Ubuntu – Caps Lock is turned off when i change the language

I don't know of any command line tool for that in Ubuntu. (For Num Lock, there is numlockx .) Here's a one-liner that you can copy-paste into a terminal window:

python -c 'from ctypes import *; X11 = cdll.LoadLibrary("libX11.so.6"); display = X11.XOpenDisplay(None); X11.XkbLockModifiers(display, c_uint(0x0100), c_uint(2), c_uint(0)); X11.XCloseDisplay(display)'

Here it is again in a more expanded form. We use the Python ctypes library to call C functions from the X library directly. The function XkbLockModifiers changes the state of the keyboard locks, on the core keyboard (XkbUseCoreKbd = 0x0100), affecting Caps Lock (2), setting it to 0 (off).

#!/usr/bin/env python
from ctypes import *
X11 = cdll.LoadLibrary("libX11.so.6")
display = X11.XOpenDisplay(None)
X11.XkbLockModifiers(display, c_uint(0x0100), c_uint(2), c_uint(0))
X11.XCloseDisplay(display)

If you have a stuck modifier, change 2 to the mask of the modifiers you want to turn off. The modifiers are 1=Shift, 2=Lock (Caps Lock), 4=Control, 8=Mod1, 16=Mod2, 32=Mod3, 64=Mod4, 128=Mod5. Run xmodmap -pm to see what Mod1 through Mod5 correspond to. For example, to turn off all modifiers, call X11.XkbLockModifiers(display, c_uint(0x0100), c_uint(255), c_uint(0)). To turn on Num Lock which is on Mod2 and at the same time turn off Caps Lock, call X11.XkbLockModifiers(display, c_uint(0x0100), c_uint(2 | 16), c_uint(16)).

Here's a C version if you want to make a small binary instead of invoking Python. Compile with gcc -O -Wall -o caps_lock_off caps_lock_off.c -lX11, with the packages build-essentials and libx11-dev installed.

#include <stdio.h>
#include <X11/X.h>
#include <X11/XKBlib.h>
int main()
{
    Display *display = XOpenDisplay(NULL);
    if (display == NULL) {
        fprintf(stderr, "Couldn't open display\n");
        return 2;
    }
    Bool sent = XkbLockModifiers(display, XkbUseCoreKbd, LockMask, 0);
    if (!sent) {
        fprintf(stderr, "Couldn't send LatchLockState\n");
        return 1;
    }
#ifdef REPORT_STATE
    XkbStateRec xkb_state;
    Status status = XkbGetState(display, XkbUseCoreKbd, &xkb_state);
    if (status) {
        fprintf(stderr, "XkbGetState returned %d\n", status);
        return 1;
    }
    printf("state.group=%02x\n", xkb_state.group);
    printf("state.locked_group=%02x\n", xkb_state.locked_group);
    printf("state.base_group=%02x\n", xkb_state.base_group);
    printf("state.latched_group=%02x\n", xkb_state.latched_group);
    printf("state.mods=%02x\n", xkb_state.mods);
    printf("state.base_mods=%02x\n", xkb_state.base_mods);
    printf("state.latched_mods=%02x\n", xkb_state.latched_mods);
    printf("state.locked_mods=%02x\n", xkb_state.locked_mods);
    printf("state.compat_state=%02x\n", xkb_state.compat_state);
    printf("state.grab_mods=%02x\n", xkb_state.grab_mods);
    printf("state.compat_grab_mods=%02x\n", xkb_state.compat_grab_mods);
    printf("state.lookup_mods=%02x\n", xkb_state.lookup_mods);
    printf("state.compat_lookup_mods=%02x\n", xkb_state.compat_lookup_mods);
    printf("state.ptr_buttons=%02x\n", xkb_state.ptr_buttons);
#endif
    int err = XCloseDisplay(display);
    if (err) {
        fprintf(stderr, "XCloseDisplay returned %d\n", err);
        return 1;
    }
    return 0;
}

Also possibly of interest is a way to temporarily ignore Caps Lock:

xkbset nullify lock

After this, Caps Lock will effectively be permanently off, until you reenable it with xkbset nullify -lock.

Learn to use Shift instead, that is the common way to enter a capital letter.

If you want to hit Caps Lock anyway to produce a capital letter, do note that there are reports that the delay is a known issue ((Launchpad Bug #1376903). The Arch Linux wiki describes a method to remove this delay which seems to work.

For your convenience, this script performs the manual steps documented at that wiki page:

#!/bin/sh
xkbcomp -xkb "$DISPLAY" - | sed 's#key <CAPS>.*#key <CAPS> {\
    repeat=no,\
    type[group1]="ALPHABETIC",\
    symbols[group1]=[ Caps_Lock, Caps_Lock],\
    actions[group1]=[ LockMods(modifiers=Lock),\
    Private(type=3,data[0]=1,data[1]=3,data[2]=3)]\
};\
#' | xkbcomp -w 0 - "$DISPLAY"

This needs to be started as part of your desktop session (do not use Upstart for example). See this post for a method, do not forget to enable the execute bit of the script.