Logitech K120 usb keyboard not working

[milo]

I was under the impression that any generic windows USB keyboard would work with a mac but I just got a Logitech K120 USB wired keyboard and it's not working with my mac. It's a really vanilla keyboard with no extra keys.

When I try and remap the control/option/command keys, it looks like the windows key and the Alt key are seen by the mac as the same thing so they can't be mapped properly. This seems wrong to me since when running windows they would have to send different signals for the two keys, right?

I previously had another windows usb keyboard on this machine and it worked fine. Is it possible that this one model is somehow not mac compatible or could it just be a defective unit?

 

[milo]

Anyone have any ideas? Are there really USB keyboards that aren't mac compatible or is the one I have probably just defective?

 

[padesatka]

My powerPC G5 was hanging on boot because it did not like the Logitech K120. I booted with my inoperative (coffee-doused) mac keyboard, then switched to the K120 and the keyboard setup utility launched, asking me to press a few keys for identification. Now the K120 works great with my Mac.

 

[SuperMatt]

Anyone have any ideas? Are there really USB keyboards that aren't mac compatible or is the one I have probably just defective?

On Logitech's website, if you have all their keyboards up, and you select the "mac compatible" checkbox, the K120 disappears from the page. I wonder if they intentionally do that to try and charge Mac users more for "Mac" keyboards. There is no good reason a vanilla USB keyboard shouldn't "just work" on a mac, unless the manufacturer intentionally tries to make it incompatible...

 

[mac65]

Works somewhat on MacBook Pro (2008)

I've got an older MBP to which I've connected the K120 (Spanish layout, i.e. ISO key layout). It has caused no trouble like what the first poster described.