Set the key for spanish eñe letter

Question

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 Lock + N, it should type Ñ

I'd like to do this without switching keyboard layouts; I want to use only the English keyboard layout.

Answer 1

This answer explains how to set this up with xmodmap. Put the configuration snippets below in ~/.Xmodmap, and run xmodmap <~/.Xmodmap to apply them. Depending on your distribution and your setup, ~/.Xmodmap may be loaded automatically when you log in, or you may need to call xmodmap explicitly from ~/.xinitrc or ~/.xsession, or you may need to configure your desktop environment to apply ~/.Xmodmap.

X has a keysym (i.e. an abstract key name) called Mode_switch. On most keyboard mappings for latin-script languages other than US, this keysym is bound to the key labeled AltGr, which replaces the right Alt key. You can choose to map Mode_switch to a different key such as Caps Lock. On a PC keyboard, the keycode (what the hardware sends) for Caps Lock is 66, so change its binding to Mode_switch, and remove the caps lock modifier from it:

keycode 66 = Mode_switch
clear Lock

You also need to associate a modifier with Mode_switch. There are 5 custom modifiers, Mod1 through Mod5; any will do, but there has to be one. Run xmodmap -pm to see what modifiers are in use, and pick one of the 5 that isn't, then add a line like this to your .Xmodmap:

add Mod3 = Mode_switch

In an xmodmap key specification, the character sent by the key with Mode_switch is in the third column after the = sign, and with Mode_switch+Shift in the fourth column. (The first two columns are for the key with no modifiers and with Shift.) You can use a keysym directive to rebind the key that now sends n regardless of its keycode:

keysym n = n N ntilde Ntilde

The names on the right are in fact keysym names. You can find a list of these in /usr/include/X11/keysymdef.h, e.g. the line #define XK_Ntilde 0x00d1 means there's a keysym called Ntilde that corresponds to Unicode character U+00D1. There are characters that don't have a keysym name; you can use the unicode number instead.

! U+2030 is PER MILLE SIGN, U+2031 is PER TEN THOUSAND SIGN
keysym 5 = 5 percent U2030 U2031

Note that if you're shifting modifiers around on systems of ~2009–2011 vintage, you might run into an X_SetModifierMapping bug. Often, but not always, using clear Lock will work around the bug.

Answer 2

Not exactly what you want, but instead of Caps Lock you can use AltGr:

AltGr + n producing ñ

AltGr + N producing Ñ

To get that with xmodmap you must know the keycode which produces the N. This can be done with:

xmodmap -pke | grep "n N n N"

where you may get something like: keycode 57 = n N n N n N. This means that the keycode 57 represents the n key.

Then, you remap this keycode, to produce the ñ and Ñ with:

xmodmap -e "keycode  57 = n N n N ntilde Ntilde"

(with this command, the fifth position after the = is produced when you type that key in combination with AltGr, and the sixth position when AltGr and Shift are pressed together).

If this woks, you can make it to run automatically after login.

Answer 3

If you don't mind having caps lock not work anymore as a 'caps lock' key, you can remap it to an 'altgr-like' status with xmodmap -e 'keysym Caps_Lock = ISO_Level3_Shift'.