Is it? I mean, if I have Linux installed, you know.
this post was submitted on 07 Feb 2026
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Yeah... All the tools in Linux are going to do this weird thing where they expect it to behave like a normal key. So you'd have to do all the hacks mentioned to make it work. For example, GNOME keybind stops detecting the key bind when you release. Etc. Maybe the kernel will accept a “broken copilot key hack“ that implements it but it's not good.
Even with hacks, it still won't work like a modifier like most people use alt/ctrl/win because those rely on knowing the key up to see multiple keys pressed together before release. So... Broken.
It’s much worse than I anticipated! Thanks for explaining! I hope to see as little laptops with the key as possible.
You can remap that key on a hardware level with a little flathead screwdriver. 🪛 🗑️
so fucking stupid
My ThinkPad has one and it is just kinda there... despite it supposedly being remapable since Kernel 6.16 or so I can't get it to properly remap.
I'd love to map it to open LM Studio lol
It's worth taking a look in the BIOS/ UEFI setup - maybe the key can be remapped there? Once the default F-key behaviour could be defined in there for ThinkPad devices.
That sounds way beyond the average users technical expertise. But it sounds like it might work. If you manage to figure out how to do that please let me know
Hit f2 or del or whatever the screen tells you during boot to enter the UEFI menu (or hold shift while clicking restart in w11 or w10 to reboot into uefi). Then search for an option to change the buttons behaviour to right ctrl instead of cockpit.
I don't own an ai Thinkpad, sorry.
Thanks for the info.
I don’t own an AI Thinkpad either, I’m just thinking ahead for when I eventually have to purchase a new computer.
Didn't KDE say they were working on a way to remap it in a future update?
Smells like antitrust violations.
I'm all for hardware remappable keyboards in laptops too - just like what you can have with an external one. I do realise though that this is a niche within a niche. From what I know only Framework (oh, and System76) is doing something like that.
Jesus. I guess we're going to have to start figuring out how to reverse engineer our keyboards so we can install QMK on random built-in laptop keyboards and cheap Logitech membrane keyboards to repair the damage Microsoft has done to them.
