macOS to Linux Keyboard Configuration Guide

[melonamin]

This guide helps macOS users configure familiar keyboard shortcuts on Linux using keyd and keyd-application-mapper.

Overview

The configuration transforms your Linux keyboard to behave like macOS:

• Cmd key (⌘) maps to Control
• Cmd+Key shortcuts work as expected
• Caps Lock becomes a Meta key
• Terminal copy/paste uses Cmd+C/V

Installation

1. Install keyd:

sudo pacman -S keyd

Basic Configuration

Step 1: Main keyd Configuration

Create /etc/keyd/default.conf:

[ids]
*

[main]
# Cmd keys trigger the cmd layer
leftmeta = layer(cmd)
rightmeta = layer(cmd)

# Caps Lock acts as Cmd
capslock = leftmeta

[cmd:C]
# Essential shortcuts
a = C-a          # Select all
c = C-c          # Copy
v = C-v          # Paste
x = C-x          # Cut
z = C-z          # Undo
s = C-s          # Save
f = C-f          # Find
w = C-w          # Close tab
t = C-t          # New tab
q = C-q          # Quit

# Text navigation
left = C-a       # Beginning of line
right = C-e      # End of line

[cmd]
# Text navigation and selection (Mac-like)
left = home
right = end
shift+left = S-home
shift+right = S-end

Step 2: Terminal Configuration

Create ~/.config/keyd/app.conf for terminal-specific overrides:

# Terminal applications need Ctrl+Shift for copy/paste
[alacritty]
cmd.c = C-S-c
cmd.v = C-S-v

[com-mitchellh-ghostty]
cmd.c = C-S-c
cmd.v = C-S-v
cmd.t = C-S-t
cmd.w = C-S-w
cmd.leftbrace = C-S-tab
cmd.rightbrace = C-tab

Step 3: Enable Services

# Enable keyd
sudo systemctl enable --now keyd

# Set up keyd-application-mapper (user service)
mkdir -p ~/.config/systemd/user/

cat > ~/.config/systemd/user/keyd-application-mapper.service << 'EOF'
[Unit]
Description=Keyd Application Mapper
After=graphical-session.target

[Service]
Type=simple
ExecStart=/usr/bin/keyd-application-mapper -d
Restart=always

[Install]
WantedBy=default.target
EOF

systemctl --user enable --now keyd-application-mapper

Troubleshooting

1. Test your config:

   sudo keyd -m
   # Press keys to see how they're mapped

2. Check service status:

   systemctl status keyd
   systemctl --user status keyd-application-mapper

3. View logs:

   journalctl -u keyd -f
   journalctl --user -u keyd-application-mapper -f

4. Application detection:

   # See which app keyd-application-mapper detects
   keyd-application-mapper -v

Life is too short to fight muscle memory!

UPD1: adjusted terminal config, kudos to @domgom
UPD2: added Mac-like text selection creds to @stefvw93 and @followbl

[followbl]

this really should be a default available option in omarchy, allowing for mac keybinding defaults, this is so good, thanks for sharing, made me feel at home in Omarchy!

[followbl]

@melonamin any ideas on how to add

cmd+shift+left-arrow
cmd+shift+right-arrow

to select the entire line from where the cursor currently is. I cannot get this to work no matter what config I place in.

obviously on linux the exact functionality I want to mimic is

shift+home - selects entire line to the beginning from cursor
shift+end - selects entire line to the end from cursor

if anyone has this solution to work with the above, I would be forever grateful!

[stefvw93]

[cmd:C]
# Essential shortcuts
...

# Text navigation and selection
left = home
right = end
shift+left = S-home
shift+right = S-end

[followbl]

thank you @stefvw93 your comment got me one step closer and I finally got the solution.

[cmd]
# Text navigation and selection (Mac-like)
left = home
right = end
shift+left = S-home
shift+right = S-end

I just needed it in a standalone cmd designation.

[stefvw93]

Ah right, I must've forgot. Works like a charm indeed.

[domgom]

I had to make a few changes for this config to work:

[alacritty|kitty|gnome-terminal|konsole] to [alacritty]

ExecStart=/usr/bin/keyd-application-mapper -d went into restart loop, removing -d worked for me.

Adding my user to the keyd group to be able to read the socket.

[MihaelIsaev]

This is amazing work, thank you all!
Could you please also help me to remap:
Ctrl+Shift+Left/Right -> Opt+Shift+Left/Right to select by words
CapsLock+W -> Cmd+Q
Cmd+Space to switch keyboard layout
Cmd+Tab to switch focus between windows
Cmd+Shift+3 to make a screenshot of all screen
Cmd+Shift+4 to make a screenshot of some part of the screen

Also I would like to try to use Fn as a meta key instead of CapsLock, could you please help me with that also. Thanks in advance!

[stefvw93]

See the keyd docs

[stefvw93]

Since I first joined this discussion, I’ve experimented with a range of setups from safe configurations with sensible concessions to completely cursed ones packed with custom bindings, in an effort to map almost everything to the super/cmd key like on macos. If anyone has a 100% macos-like setup, I commend you and please share your efforts here 😄.. I settled on a more simple approach that tackles all the essentials for me.

What I noticed missing in this thread so far are a few things:

• Keeping Omarchy’s Caps Lock shortcuts (for example, the emoji picker) while also using capslock as super key
• macOS-style word jumping
• macOS-style beginning/end-of-file jumping
• Simplifying some unnecessary keyd rules such as the explicit cmd:C layer definitions and the shift+left / shift+right mappings

See my gist for my current keyd configuration that balances comfort and flexibility: Gist

[patroza]

My setup involves Toshy which does 90% of the heavy lifting, and swapping

• SUPER->ALT for window and workspace management (like popularized with AeroSpace/YOBAI on Mac)
• SUPER->HYPER for app launching, with HYPER+Shift to force new. HYPR is on Capslock on standard keyboards, or on RT1+RT3 on Glove80
• MAC Screen Capture and Lock keybindings

so far pretty happy. (not yet in a state to share configs atm)

The best thing about the Toshy setup is that it has so many app specific configurations, and it can easily handle multiple different keyboard layouts like Apple vs Windows keyboards.

[patroza]

Here's a kind of unfiltered version patroza/omarchy-mac@3bf21f7

[stefvw93]

@patroza ohh this is actually similar to what I was going for. Thanks for sharing!

[fenfir]

With keyd 2.5.0 on nixos, I had to move the comments on "essential shortcuts" to their own line, otherwise I was getting a parse error.

It is also complaining about the shift+ lines at the bottom, stating that "shift is not a valid key". I ended up duplicating and changing to leftshit and rightshift+

[n-studio]

What should be the config in ~/.config/hypr/input.conf ?

"Caps Lock becomes a Meta key" doesn't seem to work on my computer...

[n-studio]

I removed the kb_options line. Everything works except the copy-paste on terminal.