Enabling scrolling using the Microsoft Natural Ergonomic Keyboard 4000's zoom slider on Ubuntu 12.10

For the past two years, I have been using the excellent Microsoft Natural Ergonomic Keyboard 4000 almost exclusively. This keyboard has a zoom slider in between the two main keys section that I just never use. I don't understand what the reasoning behind having a zoom slider instead of a vertical slider, but today we'll fix that for Ubuntu*.

The easy way

Open the /lib/udev/rules.d/95-keymap.rules file:
```
$ sudo nano /lib/udev/rules.d/95-keymap.rules
```

Let's find the line that starts with ENV{ID_VENDOR}=="Microsoft". On my setup, it looks like:

ENV{ID_VENDOR}=="Microsoft", ENV{ID_MODEL_ID}=="00db", RUN+="keymap $name 0xc022d zoomin 0xc022e zoomout"

Replace the zoomin value with pageup and the zoomout value with pagedown:

ENV{ID_VENDOR}=="Microsoft", ENV{ID_MODEL_ID}=="00db", RUN+="keymap $name 0xc022d pageup 0xc022e pagedown"

After restarting your computer, the changes should be applied.

Fallback

If the above steps don't work, there's always the slightly messier way:

Install evtest
```
$ sudo apt-get install evtest
```

We need to manually determine, which input event correspond to our keyboard's slider keys. For this, we will need to iterate the following command:

$ sudo evtest /dev/input/event0

This will run the listener application.

We will press the slider keys until we get any type of response text. Mine looks like:


  Event: time 1352080012.017919, type 4 (EV_MSC), code 4 (MSC_SCAN), value c022d
  Event: time 1352080012.017924, type 1 (EV_KEY), code 104 (KEY_PAGEUP), value 1
  Event: time 1352080012.017948, -------------- SYN_REPORT ------------
  ^[[5~Event: time 1352080012.185892, type 4 (EV_MSC), code 4 (MSC_SCAN), value c022d
  Event: time 1352080012.185894, type 1 (EV_KEY), code 104 (KEY_PAGEUP), value 0
  Event: time 1352080012.185901, -------------- SYN_REPORT ------------

If nothing happens with event0, you need to close evtest and iterate trying different events (event1, event2, etc.) until we get a response. Mine worked with /dev/input/event3.

Let's grab the keys' scan codes:

sudo /lib/udev/keymap -i input/event3

Press the slider keys to grab their key codes:

scan code: 0xC022D   key code: zoomin
scan code: 0xC022E   key code: zoomout

With the appropiate event in hand, we create a custom mapping file:
```
$ sudo nano /lib/udev/keymaps/microsoft-keyboard-4000
```
- Save and close the file (Ctrl+X, Y).
Fill its content with the appropiate mappings:
```
0xC022D pageup
0xC022E pagedown
```
- A complete list of available keymaps can be found here.

Test the setup with:

sudo /lib/udev/keymap input/event5 /lib/udev/keymaps/microsoft-keyboard-4000

If everything went as expected, the final step is to permanently apply the change. For this we open the keymap rules file:
```
sudo nano /lib/udev/rules.d/95-keymap.rules
```
Right before the GOTO="keyboard_end" line, we'll place the following:
```
ENV{ID_VENDOR_ID}=="045e", ENV{ID_MODEL_ID}=="00db", RUN+="keymap $name microsoft-keyboard-4000"
```
- Save and close the file (Ctrl+X, Y).
After restarting your computer, the changes should be applied.

* Heads up! This tip has been tested on Ubuntu 12.10.

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Published

04 November 2012

Enabling scrolling using the Microsoft Natural Ergonomic Keyboard 4000's zoom slider on Ubuntu 12.10

The easy way

Fallback

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