Saturday, May 10, 2008

Apple aluminum keyboard and Ubuntu Linux

I finally picked up a DVM switch to switch my DVI widescreen monitor between my Macbook and my Ubuntu Linux server. It's a Belkin switch with two cables and a little remote clicky button so that you don't need a big bulky switchbox on your desk, it hides down below by your server.

There is only one problem: my beautiful little slimline Apple aluminum keyboard didn't work! I couldn't use alt-F3 to get to screen 3, and none of my letters typed right! Indeed, I got some numbers out of them, but the rest... nada.

A bit of investigation on the Ubuntu forums found the problem. It appears that the Linux kernel included with Ubuntu 8.04 "Hardy Heron" misinterprets the thin aluminum keyboard as an Apple iBook keyboard. Well, my BIOS is set to default to turn the numlock selection on upon system boot so that the number pad works on a regular PC keyboard. But iBooks apparently map the number pad to the main keyboard, since they don't have a number pad (duh!).

Solution: Hit what is the "NumLock" function key on an iBook (F6) *twice* to kick the keyboard out of "iBook keypad mode", and your keyboard then works properly under Ubuntu "Hardy". Except for the function keys. To make the function keys work, you must hold down the Fn key (below F13). Otherwise you get the "special" Apple functions. So to switch to console #1, I hold down control-option-fn-F1 and voila, I'm at the CLI console #1. And so forth and so on.

-- Badtux the Geek Penguin

Posted by BadTux at 5/10/2008 11:01:00 PM
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4 comments:

  1. Distributorcap11/5/08 5:09 PM

    now i know who to call when i need to reboot

    ReplyDelete
  2. Martin Langeland11/5/08 7:29 PM

    Aren't you glad to live in a world where computers make our lives so much easier?
    --ml

    ReplyDelete
  3. Unknown5/6/08 8:20 AM

    Seems that this only partially fixes the behavior of the keyboard.

    After hitting F6 a couple of times, the letter keys do become available, however the numpad still doesn't work. It also seems a bit backwards to have to hold the fn key for some of the F keys but not the rest. Perhaps I'm just not used to the mac way of things though.

    Has anyone seen a way to get this keyboard to behave as most people would expect it to?

    ReplyDelete
  4. Unknown5/6/08 8:43 AM

    Found this thread, it has a pretty exhaustive run-down of the issue.

    http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=570036&page=2

    ReplyDelete

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