Ubuntu – How to clear xmodmap settings

keyboardkeyboard-layoutxmodmap

Exactly what the title asks. How do I clear xmodmap settings?

I have an IBM model M, and somehow xkeycaps got it into its head that my End key was not any key at all. xev reports keypresses when I use it, so I know the event is being generated by the keyboard. Also, xkeycaps thinks that my arrow keys are all wonky, and apparently the scrollbar is broken so it only scrolls down – so I can't scroll up to find an IBM keyboard that just maybe is close to my map so I can fix my keys.

So I'm trying to reset my keyboard to the default settings, but the xmodmap manpage is woefully devoid of "reset all" or "clear all" or anything of that nature (that I was able to find).

Best Answer

xmodmap has no notion of state, so it has no way to reset state directly. You can simulate it by using xmodmap -pke >.xmodmap.orig before making any changes (although it doesn't save the modifier map, which you would have to save and restore manually) — but it's a bit too late for that.

Modern systems don't generally use xmodmap to configure the keyboard, though. setxkbmap is the modern way to do it; and that does reset bindings when run. So you may be able to use setxkbmap -layout us to reset things to normal. More complete would be to check for the default configuration in /etc/X11/xorg.conf. For example, on my system

jinx:718 Z$ sed -n '/Identifier.*Keyboard/,/EndSection/p' /etc/X11/xorg.conf
        Identifier      "Generic Keyboard"
        Driver  "kbd"
        Option  "XkbModel"      "pc105"
        Option  "XkbLayout"     "us"
        Option  "XkbOptions"    "grp:alt_shift_toggle"
EndSection

The corresponding command is

setxkbmap -model pc105 -layout us -option grp:alt_shift_toggle

If there were an XkbVariant entry in the output, you would pass its value with -variant. One thing to watch out for is that options are handled specially: you can only set one option per -option parameter, and you need to use -option '' to reset parameters first. So to fully reset when there is something like XkbOptions "grp:alt_shift_toggle,grp:ctrls_toggle" you would need

setxkbmap -model pc105 -layout us -option '' -option grp:alt_shift_toggle -option grp:ctrls_toggle

Related Solutions

Ubuntu – Using setxkbmap for a simple remap (similar to xmodmap)

You can follow the general idea seen in my answer on a similar problem; if you still want layout switching (although still quite broken) you should define a new layout or variant.

Notice that the template to copy and modify for the editing an keypad is a bit difficult to find. In my keyboard, for example, the geometry is "pc105"; this is defined in /usr/share/X11/xkb/symbols/pc. If you look into it, it include:

[...]
key <SPCE> {        [        space          ]       };

include "srvr_ctrl(fkey2vt)"
include "pc(editing)"
include "keypad(x11)"

key <BKSP> {        [ BackSpace, BackSpace  ]       };
[...]

The keypad is defined in the file /usr/share/X11/xkb/symbols/keypad

[...] 
default  partial hidden keypad_keys
xkb_symbols "x11" {
   include "keypad(operators)"

   key  <KP7> {        [  KP_Home,     KP_7    ]       };
   key  <KP8> {        [  KP_Up,       KP_8    ]       };
[...]

For the name of the key symbols (keysims), the best place to look is into the file /usr/include/X11/keysymdef.h; you may need to have the development packages installed to have it (or install it by instaling x11proto-core-dev):

[...]
/* Cursor control & motion */

#define XK_Home                          0xff50
#define XK_Left                          0xff51  /* Move left, left arrow */
#define XK_Up                            0xff52  /* Move up, up arrow */
[...]

the keysym name is the one you have once removed the "XK_" string.

Ubuntu – Xmodmap remapping modifiers not working

I'm not an expert myself, but I'll give it a try. First of all, let us make an xmodmap script at ~/.Xmodmap. I understand you want the right alt to function as a super key. I suggest this:

clear mod1
clear mod4

!Make right alt to look like Super_R
!I'm assuming your right alt has keycode 108, you can check using xev
keycode 108 = Super_R NoSymbol Super_R

!Add the Super_L and Super_R keys to the modifier mod4
add mod4 = Super_L Super_R

Your other alt key and super keys may now be messed up, but you can assign them to anything you want analogously. (If you don't want to change them at all, use xev to see what they did originally and assign them to that.) Just put all clears together first, then the assignings of keycodes to key names, then finally the assignings of key names to modifiers, and I think it should work. Normally, ~/.Xmodmap should be executed automatically on login, but if not, you can try adding a line

xmodmap ~/.Xmodmap

sleep 4 && xmodmap ~/.Xmodmap &

to ~/.bash_profile.

Best Answer

Related Solutions

Ubuntu – Using setxkbmap for a simple remap (similar to xmodmap)

Ubuntu – Xmodmap remapping modifiers not working

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