macOS 10.12 Sierra keyboard driver changes have broken widely used Keyboard customization app

Originator:madmodmail
Number:rdar://31042108 Date Originated:
Status:Open Resolved:
Product: Product Version:
Classification: Reproducible:
 
Area:
Something not on this list

Summary:
Opening this radar for Apple visibility.
Duplicate of rdar://29426145

Many Mac OS X users have installed the open-source keyboard customization utility "Karabiner" to remap their keyboards, provide internationalization support, improve keyboard accessibility, and otherwise improve their Mac keyboard experience.

The macOS 10.12 Sierra update has caused Karabiner to stop working.

https://github.com/tekezo/Karabiner/issues/739

The developer has said:

macOS 10.12 changes to the generic keyboard and mouse drivers had a great impact on Karabiner
These will require large changes to the Karabiner architecture.
There is not a workaround for this issue.
Please wait for an update to Karabiner for macOS 10.12.
(It may take a long time.)
It's unclear if this app will ever be updated, or if the app's behavior will ever be possible under the new keyboard drivers.

If possible, a partial rollback or compatibility layer to support the legacy keyboard drivers would be greatly appreciated!

Steps to Reproduce:
1. Use open-source Keyboard customization app Karabiner in macOS Sierra. Karabiner uses pre-10.12 keyboard drivers.

Expected Results:
Can use app Karabiner (which uses pre-10.12 keyboard drivers) to remap keyboard in Sierra.
Users can stay productive when using the latest release of macOS.

Actual Results:
App Karabiner (which uses pre-10.12 keyboard drivers) does not function under macOS 10.12 due to system updates to keyboard drivers.
User cannot customize keyboard in Sierra.
User will not update to Sierra, and stay on macOS 10.11 instead, in order to keep their productive keyboard customizations.
Users purchasing newer Apple hardware are permanently unable to use Karabiner because of the inability to downgrade to a compatible version of macOS.

Version:
macOS 10.12

Notes:
Many users have come to rely on this app to customize their keyboard. The lack of keyboard customization in Sierra is causing people not to update to the latest version of OS X.

From Apple, a legacy keyboard driver compatibility layer, partial rollback, migration document, or any other action with regards to these drivers would be greatly appreciated!

Configuration:
macOS prior to 10.12.

Attachments:

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