Binding caps-lock to a range of commands shortcut-keys keyboard-layout

[bjohas]

I never use caps lock, so I'd like to use it as an addition custom modifier key. What modifier keys are there? Super, meta, hyper?

Could I turn the caps lock key into say "hyper" and then assign commands to hyper-a, hyper-b etc? How would I do that?

I'm thinking mainly of commands like beginning of line, end of line etc. Where would those commands (that are currently found to other legal so I can assign them?

(Also asked here: https://askubuntu.com/questions/1159620/binding-caps-lock-to-a-range-of-commands )

[Holger_Gehrke]

'man xmodmap' should tell you what you want to know about remapping keys (and mouse buttons).

Holger

[bjohas]

Hi Holger,

thank you very much! I've looked into xmodmap with some success.

I'm a bit confused about some of the modifiers though. For example, https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Xmodmap says


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


Key
Shift+Key
Mode_switch+Key
Mode_switch+Shift+Key
ISO_Level3_Shift+Key
ISO_Level3_Shift+Shift+Key



But: the xmodmap has up to 10 entries for each key. So what do those correspond to?

Further, how does


$ xmodmap -pmxmodmap: up to 4 keys per modifier, (keycodes in parentheses):

shift Shift_L (0x32), Shift_R (0x3e)
lock Caps_Lock (0x42)
control Control_L (0x25), Control_R (0x69)
mod1 Alt_L (0x40), Meta_L (0xcd)
mod2 Num_Lock (0x94)
mod3
mod4 Super_R (0x86), Super_L (0xce), Hyper_L (0xcf)
mod5 ISO_Level3_Shift (0x5c), ISO_Level3_Shift (0x6c), Mode_switch (0x85), Mode_switch (0xcb)

then correspond to the above? I read this list as "the function 'shift' is fulfilled by the phyiscals keys Shift_L and Shift_R" etc. I'm on a laptop without num_lock, and isn't it also strange that mod3 is not assigned? Or is it that somehow only mod1/4/5 aer used in the above list?

And then it would make sense to have




Key
Shift+Key
mod1+Key
mod1+Shift+Key
mod2+Key
mod2+Shift+Key



Is that correct?

[bjohas]

I've added a lot of notes about xmodmap / xev / setxkbmap here: https://github.com/bjohas/Ubuntu-keyboard-map-like-OS-X

[TheFu]

I'm thinking mainly of commands like beginning of line, end of line etc. Where would those commands (that are currently found to other legal so I can assign them?


Each program can have different key-chords for those things.
If you are talking about an editor, each will be different.
If you are talking about a shell, most have ways to alter between well-known setups - either vi or emacs key bindings. There are books on each shell program which get into those key chords.

https://github.com/jlevy/the-art-of-command-line is one summary.

xmodmap is one way. xdotool connected with xmodmap is helpful too. Both should work on an X11 setup. Additionally, each Window Manager + DEs can handle these things differently. Some have GUI programs to setup/modify shortcuts. Others use text file configurations.

[amirdarkevil]

I had the same problem
Thanks. (https://film4irani.ir)