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Logitech K830 FN Key Swap Howto

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evandenbroecke
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Joined: 2017-01-06 21:31
Location: Abbotsford, BC Canada

Logitech K830 FN Key Swap Howto

#1 Post by evandenbroecke »

This Howto is for a Logitech Illuminated Living-Room Keyboard (K830), however its not the only device Solaar supports. For a more complete up-to-date list of devices solaar will support, goto https://github.com/pwr/Solaar/blob/mast ... devices.md

Alright as many of you probably already know, the Logitech Illuminated Living-Room Keyboard (K830) is support under linux, but has no support for FN key behaviour swapping. Another words you have to press the 'Fn' to get at all the F keys (F1 - F12). If your an old school fart like me your used to your Function keys and get a little annoyed having to remember press one extra key! Anyways, there is a program called solaar available from the repo but sadly it has no support for this keyboard (k830) to swap the 'fn' key in the default package available from the repo.

After searching for quite a long time you can come up some what frustrated, but don't despair, there is still a way to change the fn key's behaviour! The developer made changed to solaar a little while ago, not sure why these changes haven't made it into the latest version on the repo's but here is how to get the fn-swap function for the k830 keyboards! Its pretty simple... Open a terminal to begin. You do need root access, but will be asked for it when it's needed.

1. Make sure you have git and gcc

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sudo apt-get install git gcc
2. Clone the git tree and enter the tree

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git clone https://github.com/pwr/Solaar.git
cd solaar
EDIT:
From this point on it seem the rest of these instructions are not needed. However you may have to install the solaar app from your repository. From here all you need to do is open solaar from the bin/ folder from the solaar folder you just downloaded. Change the FN function and its set! No need to load the app each time either, once its set, its set.


3. Next run set the system's rules for your device with the install.sh script, read about it in the INSTALL.md (you will be asked for your root/admin password here)

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 ./rules.d/install.sh
4. IMPORTANT: Now you need to remove the Unifying receiver from your USB port and plug it back in.

5. Now you can run the configuration utility, a icon will show up in your message tray if your using Gnome3. Right click it to configure it. (once you turn off the 'Fn Swap' the F1-F12 keys will have there normal behaviour)

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 ./bin/solaar
I'm only writing this because, as I said, the documentation on this subject is very spars and I while it was a simple fix for this keyboard, I am really surprise the issue is not fixed yet in the current repo.

Note: the program does not need to be ran after that, the 'fn key swap' seems to be permanent until you set it back. You may in order to see battery levels however.
Todd Vandenbroecke
evandenbroecke[at]gmail.com

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