[CLUE-Tech] X Keyboard Mapping Question

[Jeffery C. Cann]

Hi,

AFAIK, X has the capability to map keyboards to your discretion.  I have 
personally never attempted this, but I was intrigued by your question.  So, I 
first checked /etc/X11/XF86Config file under the section "Keyboard" for some 
hints.

This led me to find some utilities (I found them using the man -k {keyword} 
command to search the manual (man) pages for {keyword} (no braces).  In this 
case, I did a 

$ man -k keyboard

There was a lot of output, mostly X API functions.  But I found a few listings 
of command line utilities:

 dumpkeys, loadkeys, keymaps, showkeys

The keymaps man page led me to the xmodmap command.  Bingo!

DESCRIPTION
The  xmodmap  program is used to edit and display the keyboard modifier map 
and keymap table that are used by client applications to convert event 
keycodes into keysyms.  It is  usually run  from  the user's session startup 
script to configure the keyboard according to personal tastes.

Next, I did a google search on 'xmodmap' and found some interesting links.  
Here is an overview of mapping keyboards.
 + http://web.mit.edu/answers/xwindows/xwindows_xmodmap.html

Finally, I found a graphical front-end for xmodmap, called 'XKeyCaps'.  You 
can get it from:  http://www.jwz.org/xkeycaps/

BTW, I am also running Mandrake 8.2 and xkeycaps was not installed by default 
and it is not part of the 'Internet Edition', so you'll have to download and 
build the xkeycaps from jwz.org.  Based on the short time I spent looking at 
your problem, I assume that this graphical front-end will be a little easier 
than using xmodmap directly.

Let us know it works!

Later,
Jeff

On Friday 30 August 2002 00:51, Nathan Hokanson wrote:
> Ok, I have this habit learned from years of use of MicroSoft products.
> I use the Ctrl-Backspace sequence a LOT to delete previous words.
>
> Some of the apps that I use (gaim, now vi after mapping the key stroke,
> etc) do this already, but others (evolution, term, etc) don't.
>
> I am assuming then that X does not have that mapping and I can't find a
> GUI to create the mapping with.  Since I can't find a GUI, what file
> should I modify to cause this behavior?  Can I even create this type of
> behavior?
>
> Thanks for your help.
>
> Oh, I am running Mandrake 8.2 w/ the default Gnome.