Apple Firmware Update For Magic Keyboards Decides To Change The Fn Key

[CommunityMember]

Speaking of keyboard quirks, I have two Microsoft Ergonomic Keyboards which behave very strangely on only OpenSUSE 15.0's Grub2

Grub2's support for HID specific quirks is, in my recollection, limited. Does the keyboard work in the bios/uefi menus? And if so, is the USB keyboard support set to legacy (apparently sometimes required for some USB keyboards to sort of function).

[CochainComplex]

skeevy420 according to your ROBUST statments I'm sure you are aware of all that exploding boats. Therefore it is necessary to be CompTIA Certified so that you dont daisychain to much Firewire 400 device's or they will have TikTok installed. Nobody should be fooled. it is dangerous!

[StarterX4]

Aw i hate keyboards where there's no possibility to switch Fn function mode, so they require to use the Fn in case to use Fx keys, than keyboard-specified like sound volume, brightness, etc.
Lucky, Lenovo laptops have that setting in EFI, so i use Fn key to control these keyboard-specified functions, rather than the Fx keys.

[Templar82]

so why should anyone support Apple products?

It's because apple doesn't want me to do it, that motivates me to try and do it.

[grigi]

Because the devices work and have devices that are supported way longer than other OEMs?

My old dell precision notebook (from 2012) got FW updates last year still. Oh no, the even older 2009 dell notebook even got specre/meltdown patches.

The 2017+ macbooks are all broken, everyone wants the old 2013-2016 models. But one can't sign an iOS app with the older models any more because they require the black-box T2 to sign apps. Black box encryption is always a bad idea...

The point is, they "updated" the keyboard, and changed behaviour in a way that causes it to break on every other platform. Just because.

[andrewjoy]

This is why Fn keys and macro keys etc should be handled keyboard side and only real scancodes (set 2 i believe like 99.9% of products nowadays) should be sent. That way everything is universal , hell you could build a Bluetooth to AT converter and plug the thing into a PC AT and it would bloody work if you did it that way !

Or is apple too cheap to pay for a 1USD micro controller ?

[galad]

My old dell precision notebook (from 2012) got FW updates last year still. Oh no, the even older 2009 dell notebook even got specre/meltdown patches.

The 2017+ macbooks are all broken, everyone wants the old 2013-2016 models. But one can't sign an iOS app with the older models any more because they require the black-box T2 to sign apps. Black box encryption is always a bad idea...

The point is, they "updated" the keyboard, and changed behaviour in a way that causes it to break on every other platform. Just because.

That's not true. I don't know where you read such fake information, but Apple does not require a T2 Mac to sign iOS apps.

[sykobee]

I'm with the viewpoint that I don't care what the keyboard does, as people like different things, but what gets sent to the host system should be universal, so you need no keyboard-specific drivers or hacks just to get standard operation working (i'll allow keyboard specific stuff like RGB backlighting to be out of the standard driver of course). However that makes it harder to use the Fn key just as a standalone key (e.g., in a game, as a specific game action).

The annoying thing about Fn keys on keyboards is that they move the Ctrl-alt-cmd keys one key to the right. You get used to it, but then you have to use a keyboard that has Ctrl-Fn-Alt-Cmd instead of Fn-Ctrl-Alt-Cmd. So much for standardised layouts.

Then there are the people who are still smarting that ctrl isn't to the left of A.

[Guest]

I'm with the viewpoint that I don't care what the keyboard does, as people like different things, but what gets sent to the host system should be universal, so you need no keyboard-specific drivers or hacks just to get standard operation working (i'll allow keyboard specific stuff like RGB backlighting to be out of the standard driver of course). However that makes it harder to use the Fn key just as a standalone key (e.g., in a game, as a specific game action).

The annoying thing about Fn keys on keyboards is that they move the Ctrl-alt-cmd keys one key to the right. You get used to it, but then you have to use a keyboard that has Ctrl-Fn-Alt-Cmd instead of Fn-Ctrl-Alt-Cmd. So much for standardised layouts.

Then there are the people who are still smarting that ctrl isn't to the left of A.

IMHO,.. there's no standard for FN key support, yet. Modifier/control keys like like CTRL,ALT,SHIFT,.. are well defined. The issue with FN is, that lots of keyboards have different layout of fn+x buttons. It would also require some loading of (overridable) fn-layout vector, which would tell, how are fn buttons placed on keyboard physically.

[skeevy420]

The annoying thing about Fn keys on keyboards is that they move the Ctrl-alt-cmd keys one key to the right. You get used to it, but then you have to use a keyboard that has Ctrl-Fn-Alt-Cmd instead of Fn-Ctrl-Alt-Cmd. So much for standardised layouts.

Then there are the people who are still smarting that ctrl isn't to the left of A.

On my keyboard the layout is AltGr-Fn-Menu-Ctrl. The Fn is on the right-hand side unlike an Apple where Fn is on the left hand side.

Ctrl is to the left of Alt or A on the left hand side. It depends on what side of the space bar you're referring to in regards to the facts of that statement.

Ctrl-OS-Alt-Space-AltGr-Fn-Menu-Ctrl

Does anyone else wish space was Ctrl/Alt sized and the layout was closer to:

Ctrl-OS-Alt-???-???-Space-???-???-AltGr-Fn-Menu-Ctrl.

Or make the space bar shift sized and only add two new modifiers --- Ctrl-OS-Alt-???-Space-???-AltGr-Fn-Menu-Ctrl

I know that I'd rather have the four extra modifiers over a big ass space bar.