I'm searching for a way to remap certain keys in ubuntu.
i.e.
I'd like to change PgUp to Home or PgDown to End.
Does a built-in command or a tool exist reassign keys in Ubuntu/GNOME?
Notice: As of 2013, Ubuntu and derivatives no longer use xmodmap
, but instead use xkb
. For more information see this answer. The answer below is no longer relevant for current releases.
For remapping certain keys you need two tools. First xev (command-line tool) and second xmodmap (also command-line tool). Both should be available in Ubuntu without extra installing them.
Start terminal window and run xev
. Now it's active and waits for you to press a key. Then press the key whose behaviour you want to change. i.e. PgUp.
xev
will output some information about the pressed key. The third line is important. It should look similar to:
state 0x10, keycode 110 (keysym 0xff55, Prior), same_screen YES,
in this example Prior
is the name of the behaviour the key is assigned to at the moment, the number keycode is the internal id to recognize the key.
Now do this with another key i.e. PgDown give this output
state 0x10, keycode 115 (keysym 0xff56, Next), same_screen YES,
Here again the interesting part for us is keycode 115
and Next
- the name of the behaviour.
now when you want to swap the two keys use xmodmap
.
xmodmap -e "keycode 110 = Next"
This changes the key with keycode 110 on your keyboard to the action Next
. It's pretty simple.
Note that if the key you are mapping should have a different meaning when used with the Shift key (for example for British keyboard layouts, Shift+2 gives quotation marks) then you can simply list the secondary command after the first. For example if you want the key with code 53 to map to backslash normally, but to the bar symbol when used with shift, you might do:
xmodmap -e "keycode 53 = backslash bar"
Additional information: The sequence of these mappings depends on the keyboard layout. It usually is Key, Shift+Key, mode_switch+Key, mode_switch+Shift+Key, AltGr+Key, AltGr+Shift+Key, but can be very different for more special layouts, like in case of the German Neo 2 one. To skip a column use NoSymbol
. Here is a comprehensive list of all keysyms.
You can see the concrete sequence for your layout by finding it in one of the files in /usr/share/X11/xkb/symbols/
.
Note: These change are for the active X session only and will be lost after reboot. When you want to save the changes permanently you have to run the following commands after the ones above:
xmodmap -pke >~/.Xmodmap
(it creates a file named .Xmodmap
in your home directory (~
))
Then you have to create a file named .xinitrc
in your home directory where you put command xmodmap .Xmodmap
in.
You can now modify .Xmodmap
and run xmodmap .Xmodmap
from console to see the changes immediately. The changes in .Xmodmap
will persist.
source: Ubuntu Foruns
If the key you are remapping has different behavior depending on a state (
like how the keys in the numeric keyboard depend on NumLock) you simply have to do xmodmap -pm
to get a list of modifiers and then do:
xmodmap -e "KEYCODE MODIFIER = behaviour behaviour_with_modifier"
Suppose, for example, that you want to get a period instead of a comma on the numeric keyboard (useful for most programmers), but you want to keep the "delete" behavior when NumLock is off.
xmodmap -e "keycode 91 mod2 = KP_Delete period"
mod2
, because xmodmap -pm
tells us that mod2
is Num_Lock
, the other names are obtained by pressing the keys in xev
.
-event
flag in Ubuntu 12.04. It throws an error and doesn't mention "event" in man xev
.
Feb 17, 2014 at 14:47
If you're trying to move a Shift key, there are a few extra steps:
xmodmap -e "keycode 62 = Up" # Shift => Up
xmodmap -e "keycode 111 = Shift_R" # Up => Shift
xmodmap -e "add shift = Shift_R" # Make the new Shift key actually do shifting
xmodmap -e "remove shift = Up" # Prevent the old Shift key from shifting
xset r 62 # Make the new Up key autorepeat
xset -r 111 # Prevent the new Shift key from autorepeating
I've just had an afterthought.. I think you may mean something entirely different by "remap".. but I'll leave my answer as it is... (I don't know how to re-assign one key to behave as another)
UPDATE: my 'afterthought' has been confirmed; ( I've answered the wrong question :)... please see NES's Community Wiki answer (accepted above).
There are two general ways to remap rebind a key.
For 'local to a program' methods, there is sometimes a way to change keybindings offered by the app itself... eg.
Firefox
has an addon called keyconfig ... for some info see this MozillZine post
Most Ubuntu programs are Gnome based and there is a specific utility to modify the keybinding for any menu item of these Gnome apps... It is called Editable Menu Accelerator
... It is a very 'touchy' tool, but quite powerful.. You can enable it by running gconf-editor
(via Terminal or Alt+F2)... navigate to desktop
--gnome
--interface
and select can_change_accels
.... You can then change menu items to virtual anything you like (per program/window)... I suggest you disable it as soon as you've done what you need..
