March 25, 2026

Keychron Q8 -- using VIA

VIA is a web based reconfiguration tool for many keyboards, including the Q8. They show three Q8 variants: Here are the instructions:

Try it -- I get errors

They say you should use this link. They also say this only works with Chromium browsers (I am running Google Chrome on Fedora Linux). I get errors: 
NotAllowedError: Failed to open the device.
Received invalid protocol version from device
Device: Keychron Keychron Q8
Vid: 0x3434
Pid: 0x0180

I probably need a udev rule

Create a file /etc/udev/rules.d/99-via.rules with the following content: 
KERNEL=="hidraw*", ATTRS{idVendor}=="3434", ATTRS{idProduct}=="0180", MODE="0666", TAG+="uaccess"
Then do this: 
su
udevadm control --reload-rules
udevadm trigger
Then unplug and replug the keyboard. Yes! Now VIA launches. It tells me my keyboard is a Q8 ANSI.

Make the CAPS lock key do nothing

I click on that key on the keyboard image, then click on the "empty" key below. The label that was originally caps lock is now blank (and blinking).

And it is done! Unbelievable. And easier than I thought. No explicit flashing. Apparently as soon as you change a key, it is done!!

Have any comments? Questions? Drop me a line!

Adventures in Computing / tom@mmto.org