fn+f8 switch video mode does not work (keycodes scancodes keymaps)

[=JeffH]

thanks for your help folks, this was the info I'd been looking for. I guess my 
various searches had just be lame.

Dimitar helpfully noted..
 >
 > I meant that when you press fn+f8, the hardware actually generates
 > winkey+p. Try running xev and press fn+f8. Here's a bug report
 > indicating that this is indeed the case
 >
 > https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/linux/+bug/539477


Alan also helpfully noted..
 >
 > It doesn't matter what keys you press, but what keycodes the BIOS reports,
 > and whether the BIOS follows Microsoft's suggestion to lie to the OS to
 > make Windows 7 work better and other OS'es work worse:
 >
 > 	http://mjg59.livejournal.com/121851.html


Well, blow me down. Ok then...

So I applied this fix in /etc/default/grub:

   GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet splash acpi_osi=\\\"!Windows 2009\\\""

..from..

   https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/linux/+bug/539477/comments/47

and ran "sudo update-grub", and apparently it's all fixed (for now).


I'm curious though -- why can't this be solved by remapping keycodes, or down 
lower in the X stack ?

Apparently the gnome folk have resorted to putting a fix into 
gnome-settings-daemon, which has the downside of breaking various users' 
keymappings for various applications. (the gnome-settings-daemon fix doesn't 
work for me since I'm on (k)ubuntu 10.04 LTS which they're apparently declining 
to backport this fix to :(

Plus presumably KDE has had to do their own fix, and other desktop regimes may 
also need to (or already have)...

Anybody have pointers to the presumably existing KDE bug for this problem?

thanks,

=JeffH