Otherwise you can set up Global hotkeys. I use a program called xbindkeys , and there is also an option available via the Main Menu -- Preferences, called
Keyboard Shortcuts
If you use xbindkeys, you will need to add it to your "Startup Applications" (Main Menu -- Preferences) ... Also (as suggested by Stefano Palazzo) I have previously written a more detailed description of xbindkeys in an answer on this askubuntu page
xdotool
, check out the man page, I've used it to solve this problem.
Feb 5, 2011 at 14:24
Here is how I tried to switch the mapping of the ENTER key to the SHIFT key (and vice versa):
$ uname -a
REPORTS:
Linux box 2.6.32-37-generic #81-Ubuntu SMP Fri Dec 2 20:35:14 UTC 2011 i686 GNU/Linux
$ which xmodmap
REPORTS:
/usr/bin/xmodmap
$ which xev
REPORTS:
/usr/bin/xev
$ xev
(ignore the next fifty lines or so)
PRESS THE ENTER KEY (notice the third line):
KeyPress event, serial 33, synthetic NO, window 0x5600001,
root 0x110, subw 0x0, time 263441120, (738,242), root:(771,314),
state 0x0, keycode 36 (keysym 0xff0d, Return), same_screen YES,
XLookupString gives 1 bytes: (0d)
XmbLookupString gives 1 bytes: (0d)
XFilterEvent returns: False
KeyRelease event, serial 33, synthetic NO, window 0x5600001,
root 0x110, subw 0x0, time 263441271, (738,242), root:(771,314),
state 0x0, keycode 36 (keysym 0xff0d, Return), same_screen YES,
XLookupString gives 1 bytes: (0d)
XFilterEvent returns: False
PRESS THE SHIFT KEY (notice the third line):
KeyPress event, serial 30, synthetic NO, window 0x5600001,
root 0x110, subw 0x0, time 263592202, (464,368), root:(497,440),
state 0x0, keycode 62 (keysym 0xffe2, Shift_R), same_screen YES,
XLookupString gives 0 bytes:
XmbLookupString gives 0 bytes:
XFilterEvent returns: False
KeyRelease event, serial 33, synthetic NO, window 0x5600001,
root 0x110, subw 0x0, time 263592298, (464,368), root:(497,440),
state 0x1, keycode 62 (keysym 0xffe2, Shift_R), same_screen YES,
XLookupString gives 0 bytes:
XFilterEvent returns: False
What's important is the third line of each keypress:
FOR:
state 0x0, keycode 36 (keysym 0xff0d, Return), same_screen YES,
The name "Return" is the name of the behavior of the key pressed.
The number of the key pressed is "36".
state 0x0, keycode 62 (keysym 0xffe2, Shift_R), same_screen YES,
The name "Shift_R" is the name of the behavior of the key pressed.
The number of the key pressed is "62".
REVERSE THE MAPPING:
$ xmodmap -e "keycode 62 = Return"
$ xmodmap -e "keycode 36 = Shift_R"
SAVE THE RESULTS:
$ xmodmap -pke > ~/.Xmodmap
$ vi ~/.xinitrc
ADD
xmodmap ~/.Xmodmap
$ sudo reboot
The main problem was that the reversal did NOT work. The ENTER key was mapped to the SHIFT_R key; but the SHIFT_R key was not mapped to the ENTER key. Go figure.
In order to do global remaps independently of X, you can make use of console-setup(5) instead.
In my case I wanted to remap Caps Lock key to D, since my D-key is broken :)
First I used dumpkeys(1) to get a template for a mapping, in the case of the D-key, the interesting bit is the mapping for keycode 32 (on my keyboard); Note that there are two spaces in the grep pattern!
$ sudo dumpkeys | grep "keycode 32" > tempfile
$ cat tempfile
keycode 32 = +d
shift keycode 32 = +D
altgr keycode 32 = +eth
shift altgr keycode 32 = +ETH
control keycode 32 = Control_d
shift control keycode 32 = Control_d
altgr control keycode 32 = Control_d
shift altgr control keycode 32 = Control_d
(121 lines total...)
In order to change the map to apply to Caps Lock (keycode 58 on my keyboard) instead
sed 's/32/58/' -i tempfile
Now it reads
keycode 58 = +d
shift keycode 58 = +D
altgr keycode 58 = +eth
(etc...)
To add this remap to the default map, it simply needs to be appended to the remap include file for console-setup
sudo sh -c 'cat tempfile >> /etc/console-setup/remap.inc'
and console-setup needs to be reconfigured (skipping low priority questions with -phigh
)
sudo dpkg-reconfigure console-setup -phigh
Now the remap should be completed, and be loaded automatically on boot.
I spent one whole day in trying to create a shortcut for Ctrl+Pageup
.
I first tried xmodmap
but that can't generate modifier events. So it is impossible to create a shortcut that generates for example the Control
event.
I then tried xbindkeys
with xmacro
. That sort of works, but xbindkeys
is not able to capture some key combinations on my system, such as Alt + ___
.
So I finally used Unity's own Keyboard Shortcuts -> Custom Shortcuts to setup my shortcut.
