Bug#588555: x11-xserver-utils: xmodmap does not work when called within .xinitrc/.xsession

["Francesco P. Lovergine" <frankie@debian.org>]

Package: x11-xserver-utils
Version: 7.5+1
Severity: normal

This is a long standing issue apparently. 
I rarely use xmodmap but for mod4 remap on thinkpad.
Something very easy like:

------
clear Lock
add mod4 = Caps_Lock
------

simply does not work when xmodmap is called within .xinitrc or .xession
at startx call. 

I tried different tricks suggested here and there, such as calling each
instruction by '-e' option, calling xmodmap twice in a row, etc.
These days the only way to work around is using some autostart functionalities
of the various desktop/window manager in use. And also that could
fail (e.g. in awesome it does not work when called with a 
awful.util.spawn_with_shell()).

Of course, it also works when called within an xterm client.

-- System Information:
Debian Release: squeeze/sid
  APT prefers unstable
  APT policy: (500, 'unstable'), (500, 'testing'), (1, 'experimental')
Architecture: amd64 (x86_64)

Kernel: Linux 2.6.32-5-amd64 (SMP w/2 CPU cores)
Locale: LANG=it_IT.UTF-8, LC_CTYPE=it_IT.UTF-8 (charmap=UTF-8)
Shell: /bin/sh linked to /bin/dash

Versions of packages x11-xserver-utils depends on:
ii  cpp                           4:4.4.4-2  The GNU C preprocessor (cpp)
ii  libc6                         2.11.2-2   Embedded GNU C Library: Shared lib
ii  libice6                       2:1.0.6-1  X11 Inter-Client Exchange library
ii  libx11-6                      2:1.3.3-3  X11 client-side library
ii  libxau6                       1:1.0.5-2  X11 authorisation library
ii  libxaw7                       2:1.0.7-1  X11 Athena Widget library
ii  libxext6                      2:1.1.1-3  X11 miscellaneous extension librar
ii  libxi6                        2:1.3-4    X11 Input extension library
ii  libxmu6                       2:1.0.5-1  X11 miscellaneous utility library
ii  libxmuu1                      2:1.0.5-1  X11 miscellaneous micro-utility li
ii  libxrandr2                    2:1.3.0-3  X11 RandR extension library
ii  libxrender1                   1:0.9.5-2  X Rendering Extension client libra
ii  libxt6                        1:1.0.7-1  X11 toolkit intrinsics library
ii  libxxf86vm1                   1:1.1.0-2  X11 XFree86 video mode extension l
ii  x11-common                    1:7.5+6    X Window System (X.Org) infrastruc

x11-xserver-utils recommends no packages.

Versions of packages x11-xserver-utils suggests:
pn  cairo-5c                      <none>     (no description available)
pn  nickle                        <none>     (no description available)
pn  xorg-docs-core                <none>     (no description available)

-- no debconf information