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TICKET ARCHIVE -> Toggle Caps Lock with Unix Command

swalcker - Feb 19, 2008 - 8:59 am

Hi,
I'd like to be able to send a unix command to a lab of panther eMacs. I'm using Apple Remote Desktop 3.2 I would like to send either "turn on cap locks" to all the machines, or "turn off cap locks to all the machines.

Many of my "Send Unix Command" are applescripts (osascript....) so either a unix command or applescript command would be welcome.

Thanks!

ScottW - Feb 22, 2008 - 5:33 am

Scott,

Thanks for using Macosx.com. Aside from the CAPS lock issue, what is your primary objective, what need is there to do this? Sometime it helps to get the bigger picture when resolving issues.

Scott

swalcker - Feb 22, 2008 - 7:42 am

I'm a tech in a school district. We have some elementary schools where primary students are logging in with their a user name and password.

We'd like to be able to turn off caps lock on all of the machines in one stroke (a send unix command in Remote Desktop) so logging in won't take as long.

There are other instances when we'd like to turn off caps lock for the whole lab when they're in a program.

Caps lock on isn't that important. We don't want to change key mapping either.

thanks

ScottW - Feb 23, 2008 - 6:05 am

Scott,

I don't have Panther installed anywhere to test out, but basically, I found a Apple Script that allows you to swap various keys for different keyboards being used. This would just need to be modified to turn off Caps Lock. For example, in Leopard, you can go do System Preference -> Keyword & mouse -> Modifier Keys and then disable Caps Lock button. I don't know if that functionality existed in 10.3.

Check out this link here for the script that they say works on 10.4 and earlier.

http://fall-line.com/2007/07/02/chan...th-applescript

If this script works on Panther as is, then we can probably get it to do the CAPS lock disable/enable thing w/o much effort.

Scott

- Feb 25, 2008 - 9:55 am

Well, on 10.4 & 10.5 the applescript below works to turn off caps... (assuming that Universal Access has "enable access for assistive devices" checked).

I'm having a problem though when I try to send it as a unix command in Apple Remote Desktop. Usually I add osascript as first line in the send unix command window (to tell ARD this is an applescript command). The script works when I run it in the script editor, but doesn't work in Unix command "send"
*************************
Any suggestions to make it work as a "Send Unix Command in ARD?"
thanks
*************************
tell application "System Preferences"
activate
set current pane to pane "com.apple.preference.keyboard"
end tell

tell application "System Events"
tell application process "System Preferences"
get properties

click button "Modifier Keys…" of tab group 1 of window "Keyboard & Mouse"
tell sheet 1 of window "Keyboard & Mouse"
click pop up button 1
click menu item "No Action" of menu 1 of pop up button 1
delay 3

click button "OK"
end tell
end tell
end tell

tell application "System Preferences" to quit