And instead of xmacro
, I have now used xvkbd
program to generate the keyboard events, but that is just a personal preference. Both xmacro
and xvkbd
work almost the same. One additional tip is to add a delay parameter in xmacro
or xvkbd
to ensure that the events don't get lost.
For me AutoKey from Software Center worked the best. It has intuitive GUI, to add new binding click New -> Phrase and
<left>
(list of special keys is here).Super+C
and Super+V
to Ctrl+C
and Ctrl+V
. Just the perfect solution when using Ubuntu via VirtualBox on a mac
Super+V
to "show the notification list" go to Setting -> Devices -> Keyboard and disable it there
You could also try https://github.com/sezanzeb/input-remapper
It runs in the background and actively injects mapped keycodes.
While this adds some extra flexibility, if all you need is remap a single button and be done you could try to use xmodmap. Looks like that has already be explained in detail.
Or write an xkb "symbols" file and use setxkbmap, but I wouldn't recommend that. setxkbmap can be used on a per-device basis as well.
Writing xkb or xmodmap configurations caused trouble for me though if both devices report the same keycode, even though the configuration maps them to different characters, when pressing them simultaneously (which is the main reason why I had to write the injection tool for that)
And recently I came across this solution: https://www.reddit.com/r/linux_gaming/comments/k3h9qv/remapping_keys_using_hwdb_files/
If you need to remap a key for a specific program only, I've just added this feature to hax11.
I'd like to change PgUp to Home or PgDown to End.
To do this with hax11, open the program's profile configuration file under ~/.config/hax11/profiles
(e.g. ~/.config/hax11/profiles/usr\lib\firefox\firefox
), and add:
Enable=1
MapK112=K110
MapK117=K115
In my case I wanted to remap the keypad decimal point to a comma, but only temporarily, so xmodmap
satisfies this requirement in my case
:~$ xev | grep keycode
state 0x10, keycode 91 (keysym 0xffae, KP_Decimal), same_screen YES,
XKeysymToKeycode returns keycode: 129
state 0x10, keycode 59 (keysym 0x2c, comma), same_screen YES,
1st I pressed the key I want to remap and 2nd I pressed the key I want to map to.
..., keycode 91 (...
...(keysym 0x2c, comma),...
Find out what the current mapping for the keycode to remap is:
:~$ xmodmap -pke | grep "keycode\s*91"
keycode 91 = KP_Delete KP_Decimal KP_Delete KP_Decimal
As specified in the manpage of xmodmap: Up to eight keysyms may be attached to a key.. : 1st keysym is used when no modifier key, 2nd with Shift, etc... This does not correspond exactly to what was happening in my case but trial and error allowed me to discover the the 2nd positional argument was the one I was after
Map to the new config.
:~$ xmodmap -e "keycode 91 = KP_Delete comma KP_Delete KP_Decimal"
Map back to original config.
:~$ xmodmap -e "keycode 91 = KP_Delete KP_Decimal KP_Delete KP_Decimal"
I created a couple .desktop
shortcuts in ~\.local\share\applications\
to easily switch to one or the other configuration:
[Desktop Entry]
Name=KeyPad comma
Exec=xmodmap -e "keycode 91 = KP_Delete comma KP_Delete KP_Decimal"
Terminal=false
Type=Application
Icon=/home/paui/.icons/KP_comma.png
Extra info:
state field output of xev
,
The state field is the "sum" of current active modifiers. These are the ones I deciphered.
0x01 Shift
0x02 Caps
0x04 Control
0x08 Alt
0x10 NumLock
0x80 Alt Gr
If your lucky, perhaps the specific remap you want to perform is already integrated into a set of predefined options you can add to a your current configuration with setxkbmap.
:~$ man xkeyboard-config
\
for your specific configuration option. in my case I wanted to remap the keypad Delete key to a comma instead of a period, and I was in luck ┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│Option Description │
├─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│kpdl:dot Legacy key with dot │
│kpdl:comma Legacy key with comma │
│kpdl:dotoss Four-level key with dot │
│kpdl:dotoss_latin9 Four-level key with dot, Latin-9 only │
│kpdl:commaoss Four-level key with comma │
│kpdl:momayyezoss Four-level key with momayyez │
│kpdl:kposs Four-level key with abstract separators │
│kpdl:semi Semicolon on third level │
│ │
└─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
:~$ setxkbmap -query
rules: evdev
model: pc105
layout: es,gb
variant: winkeys,
:~$ setxkbmap -option kpdl:commaoss
:~$ setxkbmap -query
rules: evdev
model: pc105
layout: es,gb
variant: winkeys,
options: kpdl:commaoss
:~$ setxkbmap -option
If you require a mapping that is not predefined there, such as the example you placed, you will need to have to write it yourself as explained in this answer
xmodmap
is depricated! to get a system wide setting you have to usexkb
. So edit the language file in/usr/share/X11/xkb/symbols/
to add your changes there. See askubuntu.com/a/898462/34298