updating for anyone who might be interested.
in order to change the mapping of real RF keys, I followed these two excellent posts:
https://forum.kodi.tv/showthread.php?tid=278842&pid=2655207#pid2655207
https://forum.kodi.tv/showthread.php?tid=278842&pid=2633645#pid2633645
which includes:
- installing the system tools from coreelec’s repo
- running “systemctl stop kodi”
- running “evtest” and selecting the proper device to monitor key presses from.
- clicking the desired buttons and getting the codes.
- creating .config/hwdb.d/60-keyboard.hwdb, filling the wanted keys and running the udev refresh commands according to the post above.
- mapping the selected keys in keyboard.xml.
- starting kodi again.