The Mac keyboard is still not recognized correctly on Ubuntu 18.04 LTS, and it's been like this for a while. The culprit is the hid_apple kernel module, which doesn't properly detect the keyboard layout. This affects all GNU/Linux distributions, not just Ubuntu.

The result: keys are swapped or don't behave as expected. The instructions in this article apply to Ubuntu and Debian. For other distributions, adapt the input method configuration using the appropriate tool.

Input method

Configure the text input settings, either through the "Text Input" / "Keyboard Layouts" utility or directly in /etc/default/keyboard with the following values:

XKBMODEL="pc105"  # Generic 105-key PC (intl.)
XKBLAYOUT="fr"    # French
XKBVARIANT="mac"  # French (Macintosh)

Then apply the changes:

sudo dpkg-reconfigure -f noninteractive keyboard-configuration

Key layout

In Europe, keyboards typically use the ISO standard. But here, you need to disable it.

echo 0 | sudo tee /sys/module/hid_apple/parameters/iso_layout

Swapping Cmd and Alt keys

echo 1 | sudo tee /sys/module/hid_apple/parameters/swap_opt_cmd

Function key behavior

• 0 - Disables the fn key entirely.
• 1 - Enabled by default. Pressing F8 triggers the play/pause action. fn + F8 triggers F8.
• 2 - Disabled by default. Pressing F8 triggers F8. fn + F8 triggers the play/pause action.

echo 2 | sudo tee /sys/module/hid_apple/parameters/fnmode

Persisting the changes

To make these changes survive a reboot, persist them in modprobe and regenerate the initramfs:

echo options hid_apple iso_layout=0 | sudo tee -a /etc/modprobe.d/hid_apple.conf
echo options hid_apple swap_opt_cmd=0 | sudo tee -a /etc/modprobe.d/hid_apple.conf
echo options hid_apple fnmode=2 | sudo tee -a /etc/modprobe.d/hid_apple.conf

sudo update-initramfs -u -k all