Support for Microsoft NaturalÆ Ergonomic Keyboard 4000

[girschick]

Even though the current beta adds support for Zoom keys, the above mentioned keyboard still doesn't show any events in the event viewer. "Modify events" for it is activated. I tried the following keys: back, forward, zoom in, zoom out, home, e-mail favourites 1-5, calculator. None of those work, only the search button opens spotlight (but even that is not shown in the event viewer).

{
"device_id": 4297255106,
"device_identifiers": {
"is_keyboard": true,
"product_id": 219,
"vendor_id": 1118
},
"location_id": 34746368,
"manufacturer": "Microsoft",
"product": "NaturalÆ Ergonomic Keyboard 4000",
"transport": "USB"
},

[tekezo]

If the keyboard is a composite device, it may be necessary to enable the mouse-side device as well.

Additionally, some keyboards send a Control+Wheel event instead of a key event for the Zoom key. In such cases, Karabiner-Elements currently cannot modify it.

[girschick]

Thanks for the fast reply! It's not a composite device, so I guess it does not simulate zoom via scroll wheel events. Anyway: the other keys don't work either. It used to work with the original Intellitype driver from MS, which was discontinued years ago. I used USB Overdrive and/or ControllerMate on previous machines and I think they were able to support those keys. I just tried another keyboard from Labtec which has Home and Mail keys. Both also don't work, so maybe I have a different issue here?

[tekezo]

Karabiner-Elements primarily retrieves data via macOS's standard keyboard driver, so it won’t work if the standard driver can't capture the events from your keyboards.
Special keys depend on the hardware implementation, so whether or not the events can be captured varies. If they can't be captured, Karabiner-Elements also can't handle them.

Another possible cause, aside from the hardware, is if any additional keyboard drivers are installed, which might cause it to not work properly.
You can confirm loaded drivers from System Settings > Login Items & Extensions > Driver Extensions.

If the only active driver is .Karabiner-VirtualHIDDevice-Manager, the issue is likely a hardware limitation.

[girschick]

I disabled all relevant drivers but still no effect. I tried USB Overdrive and the clue is probably that those keys are on a different USB device (consumer control):

I'm able to assign the keys to actions using USB overdrive. I guess, Karabiner doesn't support those devices, yet.

[tekezo]

Thank you for confirming!
If that's the case, it seems like an issue of compatibility between the hardware implementation of the Microsoft Natural Ergonomic Keyboard 4000 and macOS's standard USB keyboard driver.

The exact cause isn't clear yet, but keys like the calculator key can be detected on some keyboards and not on others.
Even on my end, I have keyboards where it works and others where it doesn't.