Changing key binding one specific key

Question

How can I change key bindings for a single key? I know that there are software like xmodmap and so on, but with this I can't map my key bindings, because with xmodmap I first have to press the keys that I want to change, but I can't because the key f doesn't work anymore. So I just want to change f (which doesn't work) to another, more useless key. How to do that? Thx

Answer 1

Xmodmap doesn't need "to press the keys". Did you read man xmodmap(1)?

All you have to do is to set key, like for example F12 to f.

$ xmodmap -pke | grep F12
keycode  96 = F12 F12 F12 F12 F12 F12 XF86Switch_VT_12 F12 F12 XF86Switch_VT_12
$ xmodmap -e "keycode 96 = f F"

First line shows keycode for F12 and second (command) sets keycode 96 to be 'f'.

You can see all keycodes with -pke option. It can also be used as backup.

# save current key map to file:
$ xmodmap -pke > xmodmap.bak

# you can view it with:
$ less xmodmap.bak

# restore from backup:
$ xmodmap xmodmap.bak

Last thing you have to do is put it in ~/.Xmodmap so your setting will load automatically with X server start.

$ echo "keycode 96 = f F f F" >> ~/.Xmodmap

This should hopefully solve automatic load of the setting.

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Check xmodmap Arch wiki or xmodmap tutorial for reference.