Logitech Keyboard Adventure

I had this ancient Microsoft Cordless Multimedia Desktop set (well, just the keyboard – the mouse was lost along the years) and using the Microsoft-provided PPC drivers, I was able to get the keyboard (including the special hotkeys) working on my MacBook Pro. Warning: upcoming rant!

The keyboard died a little while back, and I was using a standard keyboard for the time being. Eventually I got a replacement Logitech S510 set, which is very nice by the way, however the drivers on the CD were Windows-only, and the Mac drivers from their website only support the mouse and not the keyboard (I couldn’t care less about the mouse).

Now, being a Windows keyboard, the physical Alt key gets mapped to the Apple/Cmd key, and the Winkey is mapped to Alt. Using the Modifier Keys option in System Preferences -> Keyboard & Mouse let me resolve this (although it also changes the internal keyboard too).

In addition, none of the media hotkeys worked with the exception of the sleep and volume buttons. On Windows XP, all the keys worked without any drivers.

I finally stumbled upon the Logitech forums – it never occoured for me to look their first, but I figured it couldn’t hurt. According to the stickies at the top of each category on their forum, the latest version of the Logitech Control Center software is 2.31, yet for some reason the Download page on their official site was giving me the old 1.62 version!

After downloading the latest drivers from VersionTracker (a good site for Mac software, by the way), installed the package, rebooted (I thought rebooting was for Windows…) and still no support for the keyboard under System Preferences. Luckly, the media keys were now working properly, but the zoom key still remains unfunctional.

In addition, I was able to get “middle click” functionality working by going to the new control center and selecting “Advanced click” and “button number 3″.

So there, that’s my adventure in Logitech land.