Linux Mint Forums

I've been using an apple keyboard for a while now, and I've quite liked the feel of it. The only difficulty was that the fn-key does the opposite of what it typically does on PC keyboards, allowing the f1-f9 keys to be used, rather than raising the volume or whatnot. The issue and the solution for Ubuntu are described here.

Working on the assumption that Mint was close enough to Ubuntu for it to work, I ran through that procedure, only to have my keyboard stop working when I rebooted. So I'm assuming that this is not the solution for Mint, and am wondering what is.

EDIT: As a temporary solution, the command listed on the above page did work: This resets when the system is rebooted, however, and would like to find a permanent solution.

This isn't any different from Ubuntu. It is rather an upstream Ubuntu bug instead of a Mint problem.

The command you mentioned only changes it once; to have it persist when rebooting, you can put options hid_apple fnmode in /etc/modprobe.d as described.
Note that this description is somewhat confusing. It lists 3 ways to do the same, only separated by small texts "With modprobe.d, With sysfs.conf, With rc.local". You only need to do one of them.

Note that the how-to has not been updated for Ubuntu 11.10, 12.04 or 12.10, so it may not work as described on Mint 12 and later..

AlbertP wrote:This isn't any different from Ubuntu. It is rather an upstream Ubuntu bug instead of a Mint problem.

The command you mentioned only changes it once; to have it persist when rebooting, you can put options hid_apple fnmode in /etc/modprobe.d as described.
Note that this description is somewhat confusing. It lists 3 ways to do the same, only separated by small texts "With modprobe.d, With sysfs.conf, With rc.local". You only need to do one of them.

Note that the how-to has not been updated for Ubuntu 11.10, 12.04 or 12.10, so it may not work as described on Mint 12 and later..

Well, I'd already followed these instructions:

With .conf file (Recommended)
1. Append the configuration line to the file /etc/modprobe.d/hid_apple.conf creating it if necessary:

Code: Select all

$ echo options hid_apple fnmode=2 | sudo tee -a /etc/modprobe.d/hid_apple.conf

2. Notify the hid_apple module to reload its configuration

Code: Select all

$ sudo update-initramfs -u

3. Reboot

Code: Select all

$ sudo reboot

This caused the keyboard to not work at all on reboot. I decided to figure out why before proceeding through the Ubuntu instructions.

Also: I did this on Ubuntu 12.04 and it worked fine, so the instructions are still applicable.

The first command did work, so it accepts the fnmode setting. Probably you made a typo which caused the hid_apple module to read a faulty option (and yes, drivers can fail to load because of options they don't understand).

You can also just use gedit to edit the file instead of using tee in terminal to add it. I think this is the correct way to add the option:

I just checked the command I issued, and it was correct. Trying what you suggested, as soon as I restart.

UPDATE: it worked! Thanks!