This is how to disable capacitive buttons & Add on-screen softkeys

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conan1600

Senior Member
Jan 9, 2011
610
209
There is still for the work that needs to be done on this. When you disable the capacitive touch buttons with this method they will still register a touch when you're in a full screen video. For instance when I am full screen on YouTube and I touch the back capacitive button the you tube nav bar will pop up as if I have made a screen touch. While not nearly as annoying as actually going back or opening recents it is still annoying. I would like to be able to fully disable the capacitive touch buttons as if they did not exist.
 

hasenbein1966

Senior Member
Aug 9, 2011
1,129
337
Better than LMT is GMD Gesture Control.

With LMT, you always need 2 steps: 1) Fire up the pie menu, 2) choose an action.

With Gesture Control, you just make one quick screen gesture. Much more ergonomic.

Has anyone tested yet whether GMD Gesture Control works without issues on one of the Pro tabs?
 

digitalrelic

Senior Member
Nov 13, 2012
93
31
Better than LMT is GMD Gesture Control.

With LMT, you always need 2 steps: 1) Fire up the pie menu, 2) choose an action.

With Gesture Control, you just make one quick screen gesture. Much more ergonomic.

Has anyone tested yet whether GMD Gesture Control works without issues on one of the Pro tabs?

You actually don't have to wait for the pie menu to show up with LMT. You can just swipe your finger to where you anticipate the button to show up and the command will go through.
 

bbrrii

Senior Member
Aug 11, 2006
107
68
Cagayan de Oro City
Simply navigate to Settings > Device > Display > Touch key light duration, and switch the setting to "Always off"

I cant find this option on my tab s 8.4.. any alternate way to do it?
 

Snoutfoo

Member
May 10, 2014
6
0
Disabling extra keys om CM10.2/Hellybean

To add to that, disabling 158 doesn't change button behavior. And, yes, I am mounted r/w. Anyone know anything about this on CM?

From my Pro Tab 8.4

I had another file in that directory, named sec_*.kl (can't remember the exact name now) with my S2's four buttons named in it. I commented them out too (in the sec_* file) just for the heck of it, and after reboot the buttons-area is now completely dead, just as I want it. Now I can hold the device in one hand, or in landscape mode, without a thumb or other finger part always hitting one of those annoying 'hardkeys'.

-Snout
 

TheEvilVirus

Senior Member
Mar 19, 2008
111
12
How can we do this with CM12, android 5 lollipop? No option unfortunately in the menu to disable the button backlight.
 

steve2711

Senior Member
Feb 2, 2010
173
42
Vero Beach Fl.
Useing Pie instead of capative buttons.

In another thread, I nonchalantly posted that I was able to disable the capacitive buttons on my 8.4 and enable on-screen softkey menu buttons. This, surprisingly, has garnered a lot of PMs and requests for how I was able to achieve this, so I've decided to write up a quick guide on how I was able to do it.

*Root required*

1.) Download & install LMT launcher HERE. This allows you to use the PIE on-screen menu navigation softkeys. I love it even moreso than the stock Android softkeys. Here's what my 8.4 looks like with LMT enabled:

2dme39h.jpg

(The PIE navigation only show up if you swipe your finger from the side of the screen)

2.) Configure LMT as you deem necessary. It works right off the bat, but you'll probably want to mess around with the settings to your taste preference.




Now to disabling your capacitive buttons:

3.) Download a file explorer/manager (I used Root Explorer)

4.) Using Root Explorer, navigate to System > usr > keylayout, and open Generic.kl in Text Editor. Say "Yes" when asked if you'd like to remount the file as read-write.

5.) Once the file has been opened, navigate to key 158 (back) and key 254 (app_switch), and put a "#" sign in front of each line. Save the file. After rebooting, your back and appswitch capacitive keys will no longer function. I personally left the home button enabled, but you can find the home button key in that same Generic.kl file and disable it if that's what you'd like to do.

6.) Next up is disabling the backlight on your capacitive keys, which was waayyy easier than I ever thought it would be. Simply navigate to Settings > Device > Display > Touch key light duration, and switch the setting to "Always off". Wah lah! Now your capacitive keys are disabled and their backlights no longer light up.


That's it! You are now all set to go with disabled capacitive buttons/backlights and have a handy on-screen PIE navigation menu. No more accidentally bumping the back button in the middle of a game. No more distracting backlights annoying you when you're trying to watch Netflix.



There's also a way to add the stock android style soft-menu buttons, but I was only able to make it work in portrait mode, not landscape. I prefer LMT anyways. However, if anyone wants to add the stock android soft-menu buttons, let me know. I can always add it to this guide.

Hey-I just wanted to say that all of your instructions work great. I would add one thing though. If one is already using Xposed installer and Gravity box-It may be easier to go into Gravity box and simply activate Pie Controls, rather than downloading LMT launcher. Just a thought. I have done this and all works very well.
 

dudes456

Member
Sep 24, 2010
13
4
Basingstoke
www.change.org
In another thread, I nonchalantly posted that I was able to disable the capacitive buttons on my 8.4 and enable on-screen softkey menu buttons. This, surprisingly, has garnered a lot of PMs and requests for how I was able to achieve this, so I've decided to write up a quick guide on how I was able to do it.

