Keys

On Takumi, Super works like the Mac’s Command key, in every app. Super is the key with the Windows logo on a PC keyboard, or Command on a Mac keyboard. Super+C copies and Super+V pastes in the browser, in a document and in the terminal alike.

To see the keys worth knowing, type keys in the Palette (Super+Space). Typing what a key does, such as screenshot or emoji, shows its key too. Super+Shift+/ shows a list of the main keys on screen.

Harmony: one Command key

Takumi calls this Harmony. A Mac’s editing keys all sit under one thumb, and they mean the same in every app. On a PC they are spread between Ctrl, which a terminal uses to stop programs, and the Windows key, which does very little. Harmony gives Super the Mac’s job everywhere, so the keys your hands already know work on day one.

The terminal is where it matters most. Ctrl+C in a terminal stops whatever is running, so a copy key that sent it would be a trap. Super+C sends a real “copy” instead, which the terminal copies with, and Ctrl+C keeps its terminal meaning.

Harmony works below every app, using keyd, so it needs nothing from the app.

Editing keys

Ctrl, for people from Windows

Ctrl+C, Ctrl+V and the rest still work in most apps, exactly as they did on Windows. Super works in all of them, the terminal included. Use whichever your hands reach for; there is nothing to switch.

Alt and Super on a PC keyboard

On a Mac keyboard, Command sits beside the space bar. On a PC keyboard, that place is Alt’s, with the Windows key further out. To have the Command key where a Mac has it, type swap alt (or windows key, command key) in the Palette and choose Swap Alt and Super. The left Alt then works as Super, with every key on this page, and the left Windows key works as Alt. The right Alt stays as it is, since many layouts use it to type accented letters. Put Alt and Super back undoes it. Both ask for your password in the Core.

Apps and the Core

Super+B, E and Return open the apps you chose as your browser, file manager and terminal (Apps, the Shelf and defaults).

Notices

More in Quick settings, Today and notices.

Windows

Windows on the strip explains each of these.

Super+Shift+Ctrl+Q ends the whole session at once. It is a way out when nothing else answers; your apps are not asked to close first, so Log out in Quick settings is the gentle way.

Screenshots and recording

More in Screenshots and recording.

Zoom and accessibility

More in Accessibility.

Sound, media and brightness keys

The keys printed on your keyboard do what their pictures say, and the Core shows a meter. Most work on the lock screen too.

More in Sound and Displays.

Laptop keys

• The keyboard light keys make the keys brighter or dimmer, and the Core shows “Keyboard light” with a meter. A laptop with a single light key goes round its steps and then off. After the laptop wakes from sleep, the light comes back as you left it.
• The touchpad key turns the touchpad off, so your palm never moves the pointer while you type, and on again. The Core says “Touchpad off” and how to get it back. On a laptop without the key, type touchpad in the Palette for the same switch.
• The microphone key mutes the microphone in use, a headset’s too, and the light on the key shows whether it is muted, whatever muted it.

Many laptops change the keyboard light themselves and never tell the system. Their light changes as it always did, without a notice.

Not yet. On a laptop without a light on the microphone key, nothing on screen says the microphone was muted by the key. The struck microphone in the capsule and the Microphone tile in Quick settings show it.

The top row

On many keyboards the top row does brightness, sound and media first, and F1 to F12 with Fn. Type function keys or media keys in the Palette for Top row: F1 to F12 first or Top row: media keys first, whichever is not on now. It asks for your password.

This works on Apple keyboards and on Lenovo and Huawei laptops. Other keyboards decide this in their own firmware, and the row says so: Top row: the keyboard decides. Press its Fn lock (Fn+Esc on many laptops), or look in the computer’s firmware settings.

The pointer and the touchpad

Type what you want in the Palette. Each row offers the opposite of what is on now, and takes effect at once.

Natural scrolling (two fingers move the page the way they go, as on a Mac) is on for the touchpad from the start; a mouse wheel keeps scrolling the usual way. Tap to click is on too. Two fingers pressing the touchpad give the right button, three the middle.

Keyboard layouts

The keyboards you type with belong to the computer: the login screen, the password prompt when it starts, and every account use the same list. Type keyboard in the Palette:

Type a language or a country to find its keyboards: keyboard french lists French, French (AZERTY) and French (Switzerland). Adding one asks for your password in the Core. With two or more, the capsule shows the layout in short letters, and a click on them switches to the next.

A computer keeps up to four keyboards. The first is the one you type your password with when the computer starts and at the login screen, so removing it asks first and says which keyboard takes its place.

Not yet. There is no key for switching keyboards yet. Click the letters in the capsule, or use Switch to … in the Palette.

Japanese, Korean and Chinese

These need an input method, which turns what you type into the language’s characters. Type japanese, korean, chinese, pinyin or input in the Palette:

Enter installs what it needs, with your password once, and starts it. Ctrl+Space then switches between your keyboard and the input method in every app at once. Super+Space stays the Palette’s. Stop typing Japanese (and so on) removes it, after asking.

Not yet. Apps built on Electron, such as VS Code and Slack, need a setting of their own before they can use an input method. Vietnamese, Thai and the languages of India are not offered yet.

Turn Harmony off

If you would rather Super did only window and Core keys, Harmony can be turned off from the command line (below). Super+C and the other editing keys then do nothing special, and Ctrl is your editing key.

Your own keys

Takumi’s window and Core keys are in ~/.config/niri/takumi/defaults.kdl. Keys of your own go in ~/.config/niri/takumi/overrides.kdl, which is read last and never overwritten. The format is described in niri’s documentation. Leave Super+C, V, X, Z, A, S, F, W, T, N and , free: Harmony uses them.

Good to know. In a virtual machine without 3D graphics, the window and Core keys use Alt instead of Super (Alt+Space opens the Core), because the Mac keeps Command+Space for itself.

From the command line

takumi keys harmony off              # Super stops being the Command key
takumi keys harmony on               # and back
takumi keys harmony swap on          # left Alt and the Windows key trade places
takumi keys harmony swap off         # put them back
takumi keys layout                   # your keyboards
takumi keys layout add fr azerty     # add a keyboard
takumi keys layout remove de         # remove one, never the last
takumi keys layout next              # switch to the next
takumi keys input add japanese       # type Japanese; also korean, pinyin, zhuyin, cangjie
takumi keys input toggle             # the input method on or off
takumi keys pointer                  # natural scrolling, tap to click, speeds
takumi keys pointer natural off      # natural scrolling off
takumi keys pointer speed faster     # the pointer faster
takumi keys pointer repeat slower    # a held key repeats more slowly
takumi keys fn fkeys                 # F1 to F12 first; "media" for media keys first
takumi keys backlight cycle          # the keyboard light round its steps
takumi switch touchpad               # the touchpad off or on