Remap LWIN + ; to ä

Question

I am using a US keyboard layout, but I need German Umlaute as well. Under windows it was easy to map LWIN + ; to produce an ä, LWIN + ' to an ö.

I read about xbindkeys, xmodmap, ... but everywhere I just don't seem to get the combination right.

How would I do that in Linux/Ubuntu? Thank you so much for your help, it is the last thing keeping me from switching full time to Linux.

In current Ubuntu versions using Xorg, xkb (X keyboard extension) is used to configure key maps. It is, however, rather complicated. xbindkeys, while not primarily made for that purpose, is a bit easier to setup and you can't mess up your keyboard configuration with it. I would try xbindkeys first; if the result is not satisfactory, try xkb. — danzel, Aug 4, 2018 at 8:00
Thank you @danzel for helping! I tried askubuntu.com/questions/85850/… but it does not seem to work. Does that maybe have something to do with LWIN trying to open "search"? — Tobias Hertkorn, Aug 4, 2018 at 21:34
I need to switch back to German every once in a while on a US keyboard. My method is rather low-tech. I have both layouts installed and switch using the language drop-down. Most of the keys in the German layout are the same anyway except for Z. If I feel I need to switch back and forth too often because I can't find the key I am looking for I make sure I have one of each umlaut in the text and the esszett and then I switch back to US layout and copy from the existing characters when needed. — hknust, Aug 13, 2018 at 2:29

Gunnar Hjalmarsson · Accepted Answer · 2018-08-08 19:53:13Z

2

+50

Define a compose key.

Once done, you can do for instance:

Compose followed by " followed by a => ä

Compose followed by " followed by o => ö

answered Aug 8, 2018 at 19:53

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I also think it's the best option, using a "useless" key like Scroll Lock as a compose key is incredibly powerful, and also makes using foreign keyboards a pleasure!
– dgonzalez
Aug 11, 2018 at 9:21
1

Note only "Right Super" compose key can be setup but OP specifically wants to use "Left Super" as compose key...
– WinEunuuchs2Unix
Aug 12, 2018 at 18:19
@WinEunuuchs2Unix: Actually XKB understands compose:lwin too, but apparently you can't choose that option from Tweaks. OTOH, using a compose key is not exactly as the OP described the Windows feature anyway, so in any case I think the OP needs to get used to a slightly different method to achieve the goal.
– Gunnar Hjalmarsson
Aug 12, 2018 at 19:46
@GunnarHjalmarsson I concur. Just pointing out differences.
– WinEunuuchs2Unix
Aug 12, 2018 at 19:48

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