I love the new Apple keyboard. But like a lot of other people, on one of my machines, the expose and dashboard keys weren’t working. So I thought I would dig into the issue. The problem is apparently that Dock.app isn’t getting updated properly. The keyboard driver is sending the commands correctly, but Dock.app isn’t listening for them, because somewhere along the update chain, it’s not getting something it needs. I’m personally suspect of the 10.4.10 update.
(update) Try steps 3&4 first. They might fix the issue without the need for your original install disks.
I fixed it using my original install disks, 10.4.10 combo updater, keyboard update and Pacifist. Here’s how.
1. Insert Install disk for 10.4.x and open /System/Installation/Packages/Essentials.pkg/ with pacifist.
(update) for users of localizations there’s a sub step here. 1.1 On your original installation disk, open /System/Installation/Packages/language.pkg with Pacifist. Locate /System/Library/CoreServices/Dock.app. Click install and select update when asked.
2. Within Pacifist, navigate to /System/Library/Core Services. Click on Dock.app and click install. When it’s uncompressed, it will ask if you would like to update or replace. Click replace. 3. When that’s finished, open the 10.4.10 combo update package with pacifist and navigate to the dock.app again. Click install, and this time when it asks, make sure to click update.. not replace. 4. When that’s finished, open the keyboard software 1.1 mpackage, click the arrow to reveal the contents of AppleKeyboardSoftware_Cmn.pkg, navigate to dock.app one more time, click install and then update once again. Not replace.
Once this procedure is finished, you can force quit dock.app and the keys should work.
Now, you might be able to do this using only the 10.4.10 update and the keyboard software, but going back to your install disk is the only way to get a complete “clean” version of Dock.app as the update does not contain a full copy.
Also you could probably just grab a working Dock.app from a computer like yours (intel for intel, PPC for PPC) with all the software updates completed.
Update: For some reason, the Safari beta will also modify the dock. You may need to uninstall and reinstall the Safari Beta if you’re running it.