Using a Mac keyboard in Lubuntu

I have recently made the switch from Windows laptop/Lubuntu desktop to a Macbook Pro laptop/Lubuntu desktop. This unfortunately meant that I had to get used to the Mac keyboard designs.

I bought a wired Mac keyboard to code on my Macbook Pro. It’s very difficult to modify my habits (and muscle memory) to handle both Windows/Ubuntu and Mac style keyboards. So, I have decided to switch all my keyboard shortcuts in Lubuntu to behave like a Mac. This way I can efficiently use my wired Mac keyboard with Lubuntu.

This is a very slow and painful process. I have to scrounge bits of information from all over the web to get a fully tricked-out, working Mac keyboard. I intend to list all steps I had to take in one place for someone else (and for myself in the future when I upgrade/re-install computers).

Here are the steps I took.

1. Add Keyboard Layout Handler to the LXPanel. Right click to access the Keyboard Layout Handler Settings. Change the keyboard type to the correct Apple keyboard. I chose applealu_ansi because I have the wired, aluminium Apple keyboard of the US variety (as opposed to the European version). This will ensure that the keystrokes will at least be recognized. But, they won’t all do as you want them to. You now need to edit the shortcuts in many many places to ensure the results you want. Remember the Command key is treated as the Windows or Super key.

2. Edit ~/.config/openbox/lubuntu-rc.xml again!

Let’s start with Alt+Tab and Alt+Shift+Tab to Command+Tab and Command+Shift+Tab respectively. Change this section

<keybind key="A-Tab">
      <action name="NextWindow">
        <dialog>icons</dialog>
        <finalactions>
          <action name="Focus"/>
          <action name="Raise"/>
          <action name="Unshade"/>
        </finalactions>
      </action>
    </keybind>
    <keybind key="A-S-Tab">
      <action name="PreviousWindow">
        <finalactions>
          <action name="Focus"/>
          <action name="Raise"/>
          <action name="Unshade"/>
        </finalactions>
      </action>
    </keybind>

to

<keybind key="W-Tab">
      <action name="NextWindow">
        <dialog>icons</dialog>
        <finalactions>
          <action name="Focus"/>
          <action name="Raise"/>
          <action name="Unshade"/>
        </finalactions>
      </action>
    </keybind>
    <keybind key="W-S-Tab">
      <action name="PreviousWindow">
        <finalactions>
          <action name="Focus"/>
          <action name="Raise"/>
          <action name="Unshade"/>
        </finalactions>
      </action>
    </keybind>

by replacing A (Alt) to W (Command).

There are plenty more things you can do. You can download my lubuntu-rc.xml file and look through it yourself. On general principle, you should make a copy of your lubuntu-rc.xml file before you edit it or overwrite it.

1. Now, we come to the text editors. Remember when I said this is a slow and painful process. That’s because you will need to edit the keyboard shortcuts for every application separately. I use Sublime Text 3. You can download this Default (Linux).sublime-keymap file that has the shortcuts I use. You can add the contents of this file to your ~/.config/sublime-text-3/Packages/User/Default (Linux).sublime-keymap file. You will need to take care of repetitions. If you don’t have one, then you can create one. In fact, you could start with my file and edit/add more shortcuts later on. Take a look at default shortcuts under Preferences > Key bindings–Default.

You may not like all the shortcuts that I have in the file. But it’s always worth it to look over the file to familiarize yourself with your text editor shortcuts.

1. You should feel your sublime working quite smoothly after the above changes. But now comes the big problem. There will always be some applications which do not allow you to change key bindings. Google Chrome is a stunning example of this. Though you can install Shortcut Manager extension and try to change a few keyboard shortcuts. This did not work for me. Sadly, the Shortcut Manager does not allow me to change the keyboard shortcut for copying and pasting (even though it looks like it does!). As an alternative you can make a system wide binding using autokey.

First, install autokey:

sudo apt-get install autokey-gtk

Run autokey by typing autokey in a terminal. You can find a beginner’s guide to autokey here.

You can create a new folder for your scripts (by clicking on the New button). I recommend ~/bin/autokey as the folder to keep all your files. Once you create the folder, you can now add scripts and phrases to this folder.

Let’s take the most used keyboard shortcut – Control+C for copying. This method will not replace Control+C by Command+C. Instead, we will bind the Command+C to Control+C. This way both these keyboard shortcuts will do the same thing – copying. This is exactly why this method is not my favorite. It essentially renders both Control and Command equivalent. I recommend the first method of changing Openbox configuration in lubuntu-rc.xml as the best. Next best method is to change key bindings in the application itself (like we did for Sublime Text 3). Finally, since we have no other options, we have to use autokey for the remaining shortcut keys.

There are two ways you can do this – scripts and phrases. Both can bind the key combinations we want in the same way. You can choose whichever one you like. Phrases might feel a tad simpler. I describe both methods below.

Scripts

Click on New > Script. Give the script a name such as copy. In the big text box, replace

# Enter script code

by

keyboard.send_keys("<ctrl>+c")

Then, set the Hotkey as Super+c. Save the script by clicking on Save. Saving the script will create a file copy.txt in the folder location you chose. Repeat this method for many other shortcuts. You can take a look or download my autokey folder here.

Phrases

Click on New > Phrase. Give the phrase a name such as copy. In the big text box, replace

Enter phrase contents

by

<ctrl>+c

Then, set the Hotkey as Super+c. Save the phrase by clicking on Save. Saving the phrase will create a file copy.txt in the folder location you chose. Repeat this method for many other shortcuts. You can take a look or download my autokey folder here.

Obviously, you only need to create a script or a phrase for a key binding. Creating both a script and phrase with the same name will most probably overwrite the file.

You can test the new keyboard shortcuts. As long as autokey is running, the scripts and phrases will work. All we now need to do is make sure autokey runs at startup. You can add autokey to your list of startup programs.

To be continued …