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Accepted
James Wang
Asked: 2018-12-13 17:18:16 +0800 CST

How can I swap my backspace and backslash?

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I want it like this:

BackSpace -> backslash

Shift + BackSpace -> bar

backslash -> BackSpace

I tried to use xbindkeys and xdotool, but I couldn't get it to work. This is what I had in my .xbindkeysrc file:

"xdotool key bar"
  shift + BackSpace
"xdotool key backslash"
  BackSpace
"xdotool key BackSpace"
  backslash

However, all this would do is make my keys stop working.

keyboard xbindkeys

1 Answers

  1. Best Answer

    it is not possible with xdotool because your are linking two keys together.. system will struggle when you say backslash it reroute to BackSpace & when you say BackSpace again it reroutes to backslash and this loop keep on running

    [backslash-->BackSpace-->backslash-->BackSpace-->backslash-->so on-->]

    [BackSpace-->backslash-->BackSpace-->backslash-->BackSpace-->so on-->]

    your all other keys works if you remove this kind of links..

    for example: both of below will work.

    "xdotool key space"
  Shift + BackSpace + Release
"xdotool key backslash"
  BackSpace + Release

    or

    "xdotool key space"
  Shift + BackSpace + Release
"xdotool key BackSpace"
  backslash + Release

    the best way is to map the keys with this answer..https://askubuntu.com/a/24930/739431

    i have tried it on my keybord and easily swapped backslash & BackSpace keys.

    Example:

    below are the values for the required keys by running xev command and pressing required keys.

    state 0x10. keycode 51 (keysym 0X5c, backslash), same_screen YES,

    stat 0X10, keycode 22 (keysym 0xff08, BackSpace), same_screen YES,

    $ xmodmap -e "keycode 51 = BackSpace"
$ xmodmap -e "keycode 22 = backslash"
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