General keyboard topics, including keyboard hardware and keyboard functionality in software.
66
votes
5answers
2k views
How to run a command without hitting Enter Key?
Accidently I mapped Enter key via xkbset to Pointer_button2. Now every time I hit Enter some gibberish text appears. I thought of a workaround involving remapping it back but that means I will have to ...
45
votes
2answers
16k views
How to unfreeze after accidentally pressing Ctrl-S in a terminal?
It's a situation that has happened quite often to me: after I press (with a different intention) Ctrl-S in a terminal, the interaction (input or output) with it is frozen. It's probably a kind of ...
15
votes
7answers
5k views
How do I get current keyboard layout?
I'm wondering is there any command line tool, that returns current keyboard layout.
I have XkbLayout set to us, ru.
Update: setxkbmap returns layout settings, not selected layout. E.g.:
$ setxkbmap ...
14
votes
7answers
2k views
Disable Keyboard & Mouse input on unix (under X)
How can one programmatically "freeze" the Keyboard & Mouse temporarily, so that no one could mess with the system?
There are several possibilities where this is useful. For instance, I have a ...
14
votes
1answer
418 views
Switch between numbers and symbols on caps lock
Is it possible to set caps lock to switch between inserting numbers and the symbols they normally trigger when one holds shift?
e.g. when you normally press the 9 key, you get a ( unless caps lock is ...
11
votes
3answers
2k views
How to fix Ctrl + arrows in Vim?
I am using Putty -> Suse box -> vim 7.2 combo for editing and want to remap Ctrl + arrows combo to a particular task. But for some reason, Vim ignores the shortcut and goes into insert mode and ...
11
votes
5answers
970 views
Disable Keyboard & Mouse Temporarily
I would like to know how one can disable the keyboard & mouse temporarily in OS X.
9
votes
3answers
3k views
How does keyboard mapping work in Linux?
I have always had trouble with understanding the way keyboard mapping and related things are put together in Linux.
When things break, it makes my blood boil if I have to sift through endless ...
9
votes
3answers
2k views
How to get keycodes for xmodmap?
I'm trying to use xmodmap to remap alt/windows keys on Dell L100 keyboard, and have trouble getting the keycodes
For instance, using "xev" doesn't give me keycode for "Alt"
FocusOut event, serial ...
8
votes
4answers
455 views
How do I disable or change the caps lock key on my keyboard?
We have ergonomic keyboards at work which I'm not entirely used to. I seem to keep hitting the capslock key while I'm in vim and it's starting to annoy. How can I disable this key, and or change to to ...
8
votes
2answers
2k views
Map “windows” key on keyboard to “ctrl”
I am on Ubuntu and using a Microsoft keyboard. I want to map my Win key to a Ctrl key. How can I do that?
8
votes
3answers
725 views
Remap CapsLock to Escape and Control System Wide
Is it possible to remap the CapsLock key system wide such that when the CapsLock button is pressed by itself it acts as the escape key and when pressed with another key it acts as the control key?
7
votes
3answers
2k views
ESC key causes a small delay in terminal due to its Alt+ behavior
My terminal setup is gnome-terminal + tmux + zsh with vi bindings.
In applications like vim or even in the zsh's command line vi editing mode, I need to frequently hit the ESC key but there is a ...
7
votes
4answers
1k views
How do I type the degree symbol under X11 (using a default English keyboard layout)?
I'm trying to put in an email the temperature outside in degrees. On my Mac, the degree symbol (°) is Option+Shift+8. But I'm writing the email in Thunderbird on an Ubuntu 10.10 with the default US ...
7
votes
2answers
318 views
How can I keep control+d from disconnecting my session?
I regularly ssh to a centos 5 box. Somehow they keys are mapped so that control+d will log me out of my current shell. If I am sudo'ed to another use it puts me back to the previous user. If I am not ...
7
votes
4answers
2k views
Reassign Ctl and Alt keys - xmodmap error
I am attempting to remap my keyboard in order to make emacs usable - my ergonomic keyboard puts its single Control key in an isolated 4-key island way off to the left.
The OS is debian squeeze.
Here ...
7
votes
2answers
1k views
Mapping key combination with xmodmap
I'm trying to achieve the following mapping
keycode 135 = <Ctrl-C>
Is it possible to achieve this in some way?
