Rebind Ubuntu keyboard

rebind-ubuntu-keys.md

Find the key you want to change

• run xev which opens a new window
• when you type the key that you want to rebind, the terminal from which xev is run will display all the info about that key
• look for the keycode section
• gather all the keycodes this way

Rebind the key

• run xmodmap -e "keycode <number> = <expression>" where expression is the value (Escape, Control_L, etc.)

• the changes made here are temporary, the example below shows how to make them permanent

• each keysym column in the table corresponds to a particular combination of modifier keys:

  keycode N = <Key> 
              <Shift + Key>
              <mode_switch + Key>
              <mode_switch + Shift + Key>
              <AltGr + Key>
              <AltGr + Shift + Key>
  
  example: keycode  49 = grave asciitilde grave asciitilde
  

• to assign a blank keysym use NoSymbol as a value

• to print the current keycode > keysym table run xmodmap -pke

Clear everything to default

• reset the changes to the default layout: setxkbmap -layout us

Example

• rebinding CapsLock to Esc

xmodmap -e "clear lock"
xmodmap -e "keycode 66 = Escape"
xmodmap -pke > ~/.xmodmap.conf
xmodmap ~/.xmodmap.conf

• add the last line as a startup command to make the changes permanent ~/.zshrc

if [ -s ~/.xmodmap.conf ]; then
  xmodmap ~/.xmodmap.conf
fi