CrunchBang Linux

Microcord

#! Member

Registered: 2011-03-13

Posts: 61

[SOLVED] Ctrl / CapsLock swap sometimes doesn't

A frequently occurring question is "How do I swap [left] Ctrl and CapsLock?" Here in crunchbanglinux.org we see somebody answering his own question with what seems to be the standard recommendation, which, simplified, is:

• Copy some lines of code from any of several helpful pages (eg the one I linked to).

• Paste these into a text file and save this as ~/whatever.kmap

• Open ~/.bashrc , within this add the line "xmodmap ~/whatever.kmap", save.

I did that. Logged out, logged in -- the keys remained as before. Damn. Turned the computer off, went to bed, slept, woke up, woke up the computer, still no swap. Damn. I guessed I'd made some silly mistake (e.g. capitalizing the "w" of "whatever") and was about to investigate this -- when I realized that the keys had swapped. Very strange. But good, the system was doing what I wanted it to do.

Later, though, the swap ended. (Or the keys swapped back. Or anyway the keys labeled "Caps Lock" and "Ctrl" reverted to working the way IBM intended 28 [?] years ago and Dell intended two years ago.) It ended all by itself. No logging out, rebooting, nothing, just a sudden realization that what I think of as the Ctrl key had stopped working whereas the key marked "Ctrl" was working as the Ctrl key.

This is really strange (and most irritating).

No, I'm not (consciously) doing anything else funny with my keys.

True, I am running iBus and Anthy for Japanese input, but during the last couple of days I've only turned Anthy on for a total of a couple of minutes. And both when I used iBus+Anthy in the previous, Squeeze incarnation of this computer and use it in my other, Squeeze computer, the keys remained/remain where I (and long-ago WordStar!) want.

Does this sound familiar?

Last edited by Microcord (2012-03-09 13:20:37)

xaos52

The Good Doctor

From: Planet of the @s

Registered: 2011-06-24

Posts: 4,493

Re: [SOLVED] Ctrl / CapsLock swap sometimes doesn't

No, it does not.

In my opinion, .bashrc is not the correct place to put those commands.

From the xmodmap man page:

It  is usually run from the user's session startup script to
       configure the keyboard according to personal tastes.

Put the commands in $HOME/.Xmodmap and most - if not all - login managers will pick it up.
Correction: seems a little coaxing is needed to make it work:
See this thread http://crunchbanglinux.org/forums/post/140624/#p140624

hth

Last edited by xaos52 (2012-03-09 10:47:38)

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Microcord

#! Member

Registered: 2011-03-13

Posts: 61

Re: [SOLVED] Ctrl / CapsLock swap sometimes doesn't

Put the commands in $HOME/.Xmodmap and most - if not all - login managers will pick it up.

I did that, rebooted, and yes the keys are as I want them. Excellent, thank you!

Correction: seems a little coaxing is needed to make it work:
See this thread http://crunchbanglinux.org/forums/post/140624/#p140624

That I did. It's rather heavy going for my atrophying NooB brain. But luckily no coaxing was necessary.

Splendid, another question answered. Only several dozen more to go!

Forthy

#! CrunchBanger

From: Warwickshire, UK

Registered: 2012-01-16

Posts: 154

Re: [SOLVED] Ctrl / CapsLock swap sometimes doesn't

May I ask out of curiosity, what is the purpose of swapping these keys?

Microcord

#! Member

Registered: 2011-03-13

Posts: 61

Re: [SOLVED] Ctrl / CapsLock swap sometimes doesn't

May I ask out of curiosity, what is the purpose of swapping these keys?

Ctrl is a key I often use. Following tradition suddenly established by some bizarre decision of IBM's with its AT (I think, but anyway in the early 80s), the little-used (by most people) CapsLock key was moved to the left of A and the Ctrl key moved from there to the extreme bottom left.

Why the move? The story I read back then was that secretaries who were accustomed to (and were sometimes still using) typewriters wanted CapsLock where shift lock had always been. A story I've read recently says that IBM wanted to render WordStar a lot less appealing by effectively destroying WordStar's "command diamond" (if true, I suppose it would have been to boost the chances of the justly forgotten DisplayWrite). I've never seen evidence for either claim, and would tend instead to put it down to sheer perverseness by IBM, a company that then had lots of money and influence on editorial decisions in then-powerful computer magazines, and whose various stupid actions were therefore not greeted with the ridicule that they deserved.

Since I rarely want to RANT TO MY READERS, I rarely have any use for locking caps. I'm sure that other people do have some legitimate, non-ranty use for doing so. I do have plenty of use for Ctrl. (Right now I'm using Iceweasel. New tab? Ctrl-T. Etc.)

An additional minor benefit is that it makes my computer more inscrutable to others:

"Uh, I'm terribly sorry, but could I borrow that just for a moment?"

"Oh, yes, of course. You won't mind Linux, I'm sure. But the keys aren't where you'd expect them to be."

"Oh, uh, well . . . that's fine. I'll look it up on my own computer a bit later."

Microcord

#! Member

Registered: 2011-03-13

Posts: 61

Re: [SOLVED] Ctrl / CapsLock swap sometimes doesn't

Because there are a number of easily googlable pages on the internets saying that one should put this material in an arbitrarily named file and have this or that other file point to it, because that approach didn't work consistently for me, xaos52's recommended (and slightly simpler) method (above) does work consistently for me, and because a lot of people (e.g. myself) are driven nuts by keys that are (for them) in the wrong places, I've created a very short and simple Wiki page summarizing what to do.

As a permanent NooB, I don't actually understand what I'm saying -- I'm merely parroting what others say. It would be better if somebody with a working brain quickly checked what I wrote for potential snags, etc.

Forthy

#! CrunchBanger

From: Warwickshire, UK

Registered: 2012-01-16

Posts: 154

Re: [SOLVED] Ctrl / CapsLock swap sometimes doesn't

May I ask out of curiosity, what is the purpose of swapping these keys?

Ctrl is a key I often use. Following tradition suddenly established by some bizarre decision of IBM's with its AT (I think, but anyway in the early 80s), the little-used (by most people) CapsLock key was moved to the left of A and the Ctrl key moved from there to the extreme bottom left.

Learn something new every day! Thanks :-)