Hello all. So my girlfriend got a Keychron K6 and she absolutely adores it. It’s a small form factor 65% keyboard. We both have Linux based systems and run Manjaro.
Last night, she was going to write an e-mail and noticed that she couldn’t get the @ symbol to work. It’s a nordic layout, so the key combination would usually be Alt Gr (alt button to the right of the spacebar) + 2. I tried messing around with setxkbmap and setting to layout to Norwegian, but to no avail. I’ve plugged the keyboard into my machine, and I get the same result. I tried plugging it into a Windows machine, and the combination didn’t work, but Ctrl+Alt+2 gave me the correct @ symbol in Windows. This combination did not work in Manjaro.
I’m kind of at my wits end because it seems like it’s both a hardware and an OS issue.
Does anyone else with this keyboard or a similar setup know what I can do to fix this? I’ve tried several guides from both the Arch wiki and other sites, but I’m afraid I’m doing more harm than good at this point. Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Looking at the site you linked it does not appear to have an Alt Gr key. Looks like Spacebar, Option?, Fn1, Fn2. I could not find a document with what the functions and options do. Sounds like it is built to ANSI layout.
I have no idea about how Linux deals with this, I have an Anne Pro and it is ANSI default too but setting it in windows to English (UK) or ISO makes the keys work like I expect, swapping the " and @ above the 2 and # near the enter key. Though the Anne Pro does have an Alt Gr key and only 1 FN rather than 2. So I am not sure how you deal with that yourself.
It has a Windows and a Mac mode, toggled by a switch on the side of the keyboard. I would expect the right side Alt to function as the AltGr in Windows mode. Also tried the Mac mode. Didn’t work. The fact that Ctrl+Alt+2 returns the correct key in Windows, kind of makes me think that this is a Linux driver issue, but ofc I am not certain. Changing the layout in KDE settings doesn’t seem to make any difference no matter what I choose. It’s set to standard 105 key layout right now. Norwegian.
Since Windows recognises the Ctrl+Alt+2 input, I’m hoping Manjaro can be configured to understand the same input and for it to act as AltGr.
Yeah Ctrl+Alt+2 has been as thing on windows for ever, not sure why but I think it was because of/for American keyboards and preexisting European ones to work with new modifier keys.
But check if Fn2 changes under windows mode to Alt Gr or if it stays as a function modifier for the whole keyboard.
But yeah if you can figure out how to make Manjaro recognize the boards Crtl+Alt combos then it should work fine there too.
Edit: did some searching. Might be helpful.
Keychron K6 User Manual (yes they use a Google drive link):
No problem, I changed the caps on my Anne Pro and now I don’t have all the sub text telling me the additional functions, so I am always looking up the manual for them. I know a lot of these 60% boards have some odd work arounds. I also have a MagicForce 68 with the same things going on.
