01 December 2008

IBM Model M Keyboard & OS X

I just got a new Macbook Aluminum unibody. I'm loving this machine so much. But when I'm at home, I like to plug into a 24 inch screen and I love to type on the IBM Model M keyboard, probably the best keyboard ever built. I have 3 of them. Anyhow, I did some googling around to try to find a solution to remapping the Mac Command key to the right control key on the M. Most of the key remapper programs out there do not appear to support OS X 10.5.x or Leopard. Anyhow, I found a little program called PCKeyboardHack that did the trick. It allowed me to map the right control key to the Mac Command key. Obviously you could go into the preferences -> keyboard & mouse and under "modifier keys" you could map the cap locks key to command for all keyboards. Personally, I use that key. So, that wasn't a solution for me. Anyhow, download PCKeyboardHack here if you think it might be useful to you. Update: PCKeyBoardHack works with all current versions of OS X including Lion.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

I gather that the built-in remapping didn't work for you? I ask because I've heard some people say they remap command to caps lock on the old keyboards using the utility depicted in a post I wrote about Unicomp's modern version of the Model M.

Philosopher Dog said...

Hi Jake: Thanx for the reply. Mapping caps lock is an option, if you don't use caps lock. Personally I find I need it and use it. As far as I can tell the solution I give is the only one available if you want to remap one of the control keys. Since you have an extra one, this makes the most sense. The solution I post works perfectly from what I've found.

Anonymous said...

This is still current information. This utility has been updated for Leopard and Snow Leopard. It's the best solution I've come across.