7
votes
1answer
404 views
second keyboard to run commands
On my computer I have two USB keyboards plugged in. Instead of having both just type the same key, is it possible for a second keyboard to be setup to run commands instead of typing letters? And If ...
6
votes
4answers
6k views
How to inject keystrokes via a shell script?
I'm trying to inject keystrokes into the input daemon so as to simulate typing from a Bash script. Is this possible, and if so, how can I make it happen?
6
votes
5answers
703 views
6
votes
2answers
1k views
What does raw/unraw keyboard mode mean?
In the magic sysrq key combinations, there is the combination alt+sysrq+r which, according to wikipedia, does the following:
Switch the keyboard from raw mode, the mode used by programs such as
...
6
votes
1answer
149 views
Why does mapping <esc> cause arrow keys to fail in vim?
When I do
inoremap <Esc> <Esc>`^
in vim, the next time I switch to insert mode (after using Esc) the arrow keys fail to move the cursor (they insert letters instead). Why does that ...
6
votes
1answer
272 views
Adjusting keyboard sensitivity in a command line terminal?
When using a tty login shell by entering Ctrl-Alt-F1 from an Ubuntu 12.04 install on a laptop the keyboard seems overly sensitive and if my finger lingers for a moment on a button I end up with ...
6
votes
3answers
751 views
Is there something that will generate keyboard's click sounds?
I miss using a clicky keyboard at work. It's a fairly quiet office, so I'm stuck using a nearly silent keyboard. The upshot is that I can wear headphones. Is there something in Linux or X that can ...
6
votes
3answers
346 views
Turn off Caps lock when Escape is pressed
Is there any way to disable CapsLock whenever Esc is pressed. Yes, I use VIM! I actually have an alternative all-caps keyboard layout on Ctrl-6 but I find it cumbersome and would prefer to just have ...
6
votes
2answers
449 views
Manipulating X key and pointer grabs on the command line
What command line tools exist to list and manage X server grabs? (That's grab as in key and pointer grabs, i.e. restricting the use of a particular key or mouse button to a particular application, or ...
6
votes
1answer
214 views
Application-specific keymapping
In general, I want to make specific keymaps for application, that working only in it and doesn't affect any other app.
For example, I already use my Caps key to toggle input language (via xorg.conf), ...
6
votes
1answer
395 views
Using setkeycodes to map pressed and released to different “keys”
I have a keyboard that has a scroll wheel, but it doesn't work on Ubuntu and xev command doesn't show anything when moving it. But with the dmesg commang I found this:
When moving the scroll wheel ...
5
votes
1answer
1k views
Relationship of keyboard layout and xmodmap
I'm using Xubuntu. Before login I can choose a keyboard layout. I'm using xmodmap for remmaping some keys.
I'm interested in two things:
How the state of keyboard mapping changes when I turn the ...
5
votes
3answers
842 views
In awesome window manager, how can I make key bindings send keyboard events?
I don't think that title probably helps very much, but here's my issue:
I'm using the awesome window manager and am trying to make my key bindings to be similar in flavor to OSX for special keys. ...
5
votes
1answer
173 views
Recovering from Sys Rq + r
I had a really bad lockup of my X server and had to do a Sys Rq + r to release my keyboard from X and get into a console. I was able to kill the process that was locking up my system, and continue my ...
5
votes
2answers
1k views
Remapping Caps Lock with xmodmap doesn't work
When I program I like to swap these keys:
Esc ↔ Tab
Ctrl ↔ CapsLock
In ~/.xmodmap, I have specified these re-mappings:
keycode 66 = Control_L
keycode 37 = Caps_Lock
keycode 23 = Escape
keycode 9 = ...
5
votes
2answers
530 views
UTF8 math symbols & keyboard layout / input
I'd like to use UTF8 math symbols, when typing one list, another list.
I've found sth called ComposeKey. Unfortunately it's not covering omega, theta, rightarrow etc.
I am using KDE, I've tried ...
5
votes
1answer
444 views
`p` key doesn't work in X
Today I had to force-shutdown my machine after it froze during resume from suspend. Since the reboot, I've found that the p key doesn't work normally in X. It does work normally in the console.
