I recently bought the ISO version of the WF keyboard via Massdrop. I have not yet tried to re-program it so it's running as supplied from the factory. Computer is basic desktop about 18 months old with standard Intel chipset, so nothing either so old or so new you might expect compatibility issues. O/S is Debian Linux. I use one of the standard O/S keyboard maps to give me a UK-style Dvorak layout, and xmodmap to remap a few specific keys, eg Caps Lock works as backspace. I've used exactly the same arrangement with several other keyboards (a couple of Filcos and a HHKB as well as some cheap generics) with no problems at all.
When I get a new keyboard I use xev to check the keycodes and modify my .xmodmaprc file accordingly. With the WF, I used this to re-program the Right Control key to be what Sun used to call a Compose key - you press it and then 2 subsequent keys to get a special character, eg Compose-o-o gives a degree symbol. This worked fine, along with the few other mods I made, and everything was sorted.
However, next time I tried to use the Compose key (probably a week or so later), nothing happened - typing the Compose-o-o sequence just produced oo as if I had not used the Compose key at all. I checked with xev and the key does not register at all - no keycode detected by the computer. I assumed the switch was faulty and took the keyboard out of the case to see if I could see anything straightforward like a broken solder joint but everything looked fine. I then tried the keyboard with my laptop - a Thinkpad again running Debian and again using a stock Dvorak layout with a few xmodmap mods applied. To my surprise the apparently dead Compose key worked fine. I plugged it back into the desktop machine and it still worked fine - normal behaviour restored. There was no obvious reason why the apparently dead key should have sprung back to life, but at least it had, so I took the path of least resistance and left well alone - problem solved.
Except, of course, it wasn't. Next time I switched the desktop machine off and on again, the Compose key had stopped working again - doesn't register with xev at all, like last time. But - and this is the part I regard as weird - if I plug it back into the laptop and then again the desktop, normal behaviour resumes - xev registers the key and it works as Compose, but only until I reboot the machine. There are a couple of other odd things too: the keyboard is backlit and that also only works at first but not after subsequent reboots. I'm not that bothered about the lighting and would have looked into switching it off if it hadn't gone off of its own accord. However, as of yesterday, the hash/tilde key (middle row far right on ISO/UK layout) is also playing up: it's normally hash on its own, tilde with shift, but yesterday it was tilde on its own and nothing with shift, and today it brings up an on-screen editing menu!).
All I can think of is that the O/S loads a different keyboard driver when it boots with the WF attached, though I don't know why it should, nor how to stop it. I know using xmodmap is not the most elegant way of remapping the keys but it works for me with all other keyboards, plus if a key is simply not registering at all then it isn't getting as far as having its effect modified by software.
Has anyone else experienced this problem? And if so, did you find a solution?
Any suggestions much appreciated!
