How to customize Walkman button on Xperia E1

Normally the walkman button on xperia e1 will give you quick access to walkman app, but with a simple hack we can make the walkman button to do something else.

We can customize the walkman button, for example, make the walkman button to immediately open camera mode, open google search, turn on and off the screen, etc.

To do this you're going to need :

1. xperia e1 with root
2. root explorer app
3. cheese burger.....in case you're hungry :)

Step by step how to hack walkman button on xperia e1 :

• open root explorer
• mount as read and write (r/w)
• go to /system/usr/keylayout/
• you should see file named gpio-keys.kl
• long press on gpio-keys.kl and then select "open in text editor"
• scroll down, you should see something like this :

key 391     MP3                     WAKE_DROPPED

• change to this :

key 391     CAMERA            WAKE_DROPPED 

• save and exit
• restart/reboot the phone
• this will make the walkman button to trigger camera mode

If you press long the walkman button, it will trigger camera mode, this is just example, you can change it to whatever you want, you just need to know the keyword.

Here's list of keyword that you can use :

Keyword	What for?
MP3	open walkman app
CAMERA	open camera mode
SEARCH	open google search (google now)
POWER	turn on and off the screen

Noticed there is a WAKE_DROPPED thing, what's the meaning of that? WAKE_DROPPED means it won't trigger when the screen is turn off.

The opposite of WAKE_DROPPED is WAKE, which means, it will trigger the function even if the screen is turn off.

So for example you want to set the walkman button to turn on and off the screen, then use WAKE instead of WAKE_DROPPED, like this :

key 391     POWER            WAKE  

Also noticed that there are other keys on gpio-keys.kl, such as key 115,114,102,528,766, you can change that too, but be careful, always backup the original file.

~ have.fun ~