...
5
votes
2answers
290 views
Share keyboard over network as separate device?
I am trying to achieve something similar to this:
http://superuser.com/questions/67659/linux-share-keyboard-over-network
The difference is that I need the remote keyboard to be usable separate from ...
5
votes
1answer
743 views
Korn Shell: End, pgup, pgdown, and delete key not working
So basically my End, Pageup/Pagedown, and Delete key are not working in ksh93. I'm running FreeBSD by the way.
My arrow keys are working, and so is my home key.
Those keys work when I put this in my ...
5
votes
1answer
3k views
Switch VI to use backspace key instead of Control+H for backspace?
I'm on Solaris 10 and by default vi version SVR4.0, Solaris 2.5.0 is installed.
The system was set up so that when I ssh to it Control+H does backspace, and backspace outputs ^?
I added stty erase ...
5
votes
2answers
55 views
tmux not respecting disabled control flow
In my shell I have flow control disabled using stty -ixon. This works
perfectly in the shell and when I launch tmux and start programs within
tmux.
However, when starting a new session from the ...
5
votes
2answers
243 views
how to deal with keyboard-greedy apps
I'm having a very specific problem, however any help will aid in understanding X's relationship to the keyboard.
I'd like to be able to launch the ElectricSheep program on top of music playing from ...
5
votes
2answers
2k views
Permanently remapping a key on Linux
I'm using an aluminum Apple keyboard with my Mandriva 2010.2 Linux system. I remap the Apple Command key to Control using the following .Xmodmap file:
keycode 134 = Control_R
remove mod4 = Multi_key
...
5
votes
1answer
135 views
Xorg key clicks?
I've currently got Fedora 9 on my home PC (yes, I know its quite old - but hell I only reboot it every 6 months - nevermind upgrading!) . My only niggle is that keyboard I've got has quite a different ...
5
votes
3answers
561 views
How to set an xmodmap file for the session manager (or at least SLiM) because of a broken physical key
I've got my laptop set up to boot directly into SLiM as the X session manager.
However, the "M" key on my laptop is broken. I've gotten around this when logged in by using xmodmap to remap my ...
4
votes
2answers
437 views
How to switch X windows from the command-line?
How can I create a script that automatically switches windows? I'm trying to do the same thing Alt+Tab does.
4
votes
2answers
2k views
How do I temporary change my keyboard layout on Debian? (no X)
How can I quickly change my keyboard layout between US and German?
setxkbmap does not apply here, as I only have an SSH shell.
Persistent changes via
dpkg-reconfigure keyboard-configuration
...
4
votes
3answers
2k views
Why is the US international keyboard layout on Debian different?
Edit: I realized that the "problem" was not only in Ubuntu but in Debian itself and Ubuntu just inherited it, so I had this migrated from Ask Ubuntu
I have been using Linux on and off for 10 years, ...
4
votes
1answer
1k views
USB Keyboard does not work with Grub
I am setting up Arcade Puppy http://scottjarvis.com/page105.htm on an old Dell GX50 PC.
Instead of using a PS2 style keyboard which I don't have I opted for a low profile generic USB keyboard.
The ...
4
votes
3answers
643 views
Set the key for spanish eñe letter
How can I map the spanish eñe letter to a key combination? What application is suitable for this purpose (xmodmap, xbindkeys, ...)?
When I press Caps Lock + n, it should type ñ
When I press Caps ...
4
votes
1answer
2k views
Why don't Page U/Down, Home/End work in less on Solaris over ssh from Ubuntu?
I need to work on a Solaris server over ssh from my Ubuntu (Lucid) laptop. I got Home/End Insert/Delete Page Up/Down working in csh and bash using bindkey and ~/.inputrc, respectively. But I can't ...
4
votes
2answers
174 views
Grub 'incompatible license' error
The other day, I was using a laptop for general desktop use when its keyboard began to act up. Most of the keys on the keyboard's right side stopped working entirely and key combinations such as Ctrlu ...
4
votes
2answers
421 views
How to get user-level access to modifier keypresses in console app?
I need to get access to modifier-key state for a console app I'm writing (a personalized editor).
Are there any packages/libs/whatever that provide this access?
I cobbled the following from ...
