as we know chromebooks have special keyboard with some keys missing or being different

i thought i might go over a process of modifying the keyboard to make it function "properly" (it's up to preference)

the easiest way to modify specyfic key on a keyboard is using keyd

we can install it on our system with following commands

git clone https://github.com/rvaiya/keyd cd keyd make && sudo make install sudo systemctl enable keyd && sudo systemctl start keyd

after that modifying keys is as easy as editing /etc/keyd/default.conf and running sudo keyd reload

currently on my machine (lenovo IdeaPad duet 5) i use this config

[ids] * [main] #the format is #key to replace = new key #since keyboard on newer chromebooks replace f1-f12 keys with special keys this brings the keys the state i need them to be #zoom back to f3 zoom = f3 #back back to f1 back = f1 #this makes the lock button act as delete key sleep = delete #different chromebooks might call that button different way so use command below to be sure

in order to check the name of button on a keyboard you can use sudo keyd monitor command

to make it easier on ppl wandering here are names for special keys

on older chromebooks u can set f1-f12 key to act the way it's shown on physical keyboard

- volumeup

- volumedown

- mute

- brightnessup

- brightnessdown

i think the names are self-explanatory

for more info on this program pls visit https://github.com/rvaiya/keyd

this i an universal way but not the only one

when it comes to gnome, inside settings -> keyboard -> show and customize shortcuts

you can bind specific button to specific shortcut

the brightness manipulation is missing from settings but you can set it with this commands

gsettings set org.gnome.settings-daemon.plugins.media-keys screen-brightness-down "['F6']" gsettings set org.gnome.settings-daemon.plugins.media-keys screen-brightness-up "['F7']"

Note. this is only for old chromebooks, modern chromebooks already work without this set