Swapping two keys in my Keyboard...

[Wallex]

I just noticed that my keyboard's layout has a small mistake. The right win key is swithed with the 'menu' key (so when I press one, the other is the one actually triggered), where do I go and fix this? And don't tell me to just pull out both keys and exchange their places.

[cyberhwk]

Why can't you just pull out both keys and switch them? :D
Its an ez solution and it requires no real knowledge. Else I guess you can find something to remap your keyboard.

[Wallex]

I think.... Hmm.... *thinks hard*. Oh whatever, I'll just swap the keys, I feel too lazy to go learn about keyboard key mapping right now... plus, it's been a while since I last cleaned this keyboard.

[cyberhwk]

TaDA!!!! The easy way wins again!!!:D

[mdwatts]

I actually read your post before I left for work this morning, but didn't reply yet as I wanted to see if you would give in to swapping the actual keys.

Guess I was right... :D

Look into using xmodmap.

man xmodmap

And plenty of documentation can be found to also help with a Google for Linux search.

[Wallex]

Aah... man xmodmap confuzzles me. I am not yet experienced enough to play with it.. or I am? I am still trying to understand some of the names like key_sym. Hmm... I think I'll try harder... afterall, I am already used to the menu key being next to the AltGr one. Easy solutions are temporary solutions most of the time, I have to get this 'definitely' fixed.
EDIT: Ahh.... I am supposed to modify some file with xmodmap. Hmm.. but I have no idea which is the file I need to modify... oh well, I think I'll just have to succumb and be weak. The easy way.. for when you don't have time for anything else.

[bwkaz]

Here's a hint: Run xev and press both keys (individually). Remember their "numbers".

Then run xmodmap -pm and visual-grep through the output for both of those "numbers".

Then run xmodmap -e "keycode <"number" of one key> <keysym from the other key> <"number" of the other key> <keysym from the first key>

See if that helps...

[Wallex]

Woo! I don't know how.. but it worked! Well the hint wasn't all 'that clear', but it's good to use my brain to solve problems for a change. I am glad it's fixed... and to think I spent so much time swapping those keys.. now I have to swap them back. By the way... I was able to run xmodmap without being a root and I was able to change the keys as well.. will the changes be permanent? I hope so, I wouldn't like doing that again each time I boot my pc. Thanks for the 'hint' anyway!

[cyberhwk]

congrats!!! My solution was a temp. fix but it seems like you found to perment solution. :-D

[Wallex]

Originally posted by cyberhwk
congrats!!! My solution was a temp. fix but it seems like you found to perment solution. :-D
Not so permanent... I had to input the lines again when I rebooted. Hmm.... I wonder what should I do to keep the changes 'permanent'... you can't expect me to just add both those lines to my init.rc, can you? (this sounds like another 'easy' solution to my current issue)

[bwkaz]

Is there a .xinitrc file in your home directory (it'll be hidden by default because of the dot as the first character, but ls -a should show it)? If so, add those xmodmap lines to it somewhere before the "exec <something>" line.

If not, edit (as root) /etc/X11/xinit/xinitrc (at least, that's where it is for a source install, but it might be somewhere else, depending on your distro) and add the xmodmap's somewhere before the "exec <something>" line.

[Wallex]

Edit .xinitrc? That's exactly what I didn't want to do... I thought that modifying .xinitrc would be a 'patch' to fix my problem (in the same way switching the keys would have been a path for the initial problem). Oh well.. I'll go do that, and I hope that this time there won't be someone else who tells me of the 'good way' of doing it, but hasn't done so before just to see if I would just go the easy way and edit the xinitrc. Sounds like deja vu to me.
EDIT: Aha! I was able to avoid my own destiny! While inside the root .xinitrc, I saw the path to the Xmodmap file, which was a link to the real Xmodmap, which was readonly for everyone, I changed that through mc, then vi'ed into the file, and swapped the codes of the R_Win and Menu keys. Saved, quit vi, return the chmod as it was, and save, quit, save quit as needed. Now it's permanently fixed! It feels great when I can fix something without having to ask for a million hints about it.