Thanks. I followed up on your suggestion. This was indeed the approach to reverse the function key behaviour. Image of what I changed in BIOS:
click on the image for a higher resolution view:
https://thumbs4.imagebam.com/af/2e/dc/ME47OTF_t.jpg](ImageBam)
Now when running alsamixer, I simply press a Fx (function) key and I control aspects of the application.
If instead I wish to access the laptop’s Function keys for display, mic, speaker, airplane mode … etc functionality, I need to first press (and hold down) the Fn key and then press the appropriate function key (ie F1 to F8).