Using VIA keyboard software on Mac

[namria]

Hey there,

The question for users who are using a VIA-programmable keyboard with their Macs.

I've bought myself a Aula F99 Pro keyboard. And although it's a great keyboard, I cannot use F-row keys for gaming or other needs, because they always act as media keys. Switching "Use F1, F2, etc. keys as standard function keys" setting does nothing.

I really don't want to run into the same problem with a new keyboard and I want to make sure that VIA-programmable keyboard will allow me to use (and set) media keys as normal and switch to game-specific shortcuts if needed.

Can someone share their experience, please?

 

[xraydoc]

The macOS's "use F keys as standard function keys" as far as I can tell only works on Apple's own keyboards.

I have a ton of keyboards and they're all VIA/QMK-based. No issues at all programming the F-row keys to do what you want, with one exception —

It appears that, at least for macOS Sequoia, F1 (the actual QMK F1 key code; KC_F1) will decrease screen brightness, and F2 (KC_F2) will increase brightness as a built-in hard-coded action. I am not sure how to disable that for F1 and F2 in macOS. Though come to think of it, I don't think I've tried that in conjunction with "use F keys as standard function keys", but again, I'm pretty sure that works only for Apple's own keyboards. Just tested it; doesn't change it. F3-F12 (the QMK key codes) don't seem to otherwise trigger any macOS-specific actions unless set to do so in macOS's Keyboard settings in the System Settings.

Now, you also mentioned switching to game-specific shortcuts. That isn't something you can easily do with QMK/VIA. The keyboard has no idea what application you're running, so it cannot switch to a different profile/layer based on what app is in the foreground. That would require a proprietary driver to be running on your Mac, in which case you may as well just get a Logitech and call it a day.

Instead, you can manually toggle to a different layer which can have different key mapping, but you'll need to manually activate it and deactivate it. Depending on the keyboard, you'll have between 4 to 7 layers at your disposal. Keychron's firmware for most of their QMK keyboards provides for 4 layers by default, and Nuphy provides for 7, I believe. My KBDFans, CannonKeys and NovelKeys QMK-based keyboards also have 4 layers. I don't recall off hand what my Bridge75 or Crush80 have insofar as layers available. I do believe, however, if you edit the QMK source code of any of them, you can enable up to 7 layers (if you're handy with a code editor and can recompile it). I do also have a couple of QMK/Vial-based keyboards which have 5 layers available, including the Pavlov65 I'm typing on right now.

 

[namria]

Thank you for the explanation!

It's so strange that F1-F2 are so hard-coded, maybe Apple are afraid people's computers can get soft-locked if they lower their brightness too low, I don't know. I will need to search if there's some more complex Terminal-based solution for this, because I could really use the ability to change these two keys.

The ability to have 2 layers is quite enough for my needs. First for the "normal" mac layout and another for specific applications that require F-row to work as certain shortcuts, not the media keys.

It's interesting how I have a basic wired HP keyboard and the F-row works properly in games and doesn't trigger media keys at all. I wish I could just tell macos to use this behavior for any other keyboard when I need it.

I am looking at Epomaker TH85 keyboard right now. Might as well give it a try and see what VIA brings me.

 

[xraydoc]

Thank you for the explanation!

It's so strange that F1-F2 are so hard-coded, maybe Apple are afraid people's computers can get soft-locked if they lower their brightness too low, I don't know. I will need to search if there's some more complex Terminal-based solution for this, because I could really use the ability to change these two keys.

The ability to have 2 layers is quite enough for my needs. First for the "normal" mac layout and another for specific applications that require F-row to work as certain shortcuts, not the media keys.

It's interesting how I have a basic wired HP keyboard and the F-row works properly in games and doesn't trigger media keys at all. I wish I could just tell macos to use this behavior for any other keyboard when I need it.

I am looking at Epomaker TH85 keyboard right now. Might as well give it a try and see what VIA brings me.

You can definitely change F1 and F2 with software like https://karabiner-elements.pqrs.org/
Perhaps someone knows another way. Otherwise, everything else you want is easy peasy with VIA.

 

[namria]

You can definitely change F1 and F2 with software like https://karabiner-elements.pqrs.org/
Perhaps someone knows another way. Otherwise, everything else you want is easy peasy with VIA.

Edit:
I will try to see what I can do with Karabiner, thanks!

 

[namria]

Unfortunately Karabiner doesn't help with the issue on my current keyboard. It has "hard-wired" F1-F4 part and doesn't change whatever I'm trying. :-(

What keyboard were you trying that allowed the change?