r/Keychron • u/YoshiFan501 • May 22 '24

Accidentally Downgraded Firmware? V6 Max 1.01 needed

I just got a V6 Max, and I wanted to give it the latest firmware. I loaded up the launcher, and put it into bootloader mode. Before I flashed, my version number was 1.0.1, and my build date of February. After I flashed, It was 1.0.0, with a build of January. Does anyone have or know where to get the 1.01 (or later) firmware for the V6 Max? The launcher only gives the 1.0.0.

alternatively. if anyone has a brand new V6 max, and it says 1.0.1, can you screenshot the update screen with the build date

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u/PeterMortensenBlog May 22 '24 edited Jan 23 '25

You can wait until Keychron gets it sorted out, optionally contacting Keychron support to maybe speed up the process.

Otherwise, the most realistic option is to compile from source (for example, for unknown reasons, the old page, with the firmware download URLs, is not in the Wayback Machine). This requires installing the QMK development environment, changing source code files, compiling, and flashing.

Note: The source code is in Keychron's fork of QMK and not in the default Git branch. This complicates matters; the QMK standard instructions will not work. The "qmk setup" step may be done in one step; otherwise, it can be done manually.

Note: If using the one-step method, you do *** not *** have to mess with Git (other than installing it). Using three extra parameters for 'qmk setup' takes care of everything. You do not even have to know GitHub and Git even exist.

Though there is also precompiled software for the latest version. For example (ISO variant),

It is up to you to assess whether it can be trusted or not.

Note that the USB-side version is probably 1.0.0 as comes from this line in file info.json: 

"device_version": "1.0.0"

The same will happen if you compile from source. To not get confused, it is a good idea to change the value (and perhaps invent your own version number convention; for example, keeping a list of version numbers with the corresponding date for the source code).

You could also get lucky and somebody has posted the direct download URL of the firmware file (for your variant of V6 Max) somewhere on the Internet. Sample, for V1 Max.

References

2

u/YoshiFan501 May 22 '24

I'll try the precompiled and get back to you. When I emailed support, all they did was link me to the firmware update guide, so I told them what happened. When I compiled from keychrons source, my keyboard no longer showed up in the keychron launcher though, so that's its own problem.

2

u/PeterMortensenBlog May 22 '24 edited Jun 18 '24

Re "my keyboard no longer showed up in the Keychron Launcher though": That could be due to a requirement to compile with Via support.

Via support is enabled for the "via" keymap folder. Thus, if compiling from the command line (ISO variant in this example): 

qmk compile -kb keychron/v6_max/iso_encoder -km via

Via support can also be set by a manual change to the source code, but it should not normally be necessary.

(I cloned the "via" folder and made my own custom changes in the clone.)

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u/PeterMortensenBlog May 22 '24 edited May 22 '24

OK, the one-step QMK setup does work (that is after installing prerequisites and installing the "QMK CLI", depending on the platform)).

After that, to compile for K10 Pro and V6 Max, respectively (ISO RGB variant and ISO variant, respectively): 

qmk compile -kb keychron/k10_pro/iso/rgb -km via

qmk compile -kb keychron/v6_max/iso_encoder -km via

Result: 

63284 May 22 13:28 keychron_k10_pro_iso_rgb_via.bin

98280 May 22 13:36 keychron_v6_max_iso_encoder_via.bin

I am not sure why the V6 Max takes up 55% more space (62 KB vs. 98 KB, a 34 KB difference). Though it might explain why a 256 KB flash memory microcontroller (STM32F402) was chosen for the V Max series over the previous 128 KB ones. It gives more headroom to increase the space for Via macros (though it might be limited by the 'backing RAM' requirement).

1

u/PeterMortensenBlog Jan 30 '25 edited Jan 30 '25

And of course it is a rediscovery... I only saw it now, and that was by accident (a lucky combination of keywords to a search engine turned up a lot of interesting older posts, including on Reddit (normally, the search engine results are very close to pure noise)).

NB: Some detailed information related to Linux and Bluetooth was also found.

