Hey everyone!
I’m loving this new computer a lot, but I have an Fn’ request to make: Any Fn’ chance at getting an Fn’ Fn indicator? The Fn’ key is handy with it’s Fn lock function, but it’s sometimes easy to Fn’ forget how my Fn’ Fn key is going to behave.
If there’s any Fn’ software available for tracking the Fn’ status of my Fn key, I’d appreciate some Fn’ suggestions.
I’ve got to say,
This is Fn’ great!
Though you won’t likely get your Fn’ request soon, you should get a Fn’ award or badge for your post.
And I’m Fn’ serious. My Surface had this, and I couldn’t believe how often I referenced it, since I’d switch modes a lot. I don’t expect a wizard to appear to retroactively supply one on my palmrest (or embedded into the Fn key), but I’ll settle for a sorcerer.
…Or, failing that, a little tray app that changes graphics depending on mode (a lil’ gear or something; nothing gross like a green blob that has a Fn/F1 animation that causes dizziness and vertigo when I press the button; just a small, subtle text toggle).
In all seriousness though, I treat Fn like Alt. it only activates key’s secondary function when pressed otherwise it’s off.
I think this is a BIOS setting you can change
Fn + esc to toggle this
I know. I toggle it a lot though. I’d like to know what button I’m pressing when I press them without experimenting and accidently getting help for using Microsoft Edge.
I know I’m late, but someone get this man a trophy.
Maybe as a free retrofit, they could have the charging led light up on the side that’s not plugged in when fn lock is on.
For some Fn reason (Fedora 35), the state of the Fn lock keeps changing (and I swear I’m not pressing Fn+Esc), so it’s a coin toss every time I press an F key what it’s going to do.
An indicator light would be super Fn useful!
This gives me hope; unless something wonky is happening elsewhere, this suggests that it might be configurable from the OS, which means the state is leaking into someplace that can be addressed, access, possibly queried, and possible written to.
Do you use any other OS with it? Does it happen there as well, or is it only Fedora?
By Grabthar’s Hammer, we need to know!
Glad this has been driving at least a few others crazy, too. I usually just press F11/PRT SCR to test, but some sort of visual indicator would be cool. Does it have to be a hardware light? How hard would it be to put a little software indicator on the top bar to the left of the wifi, battery, etc… indicators?
I’ve been thinking about that as well. A Framework icon in the notification area in Windows (perhaps a torx that changes colours or inverts or whatever) would work nicely, and I’d happily settle for that.
I picked up my device yesterday (gee whizz the packing and shipping was quick!). I am impressed by the quality of the hardware etc. However, the lack of a light showing if the fn lock is on or off is annoying.
Dear Framework team, please make standard, for future keyboards, a little light on the esc/fn lock key to indicate state. Just like on the caps lock key.
For now, The Internet says that for some laptops (i.e. the LG Gram, see https://www.kernel.org/doc/html/latest/admin-guide/laptops/lg-laptop.html) the toggle state is available, for Linux devices, in /sys/. This can then be read to display somehow (apparently also possible on Windows). But I can’t find something equivalent for the Framework. Perhaps an update to the BIOS to expose the state to the OS?
Just saw the Next Level announcement. It was amazing! Lots of things mentioned about keyboards…
…except for one detail…
And an audio mute indicator.
Is there anyway to use the caps indicator light for fn instead? I have caps remapped to ctrl anyway.
Pretty sure that was one of the first ec mods that was made.
Forgive my ignorance, but what is an ec mod and how do find out how to apply it myselfe?
Check this out: Hacking your Framework Laptop's EC for fun and profit :: HowettNET
Though if you don’t know what an ec is you should probably not mess with it.