Can't change keyboard settings on Fedora 16

Question

I want to swap the Ctrl and Caps Lock keys on my keyboard. I go to System Settings -> Keyboard -> Layout Settings -> Options and check Swap Ctrl and Caps Lock under Ctrl Key Position. I check that my keyboard ( English US) has the new key bindings.

However, when I exit settings, the keybindings switch back to default. How can I make my custom settings stay? I don't see a "Save" button anywhere.

Answer 1

Setting the x keymap directly using the command line is by far my preferred way of dealing with keymaps, and it's very disto-agnostic, so any solution you come up with will stand you in good stead.

Try this:

setxkbmap -print | xkbcomp -xkb -o original.xkb -

this will make a backup of your original keymap. Then do

cp original.xkb switch-CAPS-LCTL.xkb

Now edit switch-CAPS-LCTL and find the lines that read

<CAPS> = ??;
<LCTL> = ??;

where ?? is a number. On mine, these are two digit numbers, 66 and 37 respectively. Just switch them around and you're done.

xkbcomp switch-CAPS-LCTL.xkb $DISPLAY 

switches the layout, and

xkbcomp original.xkb $DISPLAY 

will restore the old configuration.

If you are going to be using these two keymaps concurrently, for maximum user-friendliness, just make two aliases to handle these keymap changes, and plop the keymaps into a hidden directory like ~/.stuff

mkdir ~/.stuff
mv original.xkb switch-CAPS-LCTL.xkb ~/.stuff
nano ~/.bashrc

Add the following to ~/.bashrc:

alias capswitch="xkbcomp ~/.stuff/switch-CAPS-LCTL.xkb $DISPLAY"
alias ctrlswitch="xkbcomp ~/.stuff/original.xkb $DISPLAY"

then,

source ~/.bashrc

if you want the changes to take effect immediately, typing capswitch and ctrlswitch to change the keymap.