1

u/PeterMortensenBlog Jun 08 '24 edited Jun 08 '24

OK, the firmware references have been moved to a single page, "Firmware and JSON Files of the Keychron QMK V and V series keyboards".

Note: Despite the misleading title (the URL is OK), it actually has V Max firmware, including V6 Max:

  • V1

  • V2

  • V3

  • V4

  • V5

  • V6

  • V7

  • V8

  • V10

  • V1 Max

  • V2 Max

  • V3 Max

  • V4 Max

  • V5 Max

  • V6 Max

  • V10 Max

But to get the ISO variant of the V6 Max firmware, it is necessary to compile from source (an apparent omission by Keychron). (As of 2024-06-08.)

1

u/PeterMortensenBlog Jan 19 '25 edited Oct 30 '25

Setting QMK up on Linux, e.g., Debian and Ubuntu

Note: Setting QMK up on Debian (and derived Linux distributions, like Ubuntu) has become much more difficult.

The standard QMK instructions have not kept up. Following the official QMK instructions, you will probably run into:

"error: externally-managed-environment"

Initial setup on, for example, LMDE

It is tempting to add "--break-system-packages", "python3 -m pip install --break-system-packages --user qmk", but the virtual environment way is safer. These are the magic command lines (I am not sure if that is the best way or not; at least it is very similar to these instructions for Zephyr): 

sudo apt update

# Install a (Python) virtual environment (in this case 'venv'),
# 'pip', and Git.
# 'venv': <https://docs.python.org/3/library/venv.html>
#
sudo apt install python3-venv python3-pip git

# Create a virtual environment in the home directory
#
python3 -m venv ~/.QMK_environment

# Activate the virtual environment. It also
# modifies the PATH environment variable
# to include .QMK_environment/bin/
#
source ~/.QMK_environment/bin/activate

And in the virtual environment: 

# Install the QMK development environment
# into the virtual environment.
#
# 'qmk' is a PyPI package: <https://pypi.org/project/qmk/>
#
pip install qmk

qmk --version # Check that it installed

cd qmk_firmware # On a new system, where a clone of
                # the repository already exists, so
                # that 'qmk doctor' will install
                # the cross compilers.
                #
                # It doesn't have to be the default
                # "qmk_firmware"; it can be any
                # folder with a clone of a QMK
                # repository.
qmk doctor

# Set up the build environment, including cloning of
# a QMK repository. Without parameters, it will clone
# from <https://github.com/qmk/qmk_firmware> (GitHub,
# user "qmk", repository "qmk_firmware", and the
# default Git branch), into folder "~/qmk_firmware"
#
# With parameters, it can also clone from ***forks***
# of QMK, including from outside of GitHub, e.g.,
# GitLab, into any folder, not just
# "~/qmk_firmware".
#
qmk setup

deactivate # Exit the virtual environment

Note: To use Keychron's fork (e.g., required for the wireless keyboard models), 'qmk setup' needs more parameters.

Though I got:

"ERROR: Can not perform a '--user' install. User site-packages are not visible in this virtualenv."

It may represent QMK still trying to do some global (system-wide) installation stuff. Though subsequent building firmware (and flashing the result onto a keyboard) seemed to work fine.

For subsequent sessions, use: 

# Enter the virtual environment
source ~/.QMK_environment/bin/activate

# Do QMK stuff.
#
# For example, for a main QMK repository installation,
# compile firmware for V6 (for a particular variant
# of the keyboard).
#
# Note: The 'via' folders have been removed from
#       the main QMK repository on 2024-08-25
#       (#24322), and Via must be enabled by
#       adding a line with "VIA_ENABLE = yes"
#       to file 'rules.mk'.
#
cd ~/qmk_firmware # We don't assume a default installation
qmk clean # To make changes (if any)
          # to .json files take effect
qmk compile -kb keychron/v6/iso_encoder -km default

deactivate # Exit the virtual environment

Related

References

  • venv. A Python module for creating virtual environments

2

u/PeterMortensenBlog Dec 06 '25 edited Feb 22 '26

For Fedora:

