19.10, 18.04: How to "fully" use Apple Magic Keyboard on Ubuntu: Keys, remaps, etc

Question

I am trying to convert a bunch of friends of mine to make the switch from Mac OSX to Ubuntu, and from most perspectives it works. The biggest pain point seems to be the keyboard: Apple is really producing nice keyboards, but the usage on Linux (Gnome) is rather limited (which is mostly due to the fact that Apple uses their keys differently).

There are two absolutely fantastic writeups in this regards, one is from the Arch Linux Wiki and the other one from the Ubuntu Wiki, but both miss these important facts from my perspective, which is: the keyboard.

I am facing these pain points, anyone can tell me how to work around them?

• the delete key does not exist in Linux, so we would need to map CMD+backspace to DEL
• 'command' (apple-key) needs to be mapped to 'control' ctrl

Anyone can point me in the right direction?

This is mainly concerning Ubuntu Desktop 19.10 with Gnome. As i stated in the initial sentence, i am searching for something to apply to older and different Ubuntu desktops as well, as this is concerning multiple people.

Solution

On my ubuntu 20.04, fn + backspace works as delete.

Switching control with the cmd which i did as well, download gnome-tweaks and open it's UI. Under keyboard, you can mark change left ctrl for win

Comments

[K7AAY]

To start with, which version of Linux have you installed (Ubuntu server, Ubuntu desktop, Kubuntu, Lubuntu, Xubuntu, Ubuntu MATE, et al.) , and which release number? Are you using virtualization, and if so, which package? Please click edit and add that vital information to your question so all the facts we need are in the question. Please do not use Add Comment.

[kub7]

Thank you, i clarified the question and added the missing facts (Ubuntu Desktop, Gnome). To be clear: i am searching for an option which works with X as well as with Wayland (different installations!).

[danzel]

"the delete key does not exist in Linux"? There is a delete key on my keyboard that absolutely works in linux... which delete key are you talking about?

[danzel]

Regarding remapping scancodes to different keycodes: maybe my old answer may help.

[Enrico Borba]

What worked best for me was the hid-apple-patched repo. The readme has install instructions, but it let me 1. swap alt/cmd, 2. swap fn/ctrl, 3. change function key layout.