blog post: remap x11 keys

source/_posts/2013-10-16-permanent-remap-keys-in-x11.markdown

@@ -0,0 +1,55 @@
+---
+layout: post
+title: "Permanent Remap Keys in X11"
+date: 2013-10-16 10:40
+comments: true
+categories:
+  - X11
+  - KBD
+  - evdev
+  - linux
+  - keyboard
+description: "Using evdev_key_remap to globally remap keys in x11"
+---
+
+Because my shift got broken, I remapped Caps Lock to Shift using xmodmap:
+
+```
+remove Lock = Caps_Lock
+keysym Caps_Lock = Shift_L
+add Shift = Shift_L
+```
+
+However these settings got sometimes lost. (ex: after the driver was reloaded after suspend).
+Finally I found event_key_remap patch from [here](http://www.thenautilus.net/SW/xf86-input-evdev/en),
+which allows to permanently redefine keys in the xorg.conf.
+
+To apply the patch under archlinux simply install [xf86-input-evdev-remap](https://aur.archlinux.org/packages/xf86-input-evdev-remap/?setlang=de) from AUR:
+
+    yaourt -S xf86-input-evdev-remap
+
+To track down the key, you want to remap use `xev` on the terminal.
+Just type the wanted keys a few times. The output will be something like
+the following:
+
+```
+KeyRelease event,  serial 33,  synthetic NO,  window 0x1e00001,
+    root 0x8e,  subw 0x0,  time 5672767,  (611, 262),  root:(613, 288),
+    state 0x1,  keycode 50 (keysym 0xffe1,  Shift_L),  same_screen YES
+    XLookupString gives 0 bytes:
+    XFilterEvent returns: False
+```
+
+The interesting value here is the `keycode`.
+Use this code to build your final xorg.conf.
+In my case this was:
+
+```
+#/etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/10-kb-layout.conf
+Section "InputClass"
+    Identifier             "Keyboard Defaults"
+    MatchIsKeyboard        "yes"
+    Option                 "XkbLayout" "de"          # Replace this with your layout
+    Option                 "event_key_remap" "58=50" # Caps Lock Key = Shift
+EndSection
+```