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Fedora/KDE keyboard woes (feddit.org)

submitted 1 week ago by boring_bohr@feddit.org to c/linux@lemmy.ml

9 comments fedilink hide all child comments

Hello people,

I have been experiencing some trouble with my keyboard lately since moving from Windows to Linux and have yet to find a proper solution. I'm running Fedora 44 (KDE Plasma Desktop), specifically:

Operating System: Fedora Linux 44
KDE Plasma Version: 6.7.1
KDE Frameworks Version: 6.27.0
Qt Version: 6.11.1
Kernel Version: 7.0.13-200.fc44.x86_64 (64-bit)
Graphics Platform: Wayland

The keyboard is a NuPhy Halo75 (ANSI-US layout). It has a toggle to switch between Windows and Mac mode/layout and media keys on the function row; I want the function keys to be function keys by default and media keys when pressing Fn. On Windows, I was using the "US International" layout (primarily for Ä/Ö/Ü on Alt+Q/Y/P and € on Alt+5).

Now, sadly, on Linux, with the keyboard toggle set to Windows and either the "English (US, intl., with dead keys)" or "English (US, intl., AltGr. Unicode combining)" layout enabled, I can type my precious umlauts etc. perfectly fine, but the function keys always act like media keys, no matter what else I press, and I have not found any way to change that behavior. With the toggle set to Mac, the function keys work fine (as do the media keys with Fn), but I can no longer type umlauts (and what even am I without my umlauts). I enabled the "Alt is swapped with Win" keyboard option, since those are swapped on the Mac layout. From the keyboard preview, the key presses seem to be mapped correctly (left and right alt show up as "Meta L/Alt L" and "Meta R/Alt R", respectively, the Windows key shows up as "Super L").

I'm probably just missing some option or something, but I've looked everywhere I could think of (and, considering I am quite new to Linux/KDE, that isn't too many places) without luck. My web searches didn't really turn up anything useful either. So, if anyone has an idea or knows where to look and what to change, that would be highly appreciated! I hope my description of what I'm looking for is understandable.

I apologize for the somewhat long-ish post, but if you read this far, thank you :)

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[–] timroerstroem@feddit.dk 4 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Several possibilities:

As I read the manual Fn+X+F is this keyboard's equivalent of Fn lock, maybe try that.
I believe that AltGr+[ should allow you to type umlauts (at least that works on the GB layout), but I don't know if that will work on mac mode (I have never used a mac keyboard).
Alternatively, you could map the compose key to the print screen key (or some other option you wouldn't mind losing) and then use that (umlauts should be composed using colon+letter, as far as I recall).

[–] boring_bohr@feddit.org 2 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Thank you for your answer!

I had already tried that before but forgot to mention it, in Mac mode it flips the function/media key behavior as expected; in Windows mode, it does nothing (the function keys still always act like media keys, no matter what)
Not quite sure what that would do, maybe I'm misunderstanding you, that seems to just type the angle brackets that are on the layout in Windows mode and nothing in Mac mode
I just tried that, and while it does work, it is very unintuitive to me (instead of just Alt+Q to get an ä, it's now , followed by Shift+' to get a double quote, and then a/o/u to get the umlaut. That would be suboptimal for me at best, but I'll keep it in mind as a backup solution

I'll keep looking for and trying some more options :)

[–] timroerstroem@feddit.dk 2 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Not quite sure what that would do, maybe I’m misunderstanding you, that seems to just type the angle brackets that are on the layout in Windows mode and nothing in Mac mode

Maybe that's a keyboard layout thing that only works with the UK layout then. If I hit AltGr+[ -- maybe I'm misremembering, it could be ] -- then e.g. a, (using a UK layout) I get ä.

As a backup, when Fedora updates to Plasma 6.7 (probably with Fedora 45) you'll have the option of long-pressing keys to get a small alternative letter-popup, which of course still adds a keypress so probably also suboptimal.

[–] boring_bohr@feddit.org 2 points 1 week ago

Oh, I am already on Plasma 6.7, it updated to that maybe around a week ago or so! That long press is at least more streamlined that the Compose key, so that's something! Good to know, thank you a bunch, I didn't know about that feature :)