diff --git a/backends/x/event.go b/backends/x/event.go
index 76a5e61..e306795 100644
--- a/backends/x/event.go
+++ b/backends/x/event.go
@@ -59,8 +59,17 @@ func (backend *Backend) handleKeyPress (
 	event xevent.KeyPressEvent,
 ) {
 	keyEvent := *event.KeyPressEvent
-	keySym   := keybind.KeysymGet(backend.connection, keyEvent.Detail, 0)
-	// TODO: convert to keysym and then to a button value
+	keysym   := keybind.KeysymGet(backend.connection, keyEvent.Detail, 0)
+	backend.channel <- stone.EventPress(keysymToButtonCode(keysym))
+}
+
+func (backend *Backend) handleKeyRelease (
+	connection *xgbutil.XUtil,
+	event xevent.KeyPressEvent,
+) {
+	keyEvent := *event.KeyPressEvent
+	keysym   := keybind.KeysymGet(backend.connection, keyEvent.Detail, 0)
+	backend.channel <- stone.EventRelease(keysymToButtonCode(keysym))
 }
 
 func (backend *Backend) handleMotionNotify (
diff --git a/backends/x/unicode.go b/backends/x/unicode.go
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..1c0445f
--- /dev/null
+++ b/backends/x/unicode.go
@@ -0,0 +1,83 @@
+package x
+
+import "github.com/jezek/xgb/xproto"
+import "git.tebibyte.media/sashakoshka/stone"
+
+// when making changes to this file, look at keysymdef.h
+
+var buttonCodeTable = map[xproto.Keysym] stone.Button {
+	0xFFFFFF: stone.ButtonUnknown,
+
+	0xFF63: stone.KeyInsert,
+	0xFF67: stone.KeyMenu,
+	0xFF61: stone.KeyPrintScreen,
+	0xFF6B: stone.KeyPause,
+	0xFFE5: stone.KeyCapsLock,
+	0xFF14: stone.KeyScrollLock,
+	0xFF7F: stone.KeyNumLock,
+	0xFF08: stone.KeyBackspace,
+	0xFF09: stone.KeyTab,
+	0xFF0A: stone.KeyEnter,
+	0xFF1B: stone.KeyEscape,
+	
+	0xFF52: stone.KeyUp,
+	0xFF54: stone.KeyDown,
+	0xFF51: stone.KeyLeft,
+	0xFF53: stone.KeyRight,
+	0xFF55: stone.KeyPageUp,
+	0xFF56: stone.KeyPageDown,
+	0xFF50: stone.KeyHome,
+	0xFF57: stone.KeyEnd,
+	
+	0xFFE1: stone.KeyLeftShift,
+	0xFFE2: stone.KeyRightShift,
+	0xFFE3: stone.KeyLeftControl,
+	0xFFE4: stone.KeyRightControl,
+	0xFFE9: stone.KeyLeftAlt,
+	0xFFEA: stone.KeyRightAlt,
+	0xFFEB: stone.KeyLeftSuper,
+	0xFFEC: stone.KeyRightSuper,
+	
+	0xFFFF: stone.KeyDelete,
+	
+	0xFFBE: stone.KeyF1,
+	0xFFBF: stone.KeyF2,
+	0xFFC0: stone.KeyF3,
+	0xFFC1: stone.KeyF4,
+	0xFFC2: stone.KeyF5,
+	0xFFC3: stone.KeyF6,
+	0xFFC4: stone.KeyF7,
+	0xFFC5: stone.KeyF8,
+	0xFFC6: stone.KeyF9,
+	0xFFC7: stone.KeyF10,
+	0xFFC8: stone.KeyF11,
+	0xFFC9: stone.KeyF12,
+}
+
+func keysymToButtonCode (keysym xproto.Keysym) (button stone.Button) {
+	var isControl bool
+	button, isControl = buttonCodeTable[keysym]
+	if isControl { return }
+
+	// some X keysyms have a single bit set to 1 here. i believe this is to
+	// prevent conflicts with existing codes. if we mask it off we will get
+	// a correct utf-32 code point.
+	if keysym & 0xF000000 == 0x1000000 {
+		button = stone.Button(keysym & 0x0111111)
+		return
+	}
+
+	// X keysyms like 0xFF.. or 0xFE.. are non-character keys. we already
+	// resolve these by looking them up in the button code table, so if any
+	// that we don't support pop up we should just silence them as it is
+	// effectively garbage data as far as stone applications are concerned.
+	if (keysym >> 8) == 0xFF || (keysym >> 8) == 0xFE {
+		button = stone.ButtonUnknown
+		return
+	}
+
+	// if none of these things happened, we can safely (i think) assume that
+	// the keysym is an exact utf-32 code point.
+	button = stone.Button(keysym)
+	return
+}
diff --git a/input.go b/input.go
index 438f3b0..d18ea7b 100644
--- a/input.go
+++ b/input.go
@@ -56,29 +56,16 @@ const (
 	MouseButtonBack        Button = MouseButton8
 	MouseButtonForward     Button = MouseButton9
 	
-	KeyF1  Button = 136
-	KeyF2  Button = 137
-	KeyF3  Button = 138
-	KeyF4  Button = 139
-	KeyF5  Button = 140
-	KeyF6  Button = 141
-	KeyF7  Button = 142
-	KeyF8  Button = 143
-	KeyF9  Button = 144
-	KeyF10 Button = 145
-	KeyF11 Button = 146
-	KeyF12 Button = 147
-	KeyF13 Button = 148
-	KeyF14 Button = 149
-	KeyF15 Button = 150
-	KeyF16 Button = 151
-	KeyF17 Button = 152
-	KeyF18 Button = 153
-	KeyF19 Button = 154
-	KeyF20 Button = 155
-	KeyF21 Button = 156
-	KeyF22 Button = 157
-	KeyF23 Button = 158
-	KeyF24 Button = 159
-	KeyF25 Button = 28
+	KeyF1  Button = 144
+	KeyF2  Button = 145
+	KeyF3  Button = 146
+	KeyF4  Button = 147
+	KeyF5  Button = 148
+	KeyF6  Button = 149
+	KeyF7  Button = 150
+	KeyF8  Button = 151
+	KeyF9  Button = 152
+	KeyF10 Button = 153
+	KeyF11 Button = 154
+	KeyF12 Button = 155
 )