ucontrol alternatives in Tiger

[nbs2]

Now that Tiger has broken uControl, I was wondering if anybody had found an alternative. Obviously, I could wait until they can redevelop (or do it myself, but I know nothing about programming), but I thought I would see if there are any other utilities out there.

I know that with Tiger you can change modifier keys, but I need to change 'enter' into 'option'...

 

[Hmm]

Now that Tiger has broken uControl, I was wondering if anybody had found an alternative. Obviously, I could wait until they can redevelop (or do it myself, but I know nothing about programming), but I thought I would see if there are any other utilities out there.

I know that with Tiger you can change modifier keys, but I need to change 'enter' into 'option'...

Does it have to be a free alternative? You can try Keyboard Maestro which supposedly has no issues with Tiger, but it's $20. It looks like you can try it for free, though. I still have the old free "Lite" version, which kind of works but it's been acting flaky under Tiger.

From the latest messages from one of the uControl developers, it doesn't look like there will be a new version very soon.

 

[nbs2]

Does it have to be a free alternative? You can try Keyboard Maestro which supposedly has no issues with Tiger, but it's $20. It looks like you can try it for free, though. I still have the old free "Lite" version, which kind of works but it's been acting flaky under Tiger.

From the latest messages from one of the uControl developers, it doesn't look like there will be a new version very soon.

Oy. KM looks like a lot more than I need. I really wish I knew something about programming. All I want to do is convert my PB keyboard, changing the enter key that I don't use and adding an option scroll. And the second is not even all that important. I just feel silly having a key that never gets used and is a bane to my experience.

 

[snark.de]

Enter-Key is possible without programming

Oy. KM looks like a lot more than I need. I really wish I knew something about programming. All I want to do is convert my PB keyboard, changing the enter key that I don't use...

That part is possible without programming - but still it is a bit hackish...
Powerbooks have an ADB Keyboard and Tiger's ADB Driver has an easy yet low level way of remapping almost all keys.

In a File /System/Library/Extensions/AppleADBKeyboard.kext/Contents/Info.plist, there is a section ADBVirtualKeys followed by a lot of hex codes. The hex code for the mythical enter key is 0x34. Find that and replace it with 0x3A to turn enter into a second alt/option key (0x36 for ctrl, 0x37 for cmd, 0x38 for shift), reboot and live happily ever after (or until an Apple Software Update turns it back).

Only the root user may edit this file. So you may need to use Terminal.app and sudo. For example (to copy the original to your home dir and then start TextEdit as root)

sudo cp /System/Library/Extensions/AppleADBKeyboard.kext/Contents/Info.plist ~/
sudo /Applications/TextEdit.app/Contents/MacOS/TextEdit /System/Library/Extensions/AppleADBKeyboard.kext/Contents/Info.plist