How can I toggle the Fn (function) key?

Question

Is there a way to toggle the Fn key? I'd like to be able to toggle it so I don't have to press Fn+F12 to raise the volume, for example.

I'm running Ubuntu 16.04.1 LTS on an Asus D550C.

Should be in your BIOS → config → is usually either „F1-F12 as Primary Function: On“ or something like „HotKey Mode“ (change from enabled to disabled or vice versa) — Frank N, May 13 '21 at 10:42

score 296 · Answer 1 · edited Sep 19 '21 at 12:54

296

For some computer models, to toggle F1 .. F12 keys use media functions or to be the "F" keys press Fn + Esc .

edited Sep 19 '21 at 12:54

Quasímodo

2,017

answered Jan 11 '17 at 23:41

Andrew

3,087

13

Works with some laptops like Lenovo Thinkpad series. – Jithin Pavithran Sep 10 '17 at 11:03
3

Works great on my Lenovo T460 and Dell XPS 15 – Jujhar Singh Feb 21 '18 at 22:34
2

Works with Dell Inspirion 5000 series. Thank you Andrey – TheCommoner282 Dec 26 '18 at 15:06
1

Fn + Esc Works like a charm on my DELL Inspiron 15 ~ Thanks! Not sure what 'media functions' is/means – Craig Wilcox Aug 11 '19 at 01:37
it seems not to be working on macbook pro 11,4 – ftassi Nov 19 '19 at 21:20
18

This doesn't work on all laptop brands... – Liam Baker Feb 24 '20 at 08:11
2

In the HP Zbook G5 the shortcut is Fn + Shift https://support.hp.com/us-en/document/c02035108 – Igor Rodriguez Mar 11 '20 at 09:40
2

This works on my Dell Latitude. And this should have been the accepted answer IMHO. – Manikandaraj Srinivasan May 17 '20 at 12:02
3

doesn't work on Dell XPS 9570 and Ubuntu 20.04 LTS :( – Willi Mentzel Jun 07 '20 at 19:50
1

This worked on Dell Vostro series laptop, I was confused what the hell happened doing this reversed the keys back to normal – Vignesh Jun 16 '20 at 09:21
1

Doesn't work on my HP laptop Ubuntu 20.04 – aderchox Sep 13 '20 at 04:48
1

Lovely! works on Dell XPS 15, Ubuntu 18.04.5 – kumetix Nov 10 '20 at 22:53
2

Worked on my Dell G7 with Ubuntu 20.04 – Edgar Ramírez Mondragón Feb 17 '21 at 16:04
1

Tip of the day! I recently bought a new MSI Prestige that swaps the F keys with volume, keyboard backlight, etc. I'm a developer, so I always need the original F key functionality. I wish I could upvote this answer twice. – mwieczorek May 03 '21 at 12:11
Doesn't seem to work on LenovoP50 – MRule Jan 18 '22 at 14:27
Works in 2022 with Lenovo ThinkPad E14 Gen 2 cheers – silentsudo Aug 23 '22 at 06:43
1

Works on Dell Latitude 7420 with Ubuntu 22.04. Thanks! :) – Rareș Flueraș Dec 14 '22 at 09:42
Worked for HP Dev One PopOS 22.04 external keyboard, thanks! – gregtzar Feb 09 '23 at 19:53
Works on Lenovo Yoga Slim 7 (2023) – Temega Dec 11 '23 at 22:59
Works on Dell Precision 5560 with Ubuntu 22.04. – mcabreb Feb 21 '24 at 09:40
Thinkpad escape key even says clearly: "Esc/FnLock", so just do Fn+Esc to switch. – Danijel Feb 21 '24 at 17:53
works well on Dell Precision 3581 and Ubuntu 22.04 – dknaus Mar 08 '24 at 17:10

score 80 · Answer 2 · edited Nov 14 '20 at 14:25

80

If you have an Apple keyboard and want the function keys to act like F1-F12 by default (disable Fn default behavior) give the following command in terminal:

echo 2 | sudo tee /sys/module/hid_apple/parameters/fnmode

from here: https://help.ubuntu.com/community/AppleKeyboard#Change_Function_Key_behavior

