Home / ubuntu / Questions / 1285363
Accepted
red_trumpet
Asked: 2020-10-21 06:52:35 +0800 CST

Why does `xmodmap` not always load `.Xmodmap` on login?

  • 772

I've got the following in the file ~/.Xmodmap

! change CapsLock to Escape
clear Lock
keycode 0x42 = Escape

It remaps the CapsLock key to Escape, and works pretty well, when I issue the comman xmodmap ~/.Xmodmap. However, it does not always work when I boot my laptop. But sometimes it works!

Does anyone have a clue what's going on? How can I try to troubleshoot this?

keyboard autostart startup xubuntu xmodmap

1 Answers

  1. Best Answer

    I would look into ~/.xinitrc, but there is a myriad of other possibilities depending on your window manager or desktop environment (see, for example, How do I set Xmodmap on login?). There is not enough information in the question to find it out.

    But remapping CapsLock to Escape is one of the canonical mappings provided by the the XKB extension, as listed in man xkeyboard-config. Just issue

    setxkbmap -option 'caps:escape'

    and voilà, CapsLock is an Escape. It can be made persistent by editing the "XKBOPTIONS" line of /etc/default/keyboard:

    XKBOPTIONS="caps:escape"

    Debian and Ubuntu set the keyboard based on that very file, so it is a reliable solution. You can delete .Xmodmap then and just make sure no other program meddles with the keymap.

    • 1