Linux 6.14 Adds Support For The Microsoft Copilot Key Found On New Laptops

Written by Michael Larabel in Hardware on 23 January 2025 at 06:56 AM EST. 23 Comments
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Newer laptops pre-loaded with Microsoft Windows have begun adding a "Copilot" key for launching Microsoft's Copilot AI assistant or other "chatbot" software. With the upcoming Linux 6.14 kernel, that key will be mapped out correctly so that user-space software can determine the behavior for handling that key's action on the Linux desktop.

A change made to the atkbd keyboard driver on Linux now maps the F23 key to support the default copilot shortcut action. The patch authored by Lenovo engineer Mark Pearson explains:
"Microsoft defined Meta+Shift+F23 as the Copilot shortcut instead of a dedicated keycode, and multiple vendors have their keyboards emit this sequence in response to users pressing a dedicated "Copilot" key. Unfortunately the default keymap table in atkbd does not map scancode 0x6e (F23) and so the key combination does not work even if userspace is ready to handle it.

Because this behavior is common between multiple vendors and the scancode is currently unused map 0x6e to keycode 193 (KEY_F23) so that key sequence is generated properly."

Now it's up to the Linux desktop environments for determining what to do if the new Copilot key is pressed.

Microsoft Copilot Key


This patch was part of the input updates now merged for the Linux 6.14 kernel. That input update is also notable for bringing more game controller support to the commonly used XPad driver. Newly-added controllers for Linux 6.14 include the QH Electronics controller, the Wooting Two He, Nacon Evol-X Xbox One Controller, Nacon Pro Compact, and the "Xbox 360 Wireless Receiver (Unofficial)" that mimics Microsoft's VendorID but is in fact a clone and not an official Microsoft product/controller.

The input pull request also drops the EVBUG driver.
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