Database Users

[GUIDE] Simple way to change physical keyboard keymappings!

How to change FN(ALT) + key symbols, add them and even change everything on the qwerty -keyboard:
Works at least on Cyanogenmod 10 with android 4.2.2
Hi!
Today I ran into a problem. There were no < and > symbols in my phone (except virtual keyboard) and I needed them. I couldn't find any good guide how to change physical keyboard mappings so that I could use FN + button combo to get those symbols. I only found one guide, but it didn't work for me, old version perhaps? (http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=945921)
This is the way I found, and it's quite simple!
Quick guide:
1) Connect phone with usb and usb debugging on.
2) Find your keyboard layout name from settings -> language & input -> physical keyboard -> selected layout (for example: "vision-keypad-nor")
3 )Filename is layout + ".kcm" -> so in this example "vision-keypad-nor.kcm"
4) Go to command line and:
Code:
adb pull system/usr/keychars/vision-keypad-nor.kcm c:\vision-keypad-nor.kcm
5) Open file c:\vision-keypad-nor.kcm in notepad or other program
6) Find the key uou want to edit, for example A:
Code:
key A {
label:'A'
base:'a'
shift, capslock:'A'
alt: '#'
shift+alt:'#'
}
7) Lets edit that so we get "<" -symbol when pressing FN+A:
Code:
key A {
label:'A'
base:'a'
shift, capslock:'A'
alt: '\u003C'
shift+alt:\u003C'
}
Note: \u003C is unicode for "<". Find more unicodes: http://source.android.com/tech/input/key-character-map-files.html -> Input -> Key character map files
8) Save the file
9) Send the file back to the phone:
Code:
adb push c:\vision-keypad-nor.kcm /system/usr/keychars/vision-keypad-nor.kcm
10) Reboot phone and try pushing FN+A: If you get "<" everything went fine
Im new to this, so please tell me if somethings is wrong with this guide!
Update 28.10.2013 : Updated guide to be more clear.

Oh, sorry... I don't read your guid carefully first time. It's about an 4.x OS :-[

Now i do have one question... because ADB nor USB is not possible for me would this be possible using a root file explorer or no? I will try once I find the time and figure out how to get the www. and .com key back just may be a day or 2 before i can try.
By the way nice find

Been looking for a tutorial like this so that I can finally make better use of a few of the keys on my keyboard. Thanks a lot for the break down.
T.

NICE
Thanks soo much. Now lets make use of our hardware-keybs
Next step would be to assign scripts instead of single charakter
Imagine how many root-scripts we could execute with this as base for the hotkeys

Anyone have any luck getting the www. .com button to work like stock? Right now I have it as TAB.
Sent from my NookColor using Tapatalk 2

Anyone checking this thread anymore??
Sent from my HTC Vision using Tapatalk 4 Beta

Codes
Are that something similar to ASCII codes?

can I add a new language with this trick?

Can Anyone knows how to add second language to physical keyboard? We aready have a key to SW between 2 language but it's only work for English Lang.

nice guide! i need to make russian h\w keyboard, can someone help me with this?

Thank you all, hope that helped you
I think if you want to create a russian keyboard, you just edit that file and put the unicode -code of the russian character to every single button or so on? Not sure though.
SmIzUrF: I think you can edit that file with some root File Explorer on the phone. Just navigate to that folder and file.
I updated the guide so it is more clear

combination with hw quicksettings launcher
is it possible to combine it with HW quicksetting launcher by suzuna apps?
however they utilize hw key search button, do anyone know the ascii of hardware key search button? is it possible to map the search function into the other physical key?
thanks.

Is this guide still relevant with later roms? Some ICS or JB roms dont use the Nordic keymap and it would be useful to replace that.

Great guide! I will definitely use it!
Thanks.

wow!! thanks so much, I am running phoenixOS on my laptop and its keyboard is in German qwerty layout (strange right? - qwerty and not qwertz) but i needed the keys to be mapped according to the keyboard lettering. I am certainly gonna try this out!!

