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From this article, you will learn how to make Linux (with KDE) recognize special-function keys and how to make them function with all your favorite multimedia applications. Many contemporary desktop and laptop keyboards include multimedia keys (for “Play,” “Mute,” “Volume Up,” and so on), but often these special keys don’t work well with Linux. Recently, I decided it was high time to get the multimedia keys on my laptop to work.

I needed to solve two problems. The first was getting Linux to recognize the (potentially non-standard) keys; the second was getting each key to perform the necessary multimedia function. Fortunately, KDE lets you easily associate keyboard actions with commands, and a tool called ReMoot provides the necessary command set for accessing multimedia applications. In this article, I describehow to activate keyboard and laptop multimedia keys with ReMoot.