Ubuntu – How to type a backslash with no backslash key

gnomekeymapUbuntuubuntu-13.10zenbook

I'm trying to use a UK keymap on a physical US keyboard on my notebook (Asus Zenbook UX31E). My keyboard has vertical bar and backslash (| and \) above the Enter key, but I get hash and tilde instead. On UK keyboards, pipe and backslash seem to be just to the left of the Z key. Unfortunately, I don't have that physical key at all; instead, I just have a fat left Shift key. They needed an extra key to make room for £ and €, so things have moved around a bit, I guess.

I need vertical bar (for pipe) all the time in Linux, and, fortunately, found that with Right Alt+`.

Is there any similar trick for getting a backslash? Unfortunately, I don't have a numeric keypad, so I couldn't get an escape sequence like Alt+92 working.

By the way, Shift+` gives me the "not" sign,
¬ (which I call "planking L").
I don't think I'll ever need that, so whilst an existing sequence to get a backslash is preferable, a solution that allows me to map backslash onto Shift+` is also acceptable to me.

By the way, I am using Gnome / Ubuntu 13.10.

Best Answer

I have found out that Alt Gr+- gives \.

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Macos – Synergy Key Mapping

I was in a similar situation at one point, and I found a somewhat 'unique' way around it. Plug the keyboard directly into your Mac, and edit the keyboard preferences directly. After that, any non-Apple keyboard you attach will use those mappings.

Plug in they keyboard.
Open System Preferences (Apple Menu -> System Preferences).
Enter "Keyboard" preferences (under Hardware).
From the "Keyboard Mapping" (or similarly named) tab, change the key mapping as you see fit.

Synergy+ will use these key mappings, since it identifies as a virtual keyboard.

EDIT: Equivalent mappings, based on function:

Linux   │ Mac
────────┼─────────
Control │ Command
Alt     │ Control
Meta    │ Alt
Shift   │ Shift
Super   │ Super

Mac has the extra modifier key (kind of like the old EMACS-style keyboards, which had up to 5 modifier keys). Super is generally deprecated, so you shouldn't have to worry about remapping it.

Linux – Make keyboard in Ubuntu 14.04 act like in Windows

For some versions of Ubuntu (as well as Linux Mint), there's a built-in setting for this:

Open "Keyboard" preferences via "System Settings."
Click the "Options" button.
Click on "Miscellaneous keyboard options."
Select "Shift with numeric keys works as in MS Windows."

For other versions, including Ubuntu 14.04, that setting isn't available by default, but there's an easy solution:

Open a terminal and run sudo apt-get install gnome-tweak-tool.
Run gnome-tweak-tool.
Click on "Typing."
Click on "Miscellaneous compatibility options."
Select "Shift with numeric keypad keys works as in MS Windows" (which may only appear as "Shift with numeric keypad ke...").

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