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Comment by advenn | Hacker News Reader

I use Linux so I didn't care about copilot stuff. But recently at work I got dell workstation. It costs around 5k usd. The specs are great. But it has single Ctrl key on the left side, copilot button took its place. I can't jump between words with one hand, I have to press Ctrl with my left hand, and use arrow keys with right hand. This single choice made the machine piece crap

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Absolutely. Even worse, the key doesn't have its own scancode, but instead acts as lshift+lmeta+f23, so rebinding it is a real pain. I know about Hanlon's razor, but there's only so much incompetence one can accept...

Pre-USB keyboards used a similarly horrific combination for Print Screen, which was also the only key that didn't report when it was released. This was for the same reason - the key was added after the keycode list was standardized.

Even the arrow keys are weird, they report as numpad keys, but also have a special extended key flag to tell you that it's not really a numpad key.

My favorite keyboard was one that came with HP PC's ... in the late 90's I think. It had a split space bar. I think the deal was the right half of the space bar was the space bar and the left half was the backspace key.

Using it was like a magic trick. Words would just get a character truncated and merge. I could watch my fingers type and I would know what I had to do and my fingers would just merrily go on and do whatever they wanted.

There was some youtube video about a guy who set up a bike that had the turning backwards - you turned right and the front wheel went left. The funny part was that with a lot of effort the guy managed to teach himself to not be able to ride a normal bike.

I have a laptop with a copilot key, this maps it to right Ctrl on Linux. How well it works depends on how your specific keyboard implements the Shift+Meta+F23 keypress so your mileage may vary. https://github.com/mishoo/exorcise-copilot

It may or may not be easy, depending on your environment, but you can remap keys. I have `input * xkb_options "caps:backspace,compose:ralt"` in my ~/.config/sway/config, for example, plus `input ‹laptop keyboard identifier› xkb_file "~/.config/sway/keymap.xkb"` with that file fixing XF86AudioMicMute (which has key code 256, but X only supports up to 255 and I’m still not quite sure why this was necessary), and now remapping RShift to LCtrl which died early this year.

But… ouch. From https://itsfoss.com/remap-copilot-key-linux/ and other sources, sounds like the Copilot button is LMeta+LShift+F23. Why a combo when using an esoteric key not on anyone’s keyboard anyway? Ugh. That’ll make it harder to sort out, though still possible.

I have been able to reclaim my Copilot key with keyd. https://github.com/rvaiya/keyd

  [ids]
  *
  
  [main]
  leftmeta+leftshift+f23 = rightcontrol

My new car came with terrible tires that have little traction, but I just buy a new set. I don’t say it’s a crap car just because they cheap out with the stock tires on it. I love the car. Keychron on that workstation and be done with it.

A keyboard key is not generally considered a consumable, though.

Can't you replace the keyboard? (I'm assuming "workstation" != laptop). I have mechanicals laying around that I would just haul with me into work.

I wish laptops would come with a standard TKL layout. I really need those navigation keys. Ctl-end, ctl-shift-home, ctl-shift-left, all of those things I am constantly using and feel like I'm wearing mittens when using pretty much any laptop.

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