[Intrepid Alpha 2+] fn key does not work properly on MacBook Air, MacBook Pro

[Paco]

Fn key does not work on macbook air, i've seen something similar with macbook pro 4.1 on launchpad, but as said on that bug list, the keyboard device id is not the same, so their patch/solution cannot work for me.

i suppose the solution is similar

the lsusb -v gives me this device for my keyboard:

Bus 003 Device 006: ID 05ac:820a Apple Computer, Inc.

also, i don't know if important but i've installed pommed 1.16 from ppa's mactel packages, and it does not mention macbook air, then i tried pommed 1.17 from debian etch and it mention macbook air. the two packages doesn't work for me, but maybe there is something to look there as on svn there are versions to 1.19

EDIT: debian sid package is now 1.18, but still not working.

[Paco (nunuxboy)]

after looking more and more on macbook's pro 4.1 problem, i've found the similar fix for the first part, it's to say to have usable FN key:

just write this line in /etc/modprobe.d/options file:

options usbhid quirks=0x05ac:0x0224:0x00000800,0x05ac:0x0225:0x00004800,0x05ac:0x0226:0x00000800

so after reboot, i've been able to use FN+delete correctly.

But still remains some issues:

- F5 and F6 remains F5 and F6 in place of lighting the keyboard
-F1 and F2 send me a nice advertising box for brightness in kde 3, but the brigthness does not change

other Fx keys (mute,play,back,forward,eject,vol+ and vol-) are working.

[Alex Karpenko (alexkarpenko)]

It's slightly different; 0x0223 is the device ID of Macbook Air's ANSI keyboard, so that's where it starts:
options usbhid quirks=0x05ac:0x0223:0x00000800,0x05ac:0x0224:0x00004800,0x05ac:0x0225:0x00000800

The problem with F4, F5 could be an issue with pommed, but I've not been able to confirm...

I've submitted a patch that will fix fn for both macbook air and macbook pro 4.1 keyboards:
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/linux-meta/+bug/207127

[Paco (nunuxboy)]

ok, but can you explain how you get 0x0223 in place of 0x0224 please? it's just for information.

As i don't have wifi here at work, i will test the update of pommed this hight.

[Paco (nunuxboy)]

Found something VERY strange just as i opened my MBA :
screen touches were working!

but stranger:
as i rebooteed, they were not working, so how is it possible? i've found some part of solution:
when the computer boots, it does not work and screen light is set to mex, even if it runs on battery.

but when i disconnect de AC adapter, guidance-power-manager does make the fn keys work.
So 3 "use cases":

- I boot on battery, the plug ac adapter and then only when i disconnect it, it works
- I boot on AC adapter, no keys, then disconnect it, it works
- When i connect AC adapter, fn key never works

Thanks Alex for your already done job :)

[oss_test_launchpad (oss-test-launchpad)]

I confirm strange behaviour of the fn key: If I press fn+F1, Ubuntu opens the help window of the application active (actually, it opens it several times if you press fn+F1 longer than quarter of a second). If you, on the other side, press F1 only (i.e. without fn), some display brightness menu appears. IMHO things should be the other way round. This looks like a real bug.

Testing on a rev. 3 MacBook Pro, trying Ubuntu 8.10 Alpha 2 (fully updated) 64-Bit with the pommed and the gpommed packages installed.

[oss_test_launchpad (oss-test-launchpad)]

The adressed by me directly above has vanished after installing Ubuntu 8.10 Alpha 4.

[Mackenzie Morgan (maco.m)]

"I confirm strange behaviour of the fn key: If I press fn+F1, Ubuntu opens the help window of the application active (actually, it opens it several times if you press fn+F1 longer than quarter of a second). If you, on the other side, press F1 only (i.e. without fn), some display brightness menu appears. IMHO things should be the other way round. This looks like a real bug."

I believe that's the expected behaviour on Apple keyboards. The Fn key is to activate the F* function of the key, while the key is normally whatever icon it says it is. At least, that's how they act with OSX. I could understand wanting to change it though.

---

I'm marking this against hal-info given that adding a usbhid quirk is a workaround.

[oss_test_launchpad (oss-test-launchpad)]

> I believe that's the expected behaviour on Apple keyboards. The Fn key is to activate the F* function of the key, while the key is normally whatever icon it says it is. At least, that's how they act with OSX. I could understand wanting to change it though.

Yes, other things are done the PC way, too (eg Ctrl + C produces "copy", not Apple/Command + C), so IMHO this should be handled consistent.

[Martin Pitt (pitti)]

Can you please do the steps in https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Hotkeys/Troubleshooting to find out how the keymap in hal-info should be done? We need a scan code -> key symbol mapping, e. g. "130 -> brightnessdown". Thanks!

[oss_test_launchpad (oss-test-launchpad)]

Entering **** killall gnome-settings-daemon gnome-power-manager ****.

Entering **** xev | sed -n 's/^.*state \([0-9].*\), keycode *\([0-9]\+\) *\(.*\), .*$/keycode \2 = \3, state = \1/p' **** and pressing Fn+ F2 and then Fn+F1 outputs

----
keycode 36 = (keysym 0xff0d, Return), state = 0x0
keycode 68 = (keysym 0xffbf, F2), state = 0x0
keycode 68 = (keysym 0xffbf, F2), state = 0x0
keycode 67 = (keysym 0xffbe, F1), state = 0x0
keycode 67 = (keysym 0xffbe, F1), state = 0x0
----
.

**** sudo gconf-editor /apps/gnome_settings_daemon/keybindings **** shows three names (help, home, sleep) without a value but no rubbish entries.

Sorry I cannot proceed the troubleshooting procedure any further because from 3.b. in the checklist onwards I don't understand what there is to do.

[Martin Pitt (pitti)]

Sorry, xev output isn't helpful here, we need the input-events output.

[Slick (slick666)]

Thank you for taking the time to report this bug and helping to make Ubuntu better. We are sorry that we do not always have the capacity to look at all reported bugs in a timely manner. There have been many changes in Ubuntu since that time you reported the bug and your problem may have been fixed with some of the updates. If you could test the current Ubuntu development version, this would help us a lot. If you can test it, and it is still an issue, we would appreciate if you could upload updated logs by running apport-collect <bug #>, and any other logs that are relevant for this particular issue.

I've confirmed that this is not a problem on a MacBook 1,1 using the kernel Linux Macintel 2.6.31-20-generic