@MJ1, might I ask what QMK, Via, and Vial are? I’ve never heard of any of this stuff. I assume they’re protocols by which a GUI configures something about the keyboard, like its layout?
QMK is the open source firmware that runs on the Framework keyboards.
Via is the GUI point-and-click interface that you see when you configure your keyboards using keyboard.frame.work. Via is separate from the QMK firmware on the keyboards, and was made by a different group. QMK just includes what is needed to talk to Via (if you enable it, as FW has done).
Vial is an alternative GUI which offers more features and offline desktop apps, in addition to a web browser GUI. But to use Vial to its full extent, you need to put a version of QMK on your keyboards that’s made to talk to Vial instead of Via.
This is what Vial looks like for configuring a FWL16 ansi/american keyboard layout.
Click for pics of other tabs, QMK features that Via is unable to control. + The Macropad
There are more QMK settings. You can see the sub-tabs for those pages. But you probably get the idea. It has more options than Via. Some that one may be interested in, others, like very fine QMK settings, that many probably don’t need to bother with.
There is also a mousekeys settings tab too, if enabled. You can see that on the macropad below. Looks like when he built the firmware he forgot to enable mousekeys for the ansi keyboard. Framework forgot that too! So the stock firmware that all the keyboards come with from Framework doesn’t currently offer mousekeys. It can be enabled, it takes one line MOUSEKEY_ENABLE = yes in rules.mk in the firmware.
This is all Vial 0.7.1. Current as of now. When a newer major version comes out, you can see features added here get.vial.today/changelog
If you don’t have a Framework 16, I’d be happy to post screenshots of Via for any of the keyboards for comparison.
Each of the keyboards, full, numpad, macropad, use their own RP2040 MCU ( microcontroller unit), on which Framework has placed or “flashed” QMK. The RP2040 was a good choice because it’s well-supported by QMK, very easy to flash, and generally hard to “brick” or put into a state where it no longer works.
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