Swapping keyboard keys on X11 with xmodmap
For the past year I’ve been working on a Mac Mini, but it didn’t really work for me, so I’ve moved back to my trusty Linux box which is a much better place to run the open source software that I use.
One of the things that I do like about the Mac is the keyboard, and so I’ve now plugged it into my linux box, and thrown out the clunky PC keyboard.
Linux is apparently ready for this: There is already a keyboard type of Macintosh Aluminium.
However, for some reason the ±§ key and the ~` key are swapped, which is irritating as I often type ~ and `.
No problem: I can just use xmodmap to swap them around.
First figure out the current configuration of those keys:
$ xmodmap -pke
reveals …
. . keycode 94 = section plusminus grave notsign notsign notsign bar bar . . keycode 49 = grave asciitilde backslash bar bar brokenbar bar brokenbar
I can now create a ~/.Xmodmap file to swap them around as follows:
keycode 49 = section plusminus grave notsign notsign notsign bar bar keycode 94 = grave asciitilde backslash bar bar brokenbar bar brokenbar
Then I can run the file:
$ xmodmap ~/.Xmodmap
The keys are now working correctly.
Additionally, every time that I login, the .Xmodmap file will be run and so my keys will always be correct.