Fix those Aluminium Keyboard woes

A few days ago, Scott mentioned that some people (myself included) had been experiencing issues with the F3 and F4 keys. Re-installation of the Keyboard Update 1.1 made no difference, and my F3 and F4 keys remained sadly nonfunctional on Apple's slim-line keyboard. Until this evening, that is, when yours truly received an email detailing a way that, in the author's experience, had resolved issues with the F3 & F4 keys. After having run the steps, I too am enjoying Dashboard and Exposé nirvana as Steve intended. So how do you go about fixing this? Read on to find out.

For those who are comfortable with Pacifist, all you need to do is simply download the Apple Keyboard Software update 1.1, and install the relevant contents of the package via Pacifist. If you've never used Pacifist (and truth be told, I hadn't before tonight) here's what you need to be doing.

After having downloaded both the Apple Keyboard Software update 1.1 and Pacifist, you'll want to ensure that Pacifist is running, and that the Keyboard software disk image is open and attached to your Mac.

Click "Open Package", choose the "Apple Keyboard Software" disk image, and then double-click "AppleKeyboardSoftware.mpkg" to bring the Installer package into Pacifist.

As you can see above, there's actually 3 sub-installers inside this installer, one specifically for each Mac architecture and then a common installer. You'll need to select the relevant PowerPC or Intel installer and the common installer, and then choose 'Install' in the top left of the window (you'll probably need to authenticate before it'll fully run).

Now this is where it might put you all off. A number of prompts saying "Do you want to overwrite file x?" will appear (including one for Dock.app which made me gulp before clicking replace). I was gung-ho and simply chose to replace, update and overwrite in all circumstances and don't appear to be suffering any adverse effects. That said, overwriting any Apple-supplied applications may freak you out (even if the update is from Apple themselves) so here's the disclaimer: In my experience this has not caused any adverse effects, but you try it at your own risk and agree not to hold me, TUAW, Weblogs Inc or AOL responsible in the unlikely event of something going horribly wrong! It's likely that you'd need to update all the necessary files to ensure the installation works, so just let Pacifist do its thing. Once the installation is complete, restart and you should be all set.

Thanks Ian for the tip!

View Tags

Categories

Peripherals How-tos

A few days ago, Scott mentioned that some people (myself included) had been experiencing issues with the F3 and F4 keys. Re-installation...

Add a Comment

Sign in »

31 Comments

Filter by:

nashia

hi, anyone here knows how to dissamble the keyboard? there is some coffee inside mine! iÂ´m not able to open it!!! :( :(

November 21 2007 at 5:04 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Darren

HELP!! Does anyone know how to REMOVE the Keyboard Software update? I couldn't stand the new keyboard, and wanted to move to the old one I had -- but now my keys are all mapped incorrectly.

Any ideas?
Darren

September 12 2007 at 1:11 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Daniel

Apple Keyboard Software Update 1.2 helped me. here's the link: http://www.macupdate.com/info.php/id/21487/apple-keyboard-update

September 11 2007 at 5:14 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

anuz

hello try this little app..

http://jimmitchell.org/projects/yasu/

after reboot all keys worked great ..

August 30 2007 at 6:50 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

johnny

unfortunately i experienced the very same problem, but a friend of mine put together an installer package which includes the updated Dock.app. After installing that package everything works fine with the new apple keyboard. he followed the steps on the site of joe mullins (http://joemullins.com/archive/2007/08/21/fix-for-apple-aluminum-keyboard-dashboard-and-expose-keys-not-working.php) and that method seems to do the trick.

so for anyone who doesn't like fiddling 'round with core files (like me), you can donwlod the installer under: http://twsibtth.chrisandtheothergirls.com/blog/possible-apple-keyboard-function-fix-package

hopefully there will be an official fix for this problem soon!

August 29 2007 at 11:37 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Phil

Simply uninstall Safari 3 Beta, this will solve all problems.

August 29 2007 at 3:21 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Ian Parkinson

It worked OK for me (I suggested the fix in the first place).
The only difference I can see from what I did to what Nik did is that I installed all three items that I found in the package rather than the specific installer.

I have not had any issues with Dashboard or Widgets on my iMac 24" (White)

Ian

August 28 2007 at 10:09 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

hausi

Thanks a lot - Step 3 & 4 from the postet link fixed my dashboard issues...

hausi

August 27 2007 at 12:13 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

funkonaut

hausi, I too had the same problem. First, download Apple's OS X 10.4.10 combo update:

http://www.apple.com/downloads/macosx/apple/macosx_updates/

Then go to http://joemullins.com/archive/2007/08/21/fix-for-apple-aluminum-keyboard-dashboard-and-expose-keys-not-working.php and follow the directions, starting at step 3.

The above procedure fixed my Dock.app.

August 27 2007 at 10:05 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

hausi

Me too....I screwed up my dashboard....

Unfortunatly I don't have access to a second mac :-(
Could anyone help me out with a clean dock.app for Power PC with the latest updates installed?
My email is: hausii(at)gmail.com

Thanks a lot
Hannes

August 27 2007 at 7:31 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply