Unity – Media Keys No Longer Work in Ubuntu 17.10

17.10keyboardmedia-buttonsshortcut-keysunity

Installed a bunch of updates to my Ubuntu 17.10 desktop tonight, and rebooted. Now the media keys at the top of my DELL USB keyboard no longer work.

When I run sudo showkey it looks like the volume knob, play, stop, calculator, etc…, are still sending key down and key up events. But those don't seem to do anything anymore, as if Ubuntu is ignoring all the extra keys. Anyone have ideas?

sudo showkey
...
keycode 140 press # calculator
keycode 140 release
keycode 113 press # mute
keycode 113 release
keycode 166 press # stop
keycode 166 release
keycode 114 press # volume down
keycode 114 release
keycode 115 press # volume up
keycode 115 release

sudo lsusb
...
Bus 001 Device 004: ID 413c:2010 Dell Computer Corp. Keyboard
Bus 001 Device 002: ID 413c:1003 Dell Computer Corp. Keyboard Hub

Best Answer

I had a similar problem with the media keys (mute, play, pause) after installing the Unity interface on a clean 17.10 installation. The media keys worked fine in the login screen and on the Gnome interface desktop.

The post How to find *why* I can't bind some keyboard shortcut (or which app took it)? gave me an insight for a workaround. It seems to be some issue with compiz.

I installed Compiz Config Settings Manager

sudo apt install compizconfig-settings-manager
ccsm

and disabled the plugin Commands. After that the media keys seem to be working fine.

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