Multimedia keys don't work

Multimedia keyboard keys in kicksecure do not work: sound, display brightness, etc.
I remember for sure that they worked in the live cd version of kicksecure, but now they are not functioning in the installed system. How can this be fixed?

You’re reporting that multimedia keys (volume, display brightness, etc.) worked in the Kicksecure Live CD but do not work after installation? Uhh what version is the Live CD on?

labwc states it uses built-in default keybindings for multimedia keys according to the documentation but, I’m not familiar with labwc so bare with me as I try to help or attempt to.

Huh I wonder if amixer (from alsa-utils), pactl (from pulseaudio-utils or pipewire-pulse), or brightnessctl is missing on Kicksecure?

Can you check if those packages are missing and if they exist in the Live version you stated it worked before you installed?

apt list --installed 2>/dev/null | grep -E 'alsa-utils|brightnessctl|pulseaudio|pipewire'

apt list --installed | grep pipewire

It might be worthwhile to look at the default labwc configuration in Kicksecure:

(This is a tweaked version of the configuration for labwc in upstream lxqt-wayland-session.)

Kicksecure uses Pipewire and pipewire-pulse to provide audio, amixer might not be present. That’s what the labwc configuration is looking for, so that may well be the problem.

brightnessctl (and most other brightness utilities) does not work on Kicksecure if you have user-sysmaint-split installed (it’s installed by default). These utilities have to run code as root to reconfigure the backlight, and user-sysmaint-split blocks this. A Kicksecure-specific screen brightness utility is provided which works around this limitation, and our labwc configuration is set to use it:

    <keybind key="XF86_MonBrightnessUp">
      <action name="Execute" command="/usr/bin/backlight-tool-dist-agent inc" />
    </keybind>
    <keybind key="XF86_MonBrightnessDown">
      <action name="Execute" command="/usr/bin/backlight-tool-dist-agent dec" />
    </keybind>

If the keys aren’t working, try configuring the backlight by clicking on the Start Menu → Preferences → Backlight Tool. If you can configure the backlight with this, it’s possible your system’s brightness keys are sending a weird keycode that labwc doesn’t recognize. If you can’t configure the backlight, either your hardware doesn’t support it, or there may be a bug in Kicksecure’s backlight tool.

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I am using the root version of the system. I have disabled user-sysmaint-split (via the grub menu option)

The Backlight Tool successfully changes the backlight.
The labwc settings that I changed: added a second layout and alt+shift to switch the language

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the problem was in the reset labwc/rc.xml file
I restored the standard file and it worked

The only thing that doesn’t work is the function to turn off the backlight of the laptop keyboard (F8) and the button to switch to the second screen (F7).

Moved here: