Disabling a specific key

[Rolf Turner]

On 19/12/14 13:56, jd1008 wrote:
>
> On 12/18/2014 05:29 PM, Rolf Turner wrote:
>> On 19/12/14 11:55, Marko Vojinovic wrote:
>>> On Fri, 19 Dec 2014 10:34:54 +1300
>>> Rolf Turner <r.turner at auckland.ac.nz> wrote:
>>>> On 19/12/14 08:27, jd1008 wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>> If you do not know the KeyCode, run the program:
>>>>> showkey
>>>>>
>>>>> and press the key in question
>>>>> and it's code will be displayed.
>>>>> You must wait 10 seconds of idle
>>>>> and showkey program will exit;
>>>>> then run the sudo script above.
>>>>>
>>>>
>>>> This looks very useful to me .... but as usual I fall at the first
>>>> hurdle.  When I type showkey or "showkey -k" I get:
>>>>
>>>>> Couldn't get a file descriptor referring to the console
>>>>
>>>> And that's it.  Anything I can do about this?  (Please note: I am
>>>> running Fedora 17 --- yes, I know --- and using a Mate desktop; Mate
>>>> 1.6.1 .)
>>>
>>> You need to run showkey in a proper virtual terminal, aka ctrl-alt-f3
>>> or such. It was not designed to work under X.
>>>
>>> HTH, :-)
>>
>> Did not help, I'm afraid.  I did ctrl-alt-f3 and *absolutely nothing*
>> happened.
>>
>> I (repeatedly) tried using "xev" as was proposed by someone else, to
>> discern the keycode for the key I wished to disable.  The output was
>> prolific and profuse and incomprehensible.  However after trying *one
>> more time* and scrolling back through the plethora of output I managed
>> to guess that the keycode I needed was "67".
>>
>> So I did:
>>
>> xmodmap -e "keycode 67 = NoSymbol"
>>
>> That was accepted without throwing an error, and blow-me-down, the key
>> in question seemed to be disabled.  Success?  No, not quite.
>>
>> I then restarted the system to see if the effect would persist. It
>> didn't!
>>
>> It would appear that I have to issue the "xmodmap" command every time
>> that I reboot.  Not a *big* deal, but annoying.  Is there a way to make
>> the effect persist?
>>
>> I tried put the line
>>
>> keycode 67 = NoSymbol
>>
>> into the file /etc/X11/Xmodmap, but that seemed to have no effect.
>>
>> Any other ideas?  Ta.
>>
>> cheers,
>>
>> Rolf Turner
>>
> Rolf, did you see my other replies?

Well, yes. I've read all the postings in this thread.  A lot of what was 
said I did not understand.

> You want to do this under the aegis of X server, right?

I'm not sure, but I don't think so.  I just want to disable the key.
I am running the Mate desktop under Fedora 17.  The "X" (X11?) system is 
"there" but not paramount, in my limited understanding.

>
> Please tell me what key you wish to disable, and I will show
> you how to do it from within a gnome terminal.

The key is the "F1" key (function 1) --- labelled most prominently with 
a question mark: "?".  It is next to the ESC key, which I use frequently
(being a vi/vim user) and although not all *that* physically proximate,
it is close enough so that I often hit it when I reach for the ESC key.
(My clumsiness, I guess.) When it is pressed it pops up a Gnome help 
menu, in which I have no interest.

> Remember, that the modification might not affect the web browser.
> So, leave the web browser out of this.

Gladly!

cheers,

Rolf  Turner

P. S.  The machine in question is a Toshiba Satellite L850 laptop.

R. T.

-- 
Rolf Turner
Technical Editor ANZJS