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@lordpixel23
Last active May 26, 2025 18:26
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Adding support for Apple fn/Globe key to QMK

What this does

This allows you to define a key for your QMK keyboard which has some of the same functionality as the fn/Globe key on an Apple keyboard. Applying the following patch to your qmk repository creates a new keycode KC_GLOBE which can then be used in your keymaps.

Where is this from

This commit is updating @drashna's code from Nov 2023 to work with the Nov 2024 files.

How to

  1. Apply the changes from this commit in full
  2. Make sure rules.mk for your keyboard has KEYBOARD_SHARED_EP = yes or else Globe-E, Globe-Q etc. will not work.
  3. Use KC_GLOBE in your keymap to define a key as the fn/Globe key and compile as normal.

Alternatively if you want to avoid patching the generated header file, replace step 1. above with:

  1. Create thre new JSON file data/constants/keycodes/keycodes_0.0.4_basic.hjson from the commit above
  2. Run qmk generate-keycodes -v 0.0.5 -o quantum/keycodes.h in the root of the repo to update the keycodes
  3. Apply the change to tmk_core/protocol/report.h from the commit above

Caveats

This will not make the key behave fully like the key on an Apple keyboard. Specifically more is required if you want it to toggle between F1–F12 and controlling brightness etc. See @fauxpark's gist for the long details.

@ChrisGVE
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ChrisGVE commented May 9, 2025

Yes, sure: you can go to my repo qmk_keychron and use the branch "wireless_playground_apple" which contains the changes. If you'd like to check the compilation, you may also use my userspace repo and compile qmk compile -kb keychron/q60_max/ansi -km chrisgve. Let me know if you encounter problems, and I can guide you.

I have no credit for making it work on BT, though. This is only due to the work of Keychron and their implementation, and I must admit that it is beyond my level to understand what they have done. Note also that it's a trimode keyboard, but I am not using it with the USB receiver (I'm not even sure where it is).

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