Media keys for sound suddenly not working after recent kernel update

Archisman Panigrahi

2/23/24, 2:29 PM

I have a laptop running Ubuntu MATE 22.04. I did not use the sounds media keys for some time, and now they are not working.

They used to work after installation, stopped working at some point. They were working again at some point (I did not notice whether it stopped working after a particular update), but the issue reappeared after updating to kernel 5.15.0-69.

However, the brightness keys are working normally.

When I press fn+media keys, the computer recognizes the keystrokes (e.g. f11 toggles full screen). Thus, the keys are not dead.

The keypress event gets registered in xev output.

KeyRelease event, serial 38, synthetic NO, window 0x4800001,
    root 0x3e1, subw 0x0, time 703488, (284,75), root:(286,173),
    state 0x0, keycode 75 (keysym 0x1008ff11, XF86AudioLowerVolume), same_screen YES,
    XLookupString gives 0 bytes: 
    XFilterEvent returns: False

How to fix this issue?

0 + 4

sound

keyboard

shortcut-keys

function-keys

22.04

HuHa

2/23/24, 2:41 PM

Try "xev" (package x11-utils) and press those keys. Check if the output includes key symbol names like `XF86Bluetooth`, `XF86Tools` etc.; if not, check what keyboard type you have configured.

Archisman Panigrahi

2/24/24, 12:39 AM

I have xf86audiolowervolume

HuHa

2/24/24, 5:17 PM

That actually sounds good. But since you write that it works when you press them together with the `Fn` key, I've never seen it to be otherwise; at least not on any laptop that I own. I always needed to use `Fn`.

Archisman Panigrahi

2/24/24, 5:28 PM

`But since you write that it works when you press them together with the Fn key` - I meant, when I press `fn + f12`, it works as `f12` (opens developer console in firefox). But when I just press `f12`, it does not work as VolumeUp as it is supposed to. `xev` reports volumeup was pressed, but volume actually does not increase.

Elon Musk

I sit in a Tesla and translated this thread with Ai:

EN: Media keys for sound suddenly not working after recent kernel update

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