*Root required*

1.) Download & install LMT launcher HERE. This allows you to use the PIE on-screen menu navigation softkeys. I love it even moreso than the stock Android softkeys. Here's what my 8.4 looks like with LMT enabled:

2dme39h.jpg

(The PIE navigation only show up if you swipe your finger from the side of the screen)

2.) Configure LMT as you deem necessary. It works right off the bat, but you'll probably want to mess around with the settings to your taste preference.




Now to disabling your capacitive buttons:

3.) Download a file explorer/manager (I used Root Explorer)

4.) Using Root Explorer, navigate to System > usr > keylayout, and open Generic.kl in Text Editor. Say "Yes" when asked if you'd like to remount the file as read-write.

5.) Once the file has been opened, navigate to key 158 (back) and key 254 (app_switch), and put a "#" sign in front of each line. Save the file. After rebooting, your back and appswitch capacitive keys will no longer function. I personally left the home button enabled, but you can find the home button key in that same Generic.kl file and disable it if that's what you'd like to do.

6.) Next up is disabling the backlight on your capacitive keys, which was waayyy easier than I ever thought it would be. Simply navigate to Settings > Device > Display > Touch key light duration, and switch the setting to "Always off". Wah lah! Now your capacitive keys are disabled and their backlights no longer light up.


That's it! You are now all set to go with disabled capacitive buttons/backlights and have a handy on-screen PIE navigation menu. No more accidentally bumping the back button in the middle of a game. No more distracting backlights annoying you when you're trying to watch Netflix.



There's also a way to add the stock android style soft-menu buttons, but I was only able to make it work in portrait mode, not landscape. I prefer LMT anyways. However, if anyone wants to add the stock android soft-menu buttons, let me know. I can always add it to this guide.

Hey man, great post. can you update with the way to add the standard Google Buttons? Thanks a lot!
 

djb007.96

New member
Aug 7, 2015
2
0
calgary
In cm12.1 on my tab s ,8.4 you can just go into settings - buttons and toggle the stock Android ones on and this is also supposed to disable the annoying backwards samsung ones ? but it doesn't keep them disabled very well. So I had to go into system - usr - keylayout and open the file 'sec_touchkey.kl and then add a # in front of 158 and 254 which in my case where the only 2 in the list.

This means the home button still works......

Hope this helps!
 

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    In another thread, I nonchalantly posted that I was able to disable the capacitive buttons on my 8.4 and enable on-screen softkey menu buttons. This, surprisingly, has garnered a lot of PMs and requests for how I was able to achieve this, so I've decided to write up a quick guide on how I was able to do it.

    *Root required*

    1.) Download & install LMT launcher HERE. This allows you to use the PIE on-screen menu navigation softkeys. I love it even moreso than the stock Android softkeys. Here's what my 8.4 looks like with LMT enabled:

    2dme39h.jpg

    (The PIE navigation only show up if you swipe your finger from the side of the screen)

    2.) Configure LMT as you deem necessary. It works right off the bat, but you'll probably want to mess around with the settings to your taste preference.




    Now to disabling your capacitive buttons:

    3.) Download a file explorer/manager (I used Root Explorer)

    4.) Using Root Explorer, navigate to System > usr > keylayout, and open Generic.kl in Text Editor. Say "Yes" when asked if you'd like to remount the file as read-write.

    5.) Once the file has been opened, navigate to key 158 (back) and key 254 (app_switch), and put a "#" sign in front of each line. Save the file. After rebooting, your back and appswitch capacitive keys will no longer function. I personally left the home button enabled, but you can find the home button key in that same Generic.kl file and disable it if that's what you'd like to do.

    6.) Next up is disabling the backlight on your capacitive keys, which was waayyy easier than I ever thought it would be. Simply navigate to Settings > Device > Display > Touch key light duration, and switch the setting to "Always off". Wah lah! Now your capacitive keys are disabled and their backlights no longer light up.


    That's it! You are now all set to go with disabled capacitive buttons/backlights and have a handy on-screen PIE navigation menu. No more accidentally bumping the back button in the middle of a game. No more distracting backlights annoying you when you're trying to watch Netflix.



    There's also a way to add the stock android style soft-menu buttons, but I was only able to make it work in portrait mode, not landscape. I prefer LMT anyways. However, if anyone wants to add the stock android soft-menu buttons, let me know. I can always add it to this guide.
    1
    Awesome

    Thank you soo much for this thread!

    I was looking on how to do it on this tablet safely

    I messaged you :3

    Thank you.
    I will post my results
    1
    Gravity box will work with touchwiz?

    Sent from my SM-T320 using Tapatalk

    Some features work fine. Pie controls work well and it will disable home, back, and recent cap buttons. Enabling nav bar only works in portrait. I use the pie controls from gravity box on mine with system info disabled and have them set to bottom and left side activation as enabling right side interferes with multi window pull out set to 2 px activation. I use the capacitive button disable from this tutorial so that my home button will work.
    1
    I'm curious as to why one would want to disable the capacitve buttons?

    I use a tablet almost exclusively in landscape mode, this causes me no end of accidental touches to back and recent capacitive buttons while I'm surfing the web or playing a game which after 3 or 300 times in a few minutes is enough to make baby Jebus cry. I used to think cap buttons were a good idea as well until I started using a tablet in landscape. God awful sir. God awful.
    1
    To add to that, disabling 158 doesn't change button behavior. And, yes, I am mounted r/w. Anyone know anything about this on CM?

    From my Pro Tab 8.4

    Sorry, no idea how to change it on CM as I'm running stock. Maybe crpalmer would have an answer?