[5.0][CM12] How to Activate On Screen Buttons and turn of Capacitive Buttons

Hey guys,
There have been a ton of people asking how to activate onscreen buttons and disable the capacitive buttons since CM12 builds have started rolling out. Obviously, at some point, these features will be rolled into the ROM, but until then, I figured it would be a good idea to simply present a step-by-step thread on the issue. There have been answers all over the place button nothing dedicated and centralized, so I figured I would help some guys out.
Things needed:
CM12 Build on any variety (currently K900 and bpear have "nightlies" available in development. Check em out.
Root access. Just flash SuperSU 2.16 (http://download.chainfire.eu/589/SuperSU/UPDATE-SuperSU-v2.16.zip) if you don't have it. Root is necessary.
Zip to turn of the backlights: http://www.mediafire.com/download/p385se5ia28cqab/noSoftkeyBacklight.zip (thanks @Moody for this)
1.) Activate On-Screen buttons
- Use a program such as BuildProp Editor (look it up on the Play Store) to create a new build.prop entry. Call it qemu.hw.mainkeys, and set it's value to 0. If you are doing this manually, just add the line "qemu.hw.mainkeys=0"
- Reboot.
2.) Deactivate Capacitive buttons
- Download Root Explorer or some other program that allows editing of system level files.
- Mount your system as R/W. In root explorer at least, when you get into the system, there is a button up top to do so.
- Navigate to /system/usr/keylayout. Open Generic.kl in with a text editor.
- Comment out the follow lines by inserting a pound sign (#) in front of the line:
key 158 BACK
key 172 HOME
key 139 MENU
After this, they will read:
# key 158 BACK
# key 172 HOME
# key 139 MENU
Therse are numerically ordered, shouldn't be hard to find within the document.
- Remount your system as R/O.
3.) Turn off the capacitve back lights
- Reboot into custom recovery and flash noSoftKey.zip file you downloaded earlier.
- Reboot.
That should do it! You should now have software buttons and your hardware buttons should seemingly not exist!
Any questions or comments, please leave them here.

Anyone know how to enable hardware home long press to get to Google now?

TjPhysicist said:
Anyone know how to enable hardware home long press to get to Google now?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.phoenixstudios.aiogestures&hl=en

Added to OnePlus One index thread:
[INDEX] OnePlus One Resources Compilation Roll-Up
Transmitted via Bacon

Hi there, first of all, thanks. I am having a problem where after I disabled the capacitive buttons (Step 2) the power and volume buttons are not working. Thanks in advance.

You know how to enable menu key also?
Verstuurd vanaf mijn Nexus 7 met Tapatalk

Yes any chance of getting home button long press as search? Default is the menu button doing this.

Its not working bro
Tried and followed your steps , disabling capacitive keys works but enabling on screen keys not working even after changing build.prop , also i read in some post that enabling on screen key mod will not work in cm roms is that true can any one confirm me?
i am using following rom its CM12
http://forum.xda-developers.com/oneplus-one/development/devrom-cm12-scheduled-builds-t2938372
its very stable didnt experience any glitch till now , multi user and guest account works , all the other features are working too, try it out friends.

Pure awesomeness, many thanks for this guide. I'm back to my comfort zone, onscreen for me is just more intuitive.?

BTW, how to bring back the capacitive lights? I tried to remove the script at /etc/init.d and it only bootloops after reboot.
Edit: Nvm, found it, re-flashing the ROM brings back all to the default behavior including the capacitive backlights.

kmakiki said:
3.) Turn off the capacitve back lights
- Reboot into custom recovery and flash noSoftKey.zip file you downloaded earlier.
- Reboot.
That should do it! You should now have software buttons and your hardware buttons should seemingly not exist!
Any questions or comments, please leave them here.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
For some reason this step isn't working for me. I tried wiping cache/dalvik and it didn't fix anything

Can anyone give a screenshot of the on-screen buttons?

Is this possible to do in hydrogen OS? I love that rom, but i switch back since there is no option to turn off hardwer keys and enable software key in system?
Sent from my A0001 using Tapatalk

How to add volume button onscreen by editing buid.prop

Change Menu Key

Looking for a way to change the hw keys to the behaviour I had on my S4.
Menu - > Menu
Menu long press -> Search
Home long press -> Tasks
Did someone stuble over a mod for this? Neither Wanam nor Gravity do the trick.

daniello8 said:
Looking for a way to change the hw keys to the behaviour I had on my S4.
Menu - > Menu
Menu long press -> Search
Home long press -> Tasks
Did someone stuble over a mod for this? Neither Wanam nor Gravity do the trick.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Give Alliance Rom 5.5 by @Goldie a try, it let's you customize all the buttons, and it is a great t.w. rom as well.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=51880570
SM-G900W8, 0x1

ragz said:
Give Alliance Rom 5.5 by @Goldie a try, it let's you customize all the buttons, and it is a great t.w. rom as well.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=51880570
SM-G900W8, 0x1
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks .. but I'm on Neat Rom due to the good instructions on how to install the modded Rom without tripping knox.