edited Nov 14 '20 at 14:25

Zanna

70,465

answered Jul 03 '19 at 17:38

zardosht

1,151
9
9

Works for a MBP 6,1 (2010 17") – Eric Dela Cruz Dec 27 '19 at 08:32
Worked on HP laptop with Ubuntu 18.04 using an Apple keyboard. – n1k31t4 Apr 25 '20 at 18:35
Worked on Ubuntu 18 Ubuntu desktop w/ Apple keyboard – Ezekiel Victor Jun 03 '20 at 23:28
3

Worked for Ubuntu/PopOS 20.04 and doesn't even require reboot – Anton Matosov Jun 24 '20 at 03:10
Work with feker machinist 01, Ubuntu 18.04, no reboot :) – Tiana987642 Sep 22 '20 at 03:44
2

How can I make this work across reboots? – A. Steenbergen Nov 06 '20 at 09:58
1

@A.Steenbergen you can probably use sysfsutils - see my answer here for an example (for a different setting - adjust as needed). – Zanna Nov 14 '20 at 14:27
Great, worked on ubuntu 20.04 with Keychron K3 keyboard (Mac mode) – Borislav Gizdov Mar 23 '21 at 17:18
Thanks! Got a new Vamillo (VA88M) keyboard, using with PopOS, and the fact that media controls were the default action was bugging me. – veritas1 Aug 10 '21 at 12:43
works for manjaro system as well – 王子1986 Sep 01 '21 at 02:29
Worked on Ubuntu 21.10 using a Matias keyboard, thanks. – KaKi87 Apr 01 '22 at 18:19
Worked like a charm on latest Gnome! First time I see gnome changing my Fn .. unsure why but thanks – rodhash Apr 30 '22 at 09:56
I have a 3rd party keyboard that claims "apple compatible", using Ubuntu 22 and this also fixed my issue. – Neil Jul 21 '22 at 19:21
Also worked with my Keychron keyboard. – Marquez Jul 27 '22 at 01:37

score 26 · Accepted Answer · answered Aug 29 '16 at 21:12

26

As far as I know, the Fn key does not get detected by the OS but modifies your other keys on a firmware level. That means you can neither retrieve nor control the state of the Fn key from Ubuntu.

What you could do instead is to change the keyboard shortcut for increasing/decreasing audio volume to an alternative key combination instead of the Fn-modified special key.

Open System Settings → Keyboard and go to the Shortcuts tab. In the list on the left side, select Sound and Media.

After clicking on an entry in the list on the right side (in your case you want to edit Volume up and Volume down), you can press a combination of keys you want to assign to this shortcut. Esc cancels the editing and ← Backspace disables the shortcut.

answered Aug 29 '16 at 21:12

Byte Commander

107,489

2

Great tip because you can use one hand. – WinEunuuchs2Unix Aug 29 '16 at 22:54
1

Brightness up and down? – StressedBoi_69420 May 24 '22 at 16:06
It was necessary to select function key behavior in bios for me. – rela589n Dec 14 '22 at 14:58

score 23 · Answer 4 · edited Nov 08 '19 at 08:33

23

Press Fn+Fn Lock. It will toggle between Enable and Disable.

edited Nov 08 '19 at 08:33

Eliah Kagan

117,780

answered Nov 08 '19 at 06:39

Atul6.Singh

347

6

is "Fn Lock" supposed to be a separate key? If so, where could it be found? – foo Jun 25 '20 at 11:55
2

@foo its your Escape(Esc) key, in the top left corner. – Akshay Alva Nov 06 '20 at 02:09
2

In that case, this is the same as /u/Andrew's answer --- and it doesn't work on all systems. – MRule Jan 18 '22 at 14:29
1

I've just realized that there is a small FnLk written on my Thinkpad X250s Escape button. Easier to find out next time. – Arpad Horvath Apr 20 '22 at 11:05
1

