I received a new Framework 13 recently. I’ve found that the “display switch” key (the fn-F9 key combination) on the keyboard resolves to Super_L+p instead of XF86Display.
What gives? I thought we stopped doing that in the '90s (except Kinesis, but even they’ve since seen the light). Given Framework’s target demographic, this sort of non-configurable setting makes no sense to me.
Furthermore, this kind of hard-coding operates by keycode, so if i remap Super_L to <other>, then the hardcoded combination now resolves to <other>-p. E.g., if i swap Super_L and Alt_L, then the combination produced is now Alt_L+p.
Given that i already use the relevant key combos for switching between frames in my window manager, this key (which i used frequently on my old Thinkpad) is now useless to me. It’s fine, i’ll use a different key combination… but it just rubs me the wrong way every time i look at it.
Okay, rant over.
Framework, if you read this, please reconsider this decision on the next iteration of your keyboards. That and those cursed mixed-height arrow keys…
On the FW13, it’s done in the Embedded Controller, not the keyboard itself. They keyboard just passes the raw matrix over to the mainboard. And since the EC is open source, one can modify it if they want to get into it. People have done other modifications to it. No need for a change in the keyboard itself.
Thanks for this pointer. It took a bit to find, so for posterity, the code in question is in keyboard_customization.c in whatever branch and location applies to your laptop. Search for SCANCODE_F9.
It could very well be due to either or both of the following:
The embedded controller simulates a PS/2 keyboard, and there is no PS/2 scancode for the Display key. Therefore, it would need to use the same HID emulation it uses for the brightness and airplane mode keys (which are also not present in PS/2).
Windows may not support the Display key as presented over HID. I don’t know whether this is true.
If you find an appropriate PS/2 set 2 scancode, you can test it by remapping one of the matrix positions using ectool and the Update Keyboard Matrix host command.