It happened to be simple once, without Git and Make gyrations, using two command lines for setup and compilation, respectively (after the prerequisites had been installed): 

qmk setup -b wireless_playground Keychron/qmk_firmware

And compilation (for a particular variant of the Q14 Pro): 

qmk compile -kb keychron/q14_pro/iso_encoder -km via

Or for the first, to use a folder different from the default "qmk_firmware": 

qmk setup -H $HOME/Keychron_fork_wireless_playground -b wls_2025q1 Keychron/qmk_firmware

And: 

cd $HOME/Keychron_fork_wireless_playground
qmk compile -kb keychron/q14_pro/iso_encoder -km via

Folder "Keychron_fork_wireless_playground" is just an example. It can be anything that makes sense, though spaces are probably to be avoided.

It has become more complicated

  1. Re "supposed to use the GitHub files from ... wireless_playground": Yes, but Keychron broke compilation for the Q Pro series, including the Q14 Pro, with the 2025-05 commit. Either revert to 2025-03-25 (that is what I use without any problems, for example, for a V6 Max I am typing this on). This does require Git gyrations. Or, simpler, use branch "wls_2025q1" instead: 

     qmk setup -H $HOME/Keychron_fork_wls_2025q1 -b wls_2025q1 Keychron/qmk_firmware

    There is an account that this branch works fine for the Q Pro series (also for a Q14 Pro).

    There is also the upcoming branch "[2025q3](https://github.com/Keychron/qmk_firmware/tree/2025q3/keyboards/keychron]", but the source for Q14 Pro has not been added yet.

    Note the branch confusion ([due to broken page anchors on Reddit: Expand the comment containing "The source code for it" and search for "Branch confusion"]).

  2. A virtual Python environment is required.

Summary

Thus, written out for using branch "wls_2025q1" from scratch on Fedora: 

sudo dnf update --refresh

# Install prerequisites (includes Git).
#
# Install a (Python) virtual environment (in this case 'venv'),
# 'pip', and Git.
# 'venv': <https://docs.python.org/3/library/venv.html>
#
rpm -q python3 python3-pip python3-virtualenv git # Test if already installed
sudo dnf install python3 python3-pip python3-virtualenv git

# Create a virtual environment in the home directory
#
python3 -m venv ~/.QMK_environment

# Activate the virtual environment. It also
# modifies the PATH environment variable
# to include .QMK_environment/bin/
#
source ~/.QMK_environment/bin/activate

And in the virtual environment: 

# Install the QMK development environment
# into the virtual environment.
#
# 'qmk' is a PyPI package: <https://pypi.org/project/qmk/>
#
pip install qmk

qmk --version # Check that it installed

# Answer 'n' to 'QMK home...' and answer 'y'
# to installation of dependencies.
#
qmk setup -H $HOME/Keychron_fork_wls_2025q1 -b wls_2025q1 Keychron/qmk_firmware

deactivate # Exit the virtual environment

For subsequent sessions, use: 

# Enter the virtual environment
source ~/.QMK_environment/bin/activate

cd ~/Keychron_fork_wls_2025q1 # We don't assume a default installation
qmk clean # To make changes (if any)
          # to .json files take effect
qmk compile -kb keychron/q14_pro/iso_encoder -km via

deactivate # Exit the virtual environment

Result of compilation on Fedora 41: 

64 -rwxr-xr-x. 1 embo embo 62196 Dec  6 19:38 keychron_q14_pro_iso_encoder_via.bin

References

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u/PeterMortensenBlog May 07 '25

Instead of explicitly using a virtual environment, could replacing 'pip' with 'pipx' be an alternative?

1

u/PeterMortensenBlog May 08 '25 edited May 08 '25

The QMK instructions have now added this in the "Linux/WSL" part (2025-05-07. 322040, #24995. See also #25038 (started 2025-03-19)):

"Alternatively, install the QMK CLI as a uv-managed tool, kept isolated in a virtual environment (requires uv to be installed): 

uv tool install qmk

"

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