Are Enter Keys Coded Differently using Linux?

Question

I have both an Enter key in my keyboard and another marked "Enter" to the right of the keypad.

Recently, I created a passphrase that was input by pressing the far-right Enter key, which seems to require me to input the passprase with the far-right Enter key.

This has me wondering. Are the two keys encoded differently?

Answer 1

It should have been obvious that the only way there could be a difference in response if if the keycodes were different. The far-right enter key is coded 95 and the normal enter key is coded BD. For the complete keycode system, go to:

http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.netbsd.org/docs/Hardware/Machines/DEC/LK201_large_keycodes.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.netbsd.org/Documentation/Hardware/Machines/DEC/lk201.html&h=292&w=965&sz=66&tbnid=NrYcZig6iMSLLM:&tbnh=37&tbnw=121&prev=/search%3Fq%3Dkeycode%2Bdiagram%26tbm%3Disch%26tbo%3Du&zoom=1&q=keycode+diagram&usg=__FRdrFsVpyvjNtvsDDZTA1t8JLGI=&docid=nIsHpzcBwU5sYM&sa=X&ei=r9DeUeq3Eo-p4APJ_IGoBA&ved=0CEEQ9QEwBg&dur=10175

Answer 2

I'm pretty sure the keys are wired differently in the keyboard, but the question is what happens between the electronics and the passphrase software... there may be a layer somewhere that declares them similar. Then again, you want as little layers as possible for passphrase code in order to make it more secure.

There is a command line program "showkey" that will show what key is pressed. The X11 equivalent is "xev". I can't try them here b/c I only have access to Redhat via ssh at the moment.

In any case, I'm pretty sure it's not a good idea to have a key like that in your passphrase. What if your keyboard breaks and your new keyboard does not have the same key? Better to use the normal exotics
~!@#$%^&*()_+ etc.