The hidden media play/pause/stop keys on the Lenovo ThinkPad L390 Yoga

ThinkPad keyboards were once well known for their great layouts, feel and functionality. This included the media playback control keys.

On the ThinkPad T430, the new chiclet keyboard layout moved the media keys to the function row. Still there, but less convenient to access.

The ThinkPad L390 Yoga doesn’t have any visible function keys for controlling media playback. However, I found that the play/pause and stop buttons are still functional on the up/down arrow keys. Left/right arrow keys act as Home and End keys.

evtest output for play/pause key combination:

Event: time 1714716211.222697, type 4 (EV_MSC), code 4 (MSC_SCAN), value e3
Event: time 1714716211.222697, type 1 (EV_KEY), code 143 (KEY_WAKEUP), value 1
Event: time 1714716211.222697, -------------- SYN_REPORT ------------
Event: time 1714716212.291293, type 4 (EV_MSC), code 4 (MSC_SCAN), value a2
Event: time 1714716212.291293, type 1 (EV_KEY), code 164 (KEY_PLAYPAUSE), value 1
Event: time 1714716212.291293, -------------- SYN_REPORT ------------
Event: time 1714716212.366568, type 4 (EV_MSC), code 4 (MSC_SCAN), value a2
Event: time 1714716212.366568, type 1 (EV_KEY), code 164 (KEY_PLAYPAUSE), value 0
Event: time 1714716212.366568, -------------- SYN_REPORT ------------
Event: time 1714716214.026847, type 4 (EV_MSC), code 4 (MSC_SCAN), value e3
Event: time 1714716214.026847, type 1 (EV_KEY), code 143 (KEY_WAKEUP), value 0
Event: time 1714716214.026847, -------------- SYN_REPORT ------------

evtest output for stop key combination:

Event: time 1714716254.780584, type 4 (EV_MSC), code 4 (MSC_SCAN), value e3
Event: time 1714716254.780584, type 1 (EV_KEY), code 143 (KEY_WAKEUP), value 1
Event: time 1714716254.780584, -------------- SYN_REPORT ------------
Event: time 1714716255.614775, type 4 (EV_MSC), code 4 (MSC_SCAN), value a4
Event: time 1714716255.614775, type 1 (EV_KEY), code 166 (KEY_STOPCD), value 1
Event: time 1714716255.614775, -------------- SYN_REPORT ------------
Event: time 1714716255.658388, type 4 (EV_MSC), code 4 (MSC_SCAN), value a4
Event: time 1714716255.658388, type 1 (EV_KEY), code 166 (KEY_STOPCD), value 0
Event: time 1714716255.658388, -------------- SYN_REPORT ------------
Event: time 1714716256.961601, type 4 (EV_MSC), code 4 (MSC_SCAN), value e3
Event: time 1714716256.961601, type 1 (EV_KEY), code 143 (KEY_WAKEUP), value 0
Event: time 1714716256.961601, -------------- SYN_REPORT ------------

On a very recent laptop, the ThinkPad P14s gen4, the media playback keys seem to be gone. Left/right arrow keys do still work as Home and End keys, though.

If you also miss your media playback control keys on your ThinkPad, then hit that Fn key and give it a go, you might get lucky!