remap key for a footswitch

Question

I've bought a simple footswitch and I've been trying to remap the key to something else. Currently the footswitch is bound to keycode 56 (the letter b). xev returns the following when I press the footswitch:

KeyPress event, serial 36, synthetic NO, window 0x1000001,
    root 0x81, subw 0x0, time 29926629, (-485,502), root:(713,618),
    state 0x10, keycode 56 (keysym 0x62, b), same_screen YES,
    XLookupString gives 1 bytes: (62) "b"
    XmbLookupString gives 1 bytes: (62) "b"
    XFilterEvent returns: False

KeyRelease event, serial 36, synthetic NO, window 0x1000001,
    root 0x81, subw 0x0, time 29927029, (-485,502), root:(713,618),
    state 0x10, keycode 56 (keysym 0x62, b), same_screen YES,
    XLookupString gives 1 bytes: (62) "b"
    XFilterEvent returns: False

I don't want to remap my 'b' key for all of my keyboards so I've been trying to get xkbcomp to work.
I've tried xkbcomp -i 14 ~/Documents/footswitchlayout.xkb $DISPLAY and manually editing the layout and activating it with xkbcomp -i 1 $DISPLAY ~/Documents/footswitchlayout.xkb but noting changes. It still types the 'b' key.

xinput returns

⎡ Virtual core pointer                          id=2    [master pointer  (3)]
⎜   ↳ Virtual core XTEST pointer                id=4    [slave  pointer  (2)]
⎜   ↳ A4Tech PS/2+USB Mouse                     id=13   [slave  pointer  (2)]
⎜   ↳ RDing FootSwitch1F1.                      id=14   [slave  pointer  (2)]
⎜   ↳ SynPS/2 Synaptics TouchPad                id=16   [slave  pointer  (2)]
⎣ Virtual core keyboard                         id=3    [master keyboard (2)]
    ↳ Virtual core XTEST keyboard               id=5    [slave  keyboard (3)]
    ↳ Power Button                              id=6    [slave  keyboard (3)]
    ↳ Video Bus                                 id=7    [slave  keyboard (3)]
    ↳ Video Bus                                 id=8    [slave  keyboard (3)]
    ↳ Power Button                              id=9    [slave  keyboard (3)]
    ↳ Sleep Button                              id=10   [slave  keyboard (3)]
    ↳ Laptop_Integrated_Webcam_2HDM             id=11   [slave  keyboard (3)]
    ↳ DELL Dell QuietKey Keyboard               id=12   [slave  keyboard (3)]
    ↳ AT Translated Set 2 keyboard              id=15   [slave  keyboard (3)]
    ↳ Dell WMI hotkeys                          id=17   [slave  keyboard (3)]

What am I doing wrong? Can anybody point me in the right direction?

Answer 1

After a lot of hassle and key rebinds not working with xkbcomp (even though it worked with any other keyboard. Probably because the footswitch is seen as a mouse) I found a little terminal program that completely solves the problem and is easy to use.
The program is called footswitch by Radoslav Gerganov.

You can install it by running the following commands:

sudo apt-get install libhidapi-dev
git clone https://github.com/rgerganov/footswitch.git
cd footswitch
make
sudo make install

After you've installed it you can read your footswitch keys with sudo footswitch -r and reprogram them with sudo footswitch -k <key>. All preprogrammed keys can be found in common.c.

Edit: This remapping is essentially a reprogramming of the footswitch and IT WILL AFFECT THE FOOTSWITCH ACROSS PC'S. So if you use this and you want a different key in windows you'll have to remap it for windows every time you change the footswitch key in linux or mac.