to program a way for my users to reset usb services without 
> having to remember much.  I'd like to program the F12 key to run 
> "service usb restart" when pressed.  Doing this as part of the X server 
> would be acceptable but I'd rather it be set during the init process 
> like the <CTL><ATL>del mapping.
> 
> I know that there have been discussions on setting key mappings here but 
> I can't seem to find them in the archives and I can't remember the 
> suggestions.
> 
> So can we go down that road again ;)
> 
> Thanks,

There may be a way to do it system-wide, but the easier way will be thru X, at 
least it seems that way for me. :-)  How you do it depends on the window 
manager.  For example, with Mwm, I could do:

<Key>F12   root|icon|window   f.exec "/some/program &"

in the key binding section to achieve that.  As I recall, Fvwm and Twm have 
similiar things; I suspect the KDE and Gnome window managers also have 
equivalents.  OTOH, Wm2 and Wmx (what I use) don't have anything like that, 
but then I doubt your users would so minimalistic. :-)

You can use "loadkeys" to have it type out the string to run, and I guess if 
it had a LF at the end it would execute, assuming the user had permission to 
run the program (set up "sudo" if you have permission problems).  This is 
probably the most user-independent way that I can think of, thought the Window 
Manager may try to override it.  You'll have to test. :-)

HTH,
Kevin