Different keyboard layout for each keyboard

Question

my setup is the following:

I have a notebook (with integrated keyboard/non-Apple running Arch) and an external keyboard (fancy Apple keyboard)

The problem is that Apple uses a different internal layout for its keyboards. For example the alt and the cmd/windows keys are switched.

For now I have a script that changes the keymap globally in X11/setxkbmap (for all keyboards) so that alt and the windows key are in the correct place, but then they are wrong on the internal one.

Is there a way for Linux to detect an external keyboard (by id or something), assign a specific keymap in console and X11, while leaving the internal keyboard untouched?

Answer 1

When looking for hardware issues the Arch Wiki is a great resource.

Apple Keyboards Arch Wiki

"You can use the AUR package un-apple-keyboardAUR. Currently it only works for the aluminium USB model." Not sure if this is your model.

This switches the cmd and meta keys $ echo 1 | sudo tee /sys/module/hid_apple/parameters/swap_opt_cmd

Run the following command to append the configuration line to the file and make the change permanent.

/etc/modprobe.d/hid_apple.conf creating it if necessary:
$ echo options hid_apple swap_opt_cmd=1 | sudo tee -a /etc/modprobe.d/hid_apple.conf