How to remap CapsLock to a Gnome keyboard shortcut?

ARX

6/21/23, 5:22 PM

On Ubuntu 20.04, I want to switch to the workspace above by just pressing the CapsLock key. However, the following does not work:

gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.wm.keybindings switch-to-workspace-up ['capslock']

Neither can I do it from the GUI, because in Settings, CapsLock is not recognized. But anyway, my need is to be able to do it from the command line.

How to, pls?

0 + 0

gnome

keyboard

shortcut-keys

vanadium

6/22/23, 11:17 AM

In the keyboard layout options, you could make Capslock an additional Super key

ARX

6/23/23, 12:47 PM

Thanks, but that would conflict with a different functionality I already have for the Super key.

Score:1

Ubuntu

vanadium

6/23/23, 2:49 PM

You indeed cannot bind modifier keys to a command. However, the tool xcape can remap hitting and releasing a modifier key to a keyboard combination.

Thus,

xcape -e 'Caps_Lock=Super_L|Next'

would make you switch to the next workspace by hitting and releasing CapsLock, because Super+PgDn is a default existing keybinding to move to the next workspace.

uNFORTUNATELLY, THAT CHANGES THE cAPSLOCK sTATE EACH TIME.

To avoid that, one trick is to fisrt remap CapsLock to Hyper, which is not present on common keyboards using the xkb options. You can do this using Gnome Tweaks on the "Keyboard & Mouse" tab. Then, next command will do the trick:

xcape -e 'Hyper_L=Super_L|Next'

0 + 0

ARX

7/5/23, 2:45 AM

Mapping CapsLock to Hyper_L is a great suggestion. Thank you very much. Since I needed to do all of it from a script, I ended up mapping with xmodmap: `xmodmap -e "keycode 66 = Hyper_L"`, and then using directly Hyper_L for changing the workspace: `gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.wm.keybindings switch-to-workspace-up "['Hyper_L']"`. Works like a charm.

vanadium

7/5/23, 11:33 AM

If at some point you notice that the mapping disappears, you still can implement the mapping directly with the xkb options. May happen if you change keyboard, or if your computer resumes from sleep. I was not expecting that 'Hyper_L' alone in the gsettings command would work, so that is indeed nice

Elon Musk

I sit in a Tesla and translated this thread with Ai:

EN: How to remap CapsLock to a Gnome keyboard shortcut?

TH: จะแมป CapsLock ใหม่เป็นแป้นพิมพ์ลัดของ Gnome ได้อย่างไร

RO: Cum să remapați CapsLock la o comandă rapidă de la tastatură Gnome?

RU: Как переназначить CapsLock на сочетание клавиш Gnome?

VI: Làm cách nào để sắp xếp lại CapsLock thành phím tắt Gnome?

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