[SOLVED]Setting Keyboard options everytime a USB keyboard is connected

elric_ed · 2018-02-15 18:19:14

I have my Caps Lock key mapped to L_Control on my Keyboard.

To acheive this I used to have the following line at the end of my .i3/config file

exec --no-startup-id setxkbmap -option ctrl:nocaps

and it has worked well for me, so far.

Recently, I got a KVM switch to share the keyboard and mouse between my desktop and my laptop, however when I switch over to my laptop and back to my dekstop, the XkbOptions seems to have reset.

Is there someway to execute the setxkbmap command everytime a new keyboard is detected by the system (write a systemd unit file?)

I have tried adding the following two lines to my /etc/X11/xorg.conf file under the Keyboard InputDevice section, but still no luck

Option "XkbLayout" "us"
Option "XkbOptions" "ctrl:nocaps"

Any suggestions?

Last edited by elric_ed (2018-02-16 04:15:44)

seth · 2018-02-15 22:42:14

Why do you have a /etc/X11/xorg.conf file, what does it look like and please paste your xorg log.

elric_ed · 2018-02-16 04:14:57

I had my xorg.conf file generated from nvidia-settings.

My xorg.conf file (with the issue) is here: https://pastebin.com/uMYn1Vna

I was able to solve the issue by changing my Keyboard section in the xorg.conf file as follows:

Section "InputClass"
    # generated from default
    Identifier       "Keyboard0"
    MatchIsKeyboard  "on"
    Driver           "kbd"
    Option           "XkbLayout"  "us"
    Option           "XkbOptions" "ctrl:nocaps"
EndSection

I had to set the MatchIsKeyboard option to "on"; and change the Section from "InputDevice" to "InputClass"

Now, Xorg behaves as expected!

seth · 2018-02-16 07:27:52

You should not be using a static xorg.conf (deprecated, tends to cause trouble, easily breaks on HW changes) and especially not an auto-generated one because they tend to be full or crufty nonsense, like that keyboard section (I will just assume that you do not have xf86-input-keyboard installed and you should not because you most likely do not want to use it)

See https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Xorg#Configuration
You most likey want some snippet in /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/20-keyboard-layout.conf

Section "InputClass"
    Identifier       "keyboard_layout"
    MatchIsKeyboard  "on"
    Option           "XkbLayout"  "us"
    Option           "XkbOptions" "ctrl:nocaps"
EndSection

elric_ed · 2018-02-16 13:54:02

Thank you seth!

I am working on splitting my xorg configurattion into multiple files in /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/*.conf now

Dinosalsa · 2023-07-28 15:16:02

Alright, I've found this here. I have a simple script in /.config that turns my Caps Lock into... Caps Lock automatically at login (I use a Colemak keyboard, and the default setting has the Caps key working as backspace, so I have 2 backspaces and no Caps): it simply runs

xmodmap -e "keycode 66 = Caps_Lock"

and that's it.
Now, when I plug in whatever other USB device, the settings go back to default. If I've understood what Seth said, I should also edit my 00-keyboard.conf file (here it's 00, not 20, but anyway...)
Seems fine enough. Now, I'm just not sure what kind of line I add there, because, you know, the key kind of is Caps, but is set as a backspace
Would it be something like Option "XkbOptions" "caps:nobackspace"?

seth · 2023-07-28 15:33:27

Please don't necrobump w/ completely unrelated topics, your problem is that you don't like the colemak layout and/or (because I've no idea what that actually looks like) you're setting caps:backspace

Don't run that xmodmap script, what's the output of

setxkbmap -print -query
xmodmap -pk | grep -Ei '(66|caps)'
xev -event keyboard # now press the caps lock key

Last edited by seth (2023-07-28 15:33:39)

ewaller · 2023-07-28 16:25:03

Dinosalsa, I am going to close this five year old solved thread. I invite you to start a new thread which you will own. If you think this thread relevant, go ahead and link back to this thread.

Arch Linux

#1 2018-02-15 18:19:14

[SOLVED]Setting Keyboard options everytime a USB keyboard is connected

#2 2018-02-15 22:42:14

Re: [SOLVED]Setting Keyboard options everytime a USB keyboard is connected

#3 2018-02-16 04:14:57

Re: [SOLVED]Setting Keyboard options everytime a USB keyboard is connected

#4 2018-02-16 07:27:52

Re: [SOLVED]Setting Keyboard options everytime a USB keyboard is connected

#5 2018-02-16 13:54:02

Re: [SOLVED]Setting Keyboard options everytime a USB keyboard is connected

#6 2023-07-28 15:16:02

Re: [SOLVED]Setting Keyboard options everytime a USB keyboard is connected

#7 2023-07-28 15:33:27

Re: [SOLVED]Setting Keyboard options everytime a USB keyboard is connected

#8 2023-07-28 16:25:03

Re: [SOLVED]Setting Keyboard options everytime a USB keyboard is connected

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