I digged out my MNT reform (imx8mq) for exhibition purposes and just downloaded the latest system image. I have trouble with setting up the correct keyboard layout. I have a german keyboard with the split space bar and two “ALT” down there. From the manual I understand that this layout was discontinued because it was kind of too esoteric?
I ran “reform-config” and choose the default values. But some keys (especially “<“ and “>”) just don’t work and I can’t find an overview for the correct config. Also when I run “reform-config” and choose the “ALT-GR” should be the middle-right ALT key doesn’t work.
In the gnome layout settings I choose German (no dead keys).
My Reform has the old keyboard with the split spacebar, and it does the same thing with the right Alt key. They’re right next to each other so I didn’t care to fix it.
You can always build the firmware yourself and customize the key map. Look at matrix.h and matrix3.h. I did this on mine to add a power-off shortcut.
Hello @polyseme and welcome to the forum! I have a keyboard with split space bar but different laser engraving on the keys here, so I may be able to help you with your problem but since my key labels differ from yours, I would need you to tell me which row and column of key you are pressing, which result you get and which one you expected.
The original keyboard was designed the way it was due to cost efficiency reasons. It only has two sizes of keycaps. Only later, when MNT was starting to sell more units did it start to make sense to put in the money to have all the keycap sizes which one usually expects on a standard “staggered” keyboard. This is what was done starting from keyboard 3.0 and onward. I cannot tell you why the double alt was replaced by a single key. I personally would’ve liked more keys for my thumb.
The reform-config utility essentially does little more than just calling sudo dpkg-reconfigure keyboard-configuration for you. And that command in turn fills the file /etc/default/keyboard with values. If you tell me how your /etc/default/keyboard looks like, then I can reproduce exactly the settings that you chose when you ran reform-config on my system.
Sorry for the late reply. I had trouble connecting my keyboard 2.0 (with the two alt keys) to my unit via USB because I forgot that in contrast to the later keyboard revisions, that board has no “standalone” mode and requires 3.3 V via its UART connector to power itself.
My main problem is that the > key is not working as expected. I figured out most of the other stuff and start to like the key layout
Fyi, showkey shows the following output: ^[[3~keycode 111 press so the key itself is assigned to the delete key which does not (physically) exist on the keyboard. Do I have to change this with xte or is there another mnt way?
Also, why is alt-tab opening the “open window cycler” but another press on tab is not cycling through the open windows?
Thanks in advance!
Edit: Upgrading the firmware solved the first issue! Seems I got one of the first batches of the MNT reform back in the days And the alt-tab issue is just a gnome issue it seems. So everything solved for now.
