Q. How do I deactivate caps lock key in Linux permanently?
A. You need to use the xmodmap command. It 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.
You can also use the setxkbmap command, which maps the keyboard to use the layout determined by the options specified on the command line.
xmodmap command to turn off caps key
To turn off caps lock key, enter:
$ xmodmap -e "remove lock = Caps_Lock"
Now caps key is disabled. To enable caps key, enter:
$ xmodmap -e "add lock = Caps_Lock"
Add following code to your shell startup file ~/.bash_profile or ~/.profile file:
$ echo 'xmodmap -e "remove lock = Caps_Lock"' >> ~/.bash_profile
setxkbmap command to turn off caps locks key
To turn off caps lock key, enter:
$ setxkbmap -option ctrl:nocaps
To reset caps lock. enter:
$ setxkbmap -option
Further readings:
- setxkbmap and xmodmap commands man pages
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- Last Updated: 10-22-08
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{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }
I have switched ESC and CAPS_LOCK, which makes vim much easier to use.
Making caps lock an additional control key is ver useful also. It makes typing shortcuts a lot easier.
I want to disable a bunch of keys because my daughter accidently presses them when she is playing a game on her “Aspire one”. The method worked for many keys but not all.
For example to disable the tux-key (the linux equivilent to the windows-key)
xev doesn’t show a keycode when i press the tux key
infact i don’t see any Keypress event, just a lot of other events.
———————————————————————————
[user@localhost ~]$ xmodmap -pm
xmodmap: up to 3 keys per modifier, (keycodes in parentheses):
shift Shift_L (0×32), Shift_R (0×3e)
lock Caps_Lock (0×42)
control Control_L (0×25), Control_R (0×6d)
mod1 Alt_L (0×40), Meta_L (0×9c)
mod2 Num_Lock (0×4d)
mod3
mod4 Super_L (0×7f), Hyper_L (0×80)
mod5 Mode_switch (0×5d), ISO_Level3_Shift (0×71), ISO_Level3_Shift (0×7c)
———————————————————————————————
I thought it might be possible to just remove the mapping for “mod4 Super_L”, but even that did not work.
Any tips on this, most welcome.
//The Lowley Worm
I think, that the command
xmodmap -e “remove lock = Caps_Lock”
only works if your caps lock is off