Key mapping

Sein

Hello. My laptop is broken and my A key is starting to die, so I would like to remap a and A to a key combination such as "alt + 1" (a) and "shift + alt + 1" (A), but I have absolutely no idea how to do that properly. Could anyone point me in the right direction, please?

Thank you.

PS: yes, I know this is only a temporary solution and sooner or later I'll have to buy a new device, but until then, this should do.

viyoriya

Sein

find all key mapping in terminal using
xmodmap (for spcial keys)
xmodmap -pke (for all the keys)

Its easy to set for unused keys like F11 or F12
i tried for F12
xmodmap -pke | grep 'F12'

find the keycode (eg. for me its 96)

xmodmap -e "keycode 96 = a A"
if this works then make an alias or create a persistant keymap file and .xinitrc file in _/

xmodmap -e "keycode 96 = a A"
xmodmap -pke > ~/.xmodmapkeys
touch ~/.xinitrc
echo '#! /bin/sh' >> ~/.xinitrc
echo 'xmodmap ~/.xmodmapkeys' >> ~/.xinitrc

reboot and test.

just

Sein

I simply use AutoKey. The package name is autokey-py3 in Solus repo.

The s key is dead on my keyboard. With AutoKey, I assigned the lowercase s' char to Super+2 key combo (hotkey), and the uppercase S char to Super+Shift+2 hotkey:

Super+2 and Super+Shift+2 are inserting s and S chars everywhere now.

Remember to add AutoKey to Startup Apps. The command to run is:

autokey-gtk

Nothing complicated.

Edit: Package name.

ender

I think ´xmodmap´ should do the trick (https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Xmodmap). You'll need to know the keycode of the key you're trying to map to alt + shift + 1 etc, (which you can get if you don't know it by installing xev and lauching xev -event keyboard and pressing this key, another way would be to print your current keymapping xmodmap -pke and to note the keycode assigned to the key you want to change)
You could then add your command to the autostart setting in the budgie setting panel. (Note that it's safer to use absolute paths there, something I struggled some time with !)

ender

did it work ? I myself tried several times to have that xinitrc file autoloaded on Solus to no avail (but it was several updates ago)

viyoriya

I use WM it works for me. If doesnt work add alias in .bashrc

alias 96='xmodmap -e "keycode 96 = a A"'

bsucker98

just Lets say I want to map <up> to <alt> + k, but I don't know how to refer to arrow keys to map them :/...How should I do that?

UPDATE: okay got it, it's actually <up>/<right>/<down>/<left>

Sein

Thank you all for the replies. I will check every single solution you have recommended and get back to you with a conclusion later on. Thank you honestly for the help.

Sein

I apologise for the late update. AutoKey offered me the most flexibility and was the easiest to set up. Thank you to everyone who helped me, though.

just

bsucker98 okay got it, it's actually...

Fine. It's really that easy.

Out of curiosity - in what DE do you use AutoKey? Recently it runs fine for me in Mate only. It fails to start in all other DEs here.

johano

just Here have been using Autokey in Budgie for quite a while and it runs as expected. Some problems with particular apps, but overall a brilliant time saver. I had to manually add autokey-gtk to my list of autostart apps, as marking the autostart option in Autokey Preferences didn't do it.

bsucker98

just Sorry mate for the late reply, I just noticed the notification...as @johano I'm using it in Budgie and working as expected except in IntelliJ IDE..So far so good at all the other applications 🙂