Repurposing my Acer CB3-431 with Zorin 17. I followed all the steps to remove Chrome and installed Z17 without 3rd party addons as the install was zapping all my available resources and crashing the install. Now, in post-install testing, the top row keys have been reprogrammed(?) or something.
In order across the top row (fn) keys:
ESC=ESC
Back Arrow (f1) = Launches Brave Help Center
Fwd Arrow (f2) = nothing
Reload Key (f3) = Find
Screen Shot Key (f4) = nothing
Duplicate Screen Key (f5) = reload page
Display Down Key (f6) = switches between active tab and the browser search box
Display Up Key (f7) = toggles caret browsing
Mute Key = nothing
Volume Down Key (f8) = nothing
Volume Up Key (f9) = nothing
Power Key = Puts laptop to sleep
I installed PulseAudio Volume Control as suggested in another Zorin thread...no change.
Would appreciate some guidance...Hate tossing old computers.
Thanks,
Zed
So are these the only keys that are giving you grief? If you could, could you go to a website such as this: Keyboard Tester - Check Your Keyboard Keys Online
And hit the keys that are giving you an issue (such as your list) and see if they return any value at all/what values those are? That might help in narrowing down some options.
I'm not sure about keyboard layouts for chromebooks, but it wouldn't hurt to look and see if there's an option that would apply in the settings as well.
Thanks for the quick reply, mate!
I ran the test and all keys resulted in showing activity.
Whilst a Chromebook has a (fn) key row, they perform actions as listed in my OP.
The keyboard test DID show them as functioning, but that is about it. Of course, the Chromebook doesn't have the funny Apple keys down by CTRL and ALT, but no matter.
If you come across any other ideas, holler! I am hopeful.
Ok so I've found that you can try using this command :
sudo dpkg-reconfigure keyboard-configuration
That will bring up a dialogue that will allow you to select "Chromebook" as an option. After that, there should be more options to fine tune what your layout should be. This may or may not work with Wayland, so you may need to be on X (changeable through the Cog icon on login) but its been a while since I used that command for anything.
You could give that a try and see what comes of it. I haven't used a chromebook with linux though so my knowledge on this part is a bit limited.
Well, the command ran with no errors...but alas, it changed nothing. Even following all the prompts during its run. May try the install on a different Chromebook. If not Zorin, maybe Manjaro. So many flavors! So far, ZorinCore has been my favorite (except for the (fn) key problems. Side note, when using YT in my browser, sometimes the computer will suddenly make a tone sound; lasts maybe 15 seconds and puts the laptop to sleep/or off. It has happened on both old Chromebooks I've ripped Chrome off of and replaced with Linux. Weird.
Hmm I'm not sure beyond that to be honest. From what I can see, even if you use a different desktop environment (such as KDE or mate) they seem to have this ability readily available in the keyboard settings. That might be worth a look? Unless someone else has more tricks for Chromebooks.
Editing just to add, if you wanted to try Zorin 17 lite, which uses xfce, it has a Chromebook layout by default and actually functions correctly
Update: Prior to Zorin, I'd tried Gallium since it is written for Chromebooks. No luck...failed install right off the bat. I had used Ventoy to make the bootable and stuck the distro on it. This time, I used Etcher. I redownloaded the Gallium .iso, ran the hash check, and slapped Gallium on the thumb drive. ((Side note: both Etcher and Ventoy allow one to put several .iso files on a thumb drive - CONVENIENT!)). Gallium live launched flawlessly and all my (fn) keys work. Now to tweak. Full install also crashed 80% of the way thru. May be because I opted to install the 3rd party files. Back to the grind.
also...@Michel, Gallium was the only distro that was specifically for Chromebooks or even had a reference to Chromebooks in the keyboard layout options...Unless you know another distro that does.
I know you have Zorin installed but having issue with keyboard, so done a websearch using "Acer CB3-431 fn keys Ubuntu 22.04". (Z17 being based on Ubuntu 22.04)
I did go through and check zorin lite, and there, since it uses xfce, it has a keyboard layout of chromebook available ootb, so you could give that a try via live usb and make sure, but I changed my laptop to it and it was acting as though it was a chromebook keyboard. Worth a try, mayhaps?
The R11 has only a 16GB eMMC; room for one OS. I chose Manjaro. Probably not the best OS (lotsa scuttle about it), but I found that if I babysat the install and didn't let the machine go to sleep, everything installed just fine...including the Chromebook features on the (fn) keys. Gonna run that for a bit. So far, I am VERY pleased with its feel. As this computer also has an SD card slot, I Ventoy'ed a 64GB SSD, loaded 12-16 .iso instances on it and can now "live test" as many flavors as I desire.
The other Chromebook is a CB3-431 with 32GB eMMC. I originally loaded Zorin on it as stated earlier, and wanted to add Wubuntu (Winux) along side. Well, besides the fact Zorin doesn't like to share and the partition application was being obstinate, I zapped Zorin and installed the Winux OS. It too had a Google|Chromebook keyboard layout. Flawless. However, as Zorin and Winux REALLY need a bit more than a split 32GB eMMC, I have Zorin on a thumb drive so I can fiddle with that when I am bored with Winux (but given the closeness of Winux to WinDOWS, I probably won't.
Thanks for the encouragement and efforts, mates!
Zed