Remapping Capslock as Control: Capslock + Shift + 2 doesn't work

peschkaj · 2019-03-29 13:56:59

I have a Dell Precision M5530 and I am running xmonad as the DE, I've set up my system to map CapsLock to CTRL via the following:

setxkbmap -option "ctrl:nocaps,altwin:swap_lalt_lwin"

## Set up Alt_R as mod3, need to clear existing mod1 first
xmodmap -e "clear mod1"
xmodmap -e "add mod1 = Alt_L"
xmodmap -e "add mod1 = Meta_L"
xmodmap -e "add mod3 = Alt_R"

Via xmonad, I've mapped CTRL + SHIFT + (some number) to move the current window to a different workspace. Using either the left or right physical control keys, I can move windows successfully to different workspaces. Using caps as the control key, I can move windows to workspaces 1 and 3-9. CapsLock + Shift + 2 doesn't do anything that I can figure out.

In xev, pressing CTRL_L displays:

KeyPress event, serial 28, synthetic NO, window 0x600001,
    root 0x19e, subw 0x0, time 39302116, (2801,1352), root:(2802,1386),
    state 0x0, keycode 37 (keysym 0xffe3, Control_L), same_screen YES,
    XLookupString gives 0 bytes: 
    XmbLookupString gives 0 bytes: 
    XFilterEvent returns: False

While pressing CapsLock displays:

KeyPress event, serial 28, synthetic NO, window 0x600001,
    root 0x19e, subw 0x0, time 39298563, (2801,1352), root:(2802,1386),
    state 0x0, keycode 66 (keysym 0xffe3, Control_L), same_screen YES,
    XKeysymToKeycode returns keycode: 37
    XLookupString gives 0 bytes: 
    XmbLookupString gives 0 bytes: 
    XFilterEvent returns: False

The maddening part is that my desktop computer is using the same configuration and everything works.

Any ideas, solutions, or pointers would be greatly appreciated.

seth · 2019-03-29 15:11:29

Not all keyboards are fully wired, check whether you get any event at all (eg. using "showkey" on the console, ie. no X11) for pressing Caps+Shift+2 (esp. when pressing the last key, order should not matter in this case)

Edit: clarification

Last edited by seth (2019-03-29 15:11:53)

peschkaj · 2019-03-29 15:24:54

seth wrote:

Not all keyboards are fully wired, check whether you get any event at all (eg. using "showkey" on the console, ie. no X11) for pressing Caps+Shift+2 (esp. when pressing the last key, order should not matter in this case)

Thanks for the quick response, here's what I'm seeing:

When pressing the keys individually, I see keycodes in the terminal.
If I press any two keys of Caps, Shift, 2 I see the appropriate keycodes in the terminal.
If I press Caps + Shift + 2 in any order, the last key pressed is not recorded.
If I press Caps + Shift + a number that isn't 2, in any order, all three keys are recorded.

Last edited by peschkaj (2019-03-29 15:25:35)

seth · 2019-03-29 15:29:14

That's unfortunately a (common) hardware limitation ("gaming" keyboards even advertise how many keys are registered at the same time)
You cannot fix that :-(

peschkaj · 2019-03-29 15:32:47

seth wrote:

That's unfortunately a (common) hardware limitation ("gaming" keyboards even advertise how many keys are registered at the same time)
You cannot fix that :-(

I'm not sure I follow you. Are you saying that it's common that other three key combos work but not Caps + Shift + 2?

The four key combos I've set up also work (e.g. Ctrl + Shift + Win + number).

V1del · 2019-03-29 15:35:31

No it's common that certain key combinations do not work, depends on how your hardware is wired - which can differ from keyboard to keyboard and from key combination to key combination. In your case what you intend to do here seems to be problematic on this particular keyboard.

Ctrl + Shift + Win combinations are often exempt from this, since these are officially intended as modifier keys and are usually where you will have these multi key guarantees.

Last edited by V1del (2019-03-29 15:36:33)

peschkaj · 2019-03-29 15:36:48

Thanks for the clarification. Sounds like it's time to reach out to the manufacturer.

Arch Linux

#1 2019-03-29 13:56:59

Remapping Capslock as Control: Capslock + Shift + 2 doesn't work

#2 2019-03-29 15:11:29

Re: Remapping Capslock as Control: Capslock + Shift + 2 doesn't work

#3 2019-03-29 15:24:54

Re: Remapping Capslock as Control: Capslock + Shift + 2 doesn't work

#4 2019-03-29 15:29:14

Re: Remapping Capslock as Control: Capslock + Shift + 2 doesn't work

#5 2019-03-29 15:32:47

Re: Remapping Capslock as Control: Capslock + Shift + 2 doesn't work

#6 2019-03-29 15:35:31

Re: Remapping Capslock as Control: Capslock + Shift + 2 doesn't work

#7 2019-03-29 15:36:48

Re: Remapping Capslock as Control: Capslock + Shift + 2 doesn't work

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