HOWTO: Microsoft Natural Ergonomic Keyboard 4000 - enabling special keys

[ydef]

Liyu: Thank you! Works perfectly with 2.6.22-rc3-light1 viper patchset.

Strabes: Dunno. Mine work perfectly in firefox.

[akincisor]

The patch works perfectly on 2.6.22. Is this patch going to be incorporated into the kernel soon?

akincisor

[plato4me]

I note that there are two distinct patches attached to this HOWTO.

msnek4k-patchset-for-2.6.22.zip

and

msnek4k-patchset.zip

The former unzips to "hid.patch", the latter to "msnek4k-patchset".

I downloaded and unzipped linux-2.6.22 and followed the instructions up to the point where I was supposed to apply the patch. The HOWTO says to use "msnek4k-patchset". However, that one produces lots of errors. "hid.patch", on the other hand runs flawlessly.

Which one to use? Both?

Well, I'm trying it out with just "hid.patch", and am compiling the kernel now. However.... I couldn't find anything about "Microsoft Natural Ergonomic 4000" when I configured the thing. Nothing I had any chance to check as a module to be compiled. So I'm not optimistic about the result.

Any suggestions?

[strabes]

Well, I'm trying it out with just "hid.patch", and am compiling the kernel now. However.... I couldn't find anything about "Microsoft Natural Ergonomic 4000" when I configured the thing. Nothing I had any chance to check as a module to be compiled. So I'm not optimistic about the result.

Any suggestions?

From the 1st post in this thread:

After this, go to Device Drivers --> USB, activate "HID Simple Driver Interface"" and change Microsoft Natural Ergonomic Keyboard 4000 Driver" to "m". If you can't find it in the configuration hierarchy, you can also press CTRL+F and type "simple" in the search box.

[plato4me]

Thanks. That worked for me.

[salnet]

One silly question: What for a driver do I have to load in xorg.conf? At the moment kdb is loaded and the 5 Fav-keys aren't working (plus the Zoom-Slider, the *, and the first three buttons above the numpad). But I read in this thread that someone got them working.
Kernel is 2.6.22.1 from kernel.org with the correct patch (msnek4k-patchset-for-2.6.22)

Thanks in advance for help,
salnet

[strabes]

You have to patch & recompile the kernel to get those buttons to work. See the first post of this thread.

[salnet]

You have to patch & recompile the kernel to get those buttons to work. See the first post of this thread.

I have patched the kernel and recompiled it. So I'm very confused that the buttons still don't work.

Only buttons I got to work are Browser, Search, Mail, Mute, Volume +/-, Play, Calculator, Back, Foraward.
The other extra-keys don't even send a keycode. I think it has something to do that there are only 255 keycodes allowed (see dumpkeys)

[Buchinho]

same problem here!

I have patched the kernel and recompiled it. So I'm very confused that the buttons still don't work.

Only buttons I got to work are Browser, Search, Mail, Mute, Volume +/-, Play, Calculator, Back, Foraward.
The other extra-keys don't even send a keycode. I think it has something to do that there are only 255 keycodes allowed (see dumpkeys)

[liyu]

This is the patch for 2.6.23-rc5.

Enjoy.