LOS 14.1 - Swap hardware (capacitive) buttons without Xposed+Gravity Box?

Hello there,
As of now, Xposed is still not supported in LOS 14.1 as stated by the person maintaining it in this recent post. Is there a way to make the hardware buttons operate inverted? Right now the left button is "BACK" and the right button is "RECENTS" without any way to change it directly from the settings menu.
I have tried editing the file
Code:
/system/usr/keylayout/Generic.kl
directly from the TWRP terminal using VI, in the following entries:
Code:
key 139 MENU --> key 139 BACK
key 158 BACK --> key 158 MENU
But even after rebooting, the changes didn't happen. I checked the Generic.kl file and the changes persisted but no change whatsoever. Has anyone tried ButtonMapper ?? The pro version allows changing the button mapping but it seems like a temporal solution rather than a permanent, more elegant one.
Thanks for any help provided!

Flogisto said:
Hello there,
As of now, Xposed is still not supported in LOS 14.1 as stated by the person maintaining it in this recent post. Is there a way to make the hardware buttons operate inverted? Right now the left button is "BACK" and the right button is "RECENTS" without any way to change it directly from the settings menu.
I have tried editing the file
Code:
/system/usr/keylayout/Generic.kl
directly from the TWRP terminal using VI, in the following entries:
Code:
key 139 MENU --> key 139 BACK
key 158 BACK --> key 158 MENU
But even after rebooting, the changes didn't happen. I checked the Generic.kl file and the changes persisted but no change whatsoever. Has anyone tried ButtonMapper ?? The pro version allows changing the button mapping but it seems like a temporal solution rather than a permanent, more elegant one.
Thanks for any help provided!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The free version allows swapping back and recents. It doesn't require root and is less intrusive than using xposed.

flar2 said:
The free version allows swapping back and recents. It doesn't require root and is less intrusive than using xposed.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The free version doesn't allow it. Just wanted to confirm if anyone tried it and does it work properly?
Thanks for the reply!

Flogisto said:
The free version doesn't allow it. Just wanted to confirm if anyone tried it and does it work properly?
Thanks for the reply!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You are COMPLETELY wrong, Free version Does allow Swap of the hardware keys
Just toggle when it say " Swap Back and Recents " ,will stick at boot ,but will needs to be reenable when dirty flash a new build. Been using since the first LineageOS build.

DrakenFX said:
You are COMPLETELY wrong, Free version Does allow Swap of the hardware keys
Just toggle when it say " Swap Back and Recents " ,will stick at boot ,but will needs to be reenable when dirty flash a new build. Been using since the first LineageOS build.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You are COMPLETELY right, my bad! Thanks for the tip and to @flar2 as well. I completely missed that option. Thanks for your work with LOS 14.1!

DrakenFX said:
You are COMPLETELY wrong, Free version Does allow Swap of the hardware keys
Just toggle when it say " Swap Back and Recents " ,will stick at boot ,but will needs to be reenable when dirty flash a new build. Been using since the first LineageOS build.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Just in case, this has been posted, I can confirm it works just fine. POST. The difference is that @XblackdemonX edited the Synpatics.kl file instead of Generic.kl.

[Q] enable the softkeys

Redmi Note 2, Android 5.0.2, MIUI 9.6
Need to enable original soft keys. I`ve managed to edit build.prop (qemu.hw.mainkeys=0) from TWRP terminal and sed command. Keys showed BUT don`t response.
I`ve noticed a new menu option in Settings (can`t be not quite accurate, coz I have a translation enabled) - System and Device -> Advanced -> Buttons and gestures -> Screen buttons -> Change buttons positions. And if I change positions, it changed. But buttons are stil not responding.
Are there any MORE options in build.prop, that blocks it?
UPD:
[How To] Disable Capacitative Keys and Enable Soft Keys
Just in case anyone might find this useful, I've put together the instructions I found whilst trying to do this. Finally I can take photos without accidentally bringing up the Menu or closing the Camera App! First time I've ever posted here, so be kind! This works in CM11 M6 on Samsung Galaxy...
forums.androidcentral.com
I`ve found some article, that point to /system/usr/keylayout/ directory and need to comment key 139 and key 158. But there were no such filename from article. So I`ve just tried to edit Generic.kl and It doesn`t work.