Slim Aluminum Apple Keyboard with Ubuntu Hardy Heron
April 30, 2008
I use the new Apple Slim USB Keyboard with my linux box because I love the way it feels. The new version of Ubuntu isn’t as fond of it as I am.
Number Pad
If you press the ‘clear’ button on the Apple keyboard, it functions as the NumLock button would on a regular PC keyboard. It turns NumLock on, but then part of the alpha portion of the keyboard works like the number pad — as it would on a compact laptop or PowerBook keyboard. Once engaged, pressing ‘clear’ again does not switch it off! Since Gnome stores the state of NumLock between sessions, rebooting doesn’t help. You’re able to log in, but once your session is loaded, NumLock is turned right back on.
If it’s stuck in the on position, you can tap the F6 key twice to turn it back off — when the layout is changed by the ‘clear’ key, F6 becomes the new NumLock. It does this because it assumes you are using a PowerBook style keyboard with no dedicated number pad. This is a kernel bug introduced by a recent patch to the Mac keyboard driver.
To get your number pad working normally, you can set a couple of compatibility options.
- Select System > Preferences > Keyboard
- Go to the Layouts tab
- Click Layout Options…
- Under Miscellaneous compatibility options, select both Default numeric keypad keys and Numeric keypad keys work as with Mac
Unfortunately, ‘clear’ will still cause the funky behavior described above. Until this bug is patched, just remember you can tap F6 twice if NumLock is stuck on.
Function Keys
Another issue is that the function keys no longer work normally. With Ubuntu Gutsy, you were able to use the function keys just like a PC keyboard. With the newer kernel, you need to hold the ‘fn’ key and then hit the desired function key.
The NumLock / keypad bug is logged here on launchpad, as well as a lengthy discussion about this particular keyboard’s issues with Ubuntu at this time. Check it out for more details and geekery.
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May 17th, 2008 at 3:29 pm
Ah, thanks so much for this posting. That F6-F6 trick was exactly what I was looking for. It was so frustrating being stuck in gnome without a keyboard - I was switching in and out of userspace with my mouse, and loading fluxbox up to find out what was wrong. What a pain. I can’t understand why a monkey has been put in charge of the ubuntu kernel config for this keyboard.
May 27th, 2008 at 7:29 pm
Thanks so much for the info, this was a lifesaver. Do you have any idea which key is the printscreen key? Thanks a lot in advance.
June 6th, 2008 at 11:53 am
Great tips, thank you for the insight as this issue has pissed me off since last night
it’s a shame they dont have the Fn feature reversed option as in OSX yet, and i couldn’t seem to use pb_fnmode to change it as the file does not exist for /sys/module/hidusb/parameters/pb_fnmode so hopefully they will resolve it soon as having the F keys defaulted is quite essential imho!
June 20th, 2008 at 7:13 am
[...] The solution is here! [...]
June 28th, 2008 at 7:13 am
F6!!!! you just saved me from snapping this k/b in half, thanks!
July 24th, 2008 at 6:49 pm
Thanks dude, I started reading the thread in the support site and was getting worried this wasn’t going to end well. I did one more google search and found your page. Kudos.
July 31st, 2008 at 3:37 pm
my equal sign does not work, anyone else have this problem?
August 2nd, 2008 at 11:21 pm
Fantastic
August 6th, 2008 at 4:17 am
Finally!! Thank you very much!! This problem almost devastated me.
August 24th, 2008 at 9:45 am
My equals works fine. TYVM site owner for posting this, as I thot I permanently borked my shiny new keyboard. I entered that mode and thot it was over!