Re: xmodmap

[marc <gmane@auxbuss.com>]

Florian Kulzer said:

> On Mon, Apr 27, 2009 at 10:07:03 +0000, marc wrote:
>> 
>> I'm trying to use the following local .xmodmaprc
>> 
>>   keycode  26 = e E e E eacute Eacute
>>   keycode  31 = i I i I iacute Iacute
>>   keycode  32 = o O o O oacute Oacute
>>   keycode  30 = u U u U uacute Uacute
>>   keycode  57 = n N n N ntilde Ntilde
>> 
>> via
>> 
>>   $ xmodmap .xmodmaprc
>> 
>> This runs fine, but the mappings for e and n don't 'take'. Initially,
>> it's as if eacute, Eacute, ntilde and Ntilde aren't defined.
> 
> [...]
> 
>> Any idea why there's a problem with the e and n keys?
> 
> You probably use a keyboard layout on which these two keys are of type
> TWO_LEVEL or ALPHABETIC. That means the only recognized modifier is
> SHIFT/CAPSLOCK and all further symbols are ignored. This behavior is
> documented in /usr/share/X11/doc/input/XKB-Enhancing.txt.
> 
> I do not know how to override these restricted type definitions with
> xmodmap, but it is not difficult to tweak the layout with xkbcomp:
> 
> $ xkbcomp $DISPLAY layout.xkb
> 
> will save the current layout in an xkb source file. You can edit the
> relevant sections in this file, e.g. this one:
> 
>     key <AB06> {
>         type= "ALPHABETIC",
>         symbols[Group1]= [               n,               N ]
>     };
> 
> These sections can be changed to have the same structure as the ones of
> keys that do accept additional AltGr symbols, i.e.:
> 
>     key <AB06> {
>         type= "FOUR_LEVEL_SEMIALPHABETIC",
>         symbols[Group1]= [               n,               N, ntilde,
>         Ntilde ]
>     };
> 
> Once you are done editing the file you can compile the new keymap and
> update the layout of the X server (both steps with one command):
> 
> $ xkbcomp layout.xkb $DISPLAY
> 
> The changes should be effective immediately.

Thanks very much for this, you nailed the problem precisely.

One further question, is there a way to make this change permanent or do 
I have to run:

  $ xkbcomp layout.xkb $DISPLAY

at every login?

Thanks again.

-- 
Best,
Marc