On HP laptops the fn lock key is the left shift key. – Marijn Jun 02 '22 at 08:28
@Marijn Fn + Left Shift Key worked on my HP Probook. Thanks Man – Lal Jan 09 '23 at 16:40

score 16 · Answer 5 · edited Nov 12 '17 at 05:00

16

My laptop has a Fn Lock key which is useful, except when it's been pressed by accident. Then pressing F5 in Firefox doesn't reload the page; it switches off the touch pad. I now know what it is but it had me totally bamboozled having to reboot or logout to get the touch pad back working.

edited Nov 12 '17 at 05:00

wjandrea

14,236
4
48
98

answered Nov 12 '17 at 04:39

rhubarbdog

412

1

With the Microsoft Natural Ergonomic Keyboard 4000 this key is called F lock and is located on the top row next to F12. Pressing it toggles a green LED at the bottom of the keyboard with an F below it. If the LED is off, the function keys don't work. – MathKid Jul 07 '19 at 13:03

score 6 · Answer 6 · edited Nov 14 '20 at 14:28

6

On HP probook 450, left shift has fn lock, so fn+leftShift locks it.

edited Nov 14 '20 at 14:28

Zanna

70,465

answered Nov 05 '20 at 20:47

HasJ Core

61

score 5 · Answer 7 · edited Mar 24 '19 at 08:36

5

Press Fn+Num Lock to disable it.

edited Mar 24 '19 at 08:36

zx485

2,426

answered Mar 23 '19 at 20:03

Qu3d45

59

Confirmed for Kloner Bluetooth Keyboard KTB0025. – emi Feb 15 '20 at 14:51

score 2 · Answer 8 · edited Jul 31 '20 at 13:16

2

Look in the BIOS. For Acer laptop I can choose the toggle on Fn touch in it.

edited Jul 31 '20 at 13:16

Eliah Kagan

117,780

answered Jul 30 '20 at 14:12

TikTaZ

131

That was very helpful, i switched from media key to function key at BIOS – Gabriel Nadaleti Sep 22 '21 at 04:31

score 1 · Answer 9 · answered Dec 19 '20 at 20:56

1

In addition to zardosht answer above as I cannot comment yet.

echo 2 | sudo tee /sys/module/hid_apple/parameters/fnmode

To make this work after reboots I followed Zanna's link to add in sysfutils Ubuntu 17.04 Macbook Pro Tilde key Fix

Added this in the last line to end of file

module/hid_apple/parameters/fnmode = 2

save, reboot and should be working.

Thanks!

answered Dec 19 '20 at 20:56

John Cosio

11
3

Thank you, this saved my day! If someone gets here, this will switch the function keys to the default behaviour, keeping multimedia working with FN key! – Kalizi Jan 30 '22 at 09:21
This helped me as well:
I have a mechanical keyboard from a chinese manufacturer - Hello Gonass which has an fn key. Works fine on windows but the fn keys don't work on Linux.

echo 2 | sudo tee /sys/module/hid_apple/parameters/fnmode makes it work again.
– Alterlife May 06 '22 at 10:37

score 1 · Answer 10 · answered Jan 04 '23 at 04:21

1

Ubuntu 20.04
From BIOS (if fn + Esc is not work)

Go to the Bios
Navigate to the Main tab
Look for the Function Key Behaviour setting and set Function Key instead of the Media Key option.

answered Jan 04 '23 at 04:21

johirpro

111

score 0 · Answer 11 · answered Mar 28 '22 at 20:48

0

On some Keyboard, the left shift is the fn lock key. Press fn+left shift to toggle

answered Mar 28 '22 at 20:48

Swaleh Matongwa

101

score 0 · Answer 12 · answered Dec 22 '22 at 19:22

0

On microsoft keyboard with trackpad:

[Fn-Caps]

answered Dec 22 '22 at 19:22

Joao Polo

101

score 0 · Answer 13 · answered Jan 23 '24 at 22:26

0

On Huawei laptops, press fn key once. This will toggle the behaviour. On some models, the "disabled" behaviour will be indicated with a LED light on.

answered Jan 23 '24 at 22:26

myrs

291

How can I toggle the Fn (function) key?

13 Answers13

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