XFCE/Xubuntu Keyboard – How to Permanently Swap Esc and Caps Lock

keyboardxfcexkbxmodmap

I followed some post a while ago, and it said to make an ~/.xmodmap file like so:

! Swap caps lock and escape
remove Lock = Caps_Lock
keysym Escape = Caps_Lock
keysym Caps_Lock = Escape
add Lock = Caps_Lock

I did, and it now I can swap esc and caps lock by doing xmodmap ~/.xmodmap. I wanted this to be permanent, so I added that command to my ~/.bash_profile, but it doesn't seem to work; I still have to manually xmodmap. As an EEng dropout, I am tempted to just rewire my keyboard }:-) but I know there must be a better way. How can I make this work, permanently?

Best Answer

Execute xfce4-settings-manager, in Session and Startup -> Application autostart, add an entry, which executes xmodmap ~/.xmodmap

Or rename the file to ~/.Xmodmap

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Modern Xorg uses the XKB extension for supporting keyboard layouts. Xmodmap is emulated through a compatibility layer, but it has quirks. You can disable XKB entirely and Xorg will revert to using the old Xmodmap keyboard mappings. I think it's setting the option XkbDisable to true in xorg.conf, but you probably want to do it the XKB method. There are many configurable options located in /usr/share/X11/xkb/rules/xorg.xml and I think you want caps:swapescape which swaps Caps Lock and Escape. Try setxkbmap -option caps:swapescape

Remapping Caps Lock with Xmodmap Doesn’t Work – Fix

The xmodmap(1) man page has an example for exactly this

   !
   ! Swap Caps_Lock and Control_L
   !
   remove Lock = Caps_Lock
   remove Control = Control_L
   keysym Control_L = Caps_Lock
   keysym Caps_Lock = Control_L
   add Lock = Caps_Lock
   add Control = Control_L

but if you want to finish doing it the way you started, I think you need to add at least the remove and add lines

   remove Lock = Caps_Lock
   remove Control = Control_L
   keycode 37 = Caps_Lock
   keycode 66 = Control_L
   add Lock = Caps_Lock
   add Control = Control_L

I'm guessing that's the case based on this paragraph

   add MODIFIERNAME = KEYSYMNAME ...
           This adds all keys containing the given keysyms  to  the  indi‐
           cated  modifier  map.  The keysym names are evaluated after all
           input expressions are read to make it easy to write expressions
           to swap keys (see the EXAMPLES section).

which makes it sound like modifier changes (shift, control, etc.) don't get applied until you run that too.

(And logically the same with remove)

The keycode version has the advantage of being idempotent, meaning that the effect won't change if xmodmap is run multiple times.

Best Answer

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