Mapping Super Keys to Control in xorg.conf?

Question

I've been attempting to switch my super and control keys in X on a macbook and have been half successful. I'd like to avoid creating a custom .Xmodmap if possible, as there is a temporary 100% cpu bug that pops up every time the custom map is loaded.

After some diging, I ended up putting Option "XkbOptions" "altwin:ctrl_win" in my 01-keyboard-layout.conf file which has gotten me halfway there: for eg, left command now maps to 133 Control_L.

However, the control keys remain the same. Left control, for eg still maps to 37 Control_L.

Looking through evdev.lst (and a bunch of googling) turned up no relevant XkbOption for turning control keys into supers, and now i'm pretty stuck.

Any ideas?

Answer 1

Ok, I did finally get this to work.

First, these two resources are amazing for anyone wanting to delve into this mess:

http://madduck.net/docs/extending-xkb/ & http://www.charvolant.org/~doug/xkb/html/index.html

For anyone specifically trying to do this switchover, this is what I did:

1) create a file in /usr/share/X11/xkb/symbols for your new mapping 2) put this in it:

// Control is SWAPPED with Win-keys 
partial modifier_keys
xkb_symbols "cmd_n_ctrl" {
    key <LWIN> {        [       Control_L               ]       };
    key <RWIN> {        [       Control_R               ]       };
    key <LCTL> {       [       Super_L         ]       };
    modifier_map Control { <LWIN>, <RWIN> };
    modifier_map Mod4 { <LCTL> };
};

3: edit evdev in /usr/share/X11/xkb/rules to include:

altwin2:cmd_n_ctrl               =       +altwin2(cmd_n_ctrl)

(under the option = symbols section)

4: add your new option to evdev.lst (same dir):

altwin2:cmd_n_ctrl

(under the option section)

5: now edit your 01-Keyboard conf file to include the new option that you've created. Mine looks like this:

Section "InputClass"
        Identifier "keyboard-layout"
        Driver "evdev"
        MatchIsKeyboard "yes"
        Option "XkbLayout" "us, ru, ca, fr"
        Option "XkbOptions" "altwin2:cmd_n_ctrl"
EndSection

6: reboot and you should be good to go.

The above resources are way better at explaining all of this, or any snags you might run into. There is probably a much better way to do this (probably not altering the contents of /usr/share), but so far, this is what got me up and running.

Hope that helps someone else stuck in this spot!