Bsrgvty

If you're trying to move a Shift key, there are a few extra steps:

 xmodmap -e "keycode 62 = Up" # Shift => Up
 xmodmap -e "keycode 111 = Shift_R" # Up => Shift
 xmodmap -e "add shift = Shift_R" # Make the new Shift key actually do shifting
 xmodmap -e "remove shift = Up" # Prevent the old Shift key from shifting
 xset r 62 # Make the new Up key autorepeat
 xset -r 111 # Prevent the new Shift key from autorepeating

I've just had an afterthought.. I think you may mean something entirely different by "remap".. but I'll leave my answer as it is... (I don't know how to re-assign one key to behave as another)

UPDATE: my 'afterthought' has been confirmed; ( I've answered the wrong question :)... please see NES's Community Wiki answer (accepted above).

There are two general ways to remap rebind a key.

• locally to a particular program
  
  (a key can be used for different things in different apps/windows)


• globally for a specific user
  
  (a key has the same function in all windows)

For 'local to a program' methods, there is sometimes a way to change keybindings offered by the app itself... eg.

Firefox has an addon called keyconfig ... for some info see this MozillZine post

Most Ubuntu programs are Gnome based and there is a specific utility to modify the keybinding for any menu item of these Gnome apps... It is called Editable Menu Accelerator ... It is a very 'touchy' tool, but quite powerful.. You can enable it by running gconf-editor (via Terminal or Alt+F2)... navigate to desktop--gnome--interface and select can_change_accels .... You can then change menu items to virtual anything you like (per program/window)... I suggest you disable it as soon as you've done what you need..

Otherwise you can set up Global hotkeys. I use a program called xbindkeys , and there is also an option available via the Main Menu -- Preferences, called Keyboard Shortcuts

If you use xbindkeys, you will need to add it to your "Startup Applications" (Main Menu -- Preferences) ... Also (as suggested by Stefano Palazzo) I have previously written a more detailed description of xbindkeys in an answer on this askubuntu page

Here is how I tried to switch the mapping of the ENTER key to the SHIFT key
(and vice versa):

$ uname -a

REPORTS:

Linux box 2.6.32-37-generic #81-Ubuntu SMP Fri Dec 2 20:35:14 UTC 2011 i686 GNU/Linux

$ which xmodmap

REPORTS:

/usr/bin/xmodmap

$ which xev

REPORTS:

/usr/bin/xev

$ xev

(ignore the next fifty lines or so)

PRESS THE ENTER KEY (notice the third line):
KeyPress event, serial 33, synthetic NO, window 0x5600001,
 root 0x110, subw 0x0, time 263441120, (738,242), root:(771,314),
 state 0x0, keycode 36 (keysym 0xff0d, Return), same_screen YES,
 XLookupString gives 1 bytes: (0d)
 XmbLookupString gives 1 bytes: (0d)
 XFilterEvent returns: False

KeyRelease event, serial 33, synthetic NO, window 0x5600001,
 root 0x110, subw 0x0, time 263441271, (738,242), root:(771,314),
 state 0x0, keycode 36 (keysym 0xff0d, Return), same_screen YES,
 XLookupString gives 1 bytes: (0d)
 XFilterEvent returns: False

PRESS THE SHIFT KEY (notice the third line):
KeyPress event, serial 30, synthetic NO, window 0x5600001,
 root 0x110, subw 0x0, time 263592202, (464,368), root:(497,440),
 state 0x0, keycode 62 (keysym 0xffe2, Shift_R), same_screen YES,
 XLookupString gives 0 bytes:
 XmbLookupString gives 0 bytes:
 XFilterEvent returns: False

KeyRelease event, serial 33, synthetic NO, window 0x5600001,
 root 0x110, subw 0x0, time 263592298, (464,368), root:(497,440),
 state 0x1, keycode 62 (keysym 0xffe2, Shift_R), same_screen YES,
 XLookupString gives 0 bytes:
 XFilterEvent returns: False

What's important is the third line of each keypress:

FOR:
state 0x0, keycode 36 (keysym 0xff0d, Return), same_screen YES,
The name "Return" is the name of the behavior of the key pressed.
The number of the key pressed is "36".

state 0x0, keycode 62 (keysym 0xffe2, Shift_R), same_screen YES,
The name "Shift_R" is the name of the behavior of the key pressed.
The number of the key pressed is "62".

REVERSE THE MAPPING:

$ xmodmap -e "keycode 62 = Return"
$ xmodmap -e "keycode 36 = Shift_R"

SAVE THE RESULTS:

$ xmodmap -pke > ~/.Xmodmap
$ vi ~/.xinitrc

ADD

 xmodmap ~/.Xmodmap

$ sudo reboot

The main problem was that the reversal did NOT work.
The ENTER key was mapped to the SHIFT_R key; but the SHIFT_R key was not mapped to the ENTER key. Go figure.

In order to do global remaps independently of X, you can make use of console-setup(5) instead.

In my case I wanted to remap Caps Lock key to D, since my D-key is broken :)

First I used dumpkeys(1) to get a template for a mapping, in the case of the D-key, the interesting bit is the mapping for keycode 32 (on my keyboard); Note that there are two spaces in the grep pattern!

$ sudo dumpkeys | grep "keycode 32" > tempfile
$ cat tempfile
keycode 32 = +d
 shift keycode 32 = +D
 altgr keycode 32 = +eth
 shift altgr keycode 32 = +ETH
 control keycode 32 = Control_d
 shift control keycode 32 = Control_d
 altgr control keycode 32 = Control_d
 shift altgr control keycode 32 = Control_d
(121 lines total...)

In order to change the map to apply to Caps Lock (keycode 58 on my keyboard) instead

sed 's/32/58/' -i tempfile

Now it reads

keycode 58 = +d
 shift keycode 58 = +D
 altgr keycode 58 = +eth
(etc...)

To add this remap to the default map, it simply needs to be appended to the remap include file for console-setup

sudo sh -c 'cat tempfile >> /etc/console-setup/remap.inc'

and console-setup needs to be reconfigured (skipping low priority questions with -phigh)

sudo dpkg-reconfigure console-setup -phigh

Now the remap should be completed, and be loaded automatically on boot.

I spent one whole day in trying to create a shortcut for Ctrl+Pageup.

I first tried xmodmap but that can't generate modifier events. So it is impossible to create a shortcut that generates for example the Control event.

I then tried xbindkeys with xmacro. That sort of works, but xbindkeys is not able to capture some key combinations on my system, such as Alt + ___.

So I finally used Unity's own Keyboard Shortcuts -> Custom Shortcuts to setup my shortcut.

And instead of xmacro, I have now used xvkbd program to generate the keyboard events, but that is just a personal preference. Both xmacro and xvkbd work almost the same. One additional tip is to add a delay parameter in xmacro or xvkbd to ensure that the events don't get lost.

For me AutoKey from Software Center worked the best. It has intuitive GUI, to add new binding click New -> Phrase and

1. Add name, click OK


2. At "Phrase Settings" section make sure the paste using is set to keyboard


3. Add hotkey that you want to use


4. Add command into text field, eg to emulate left arrow key - it'd be <left> (list of special keys is here).

If you need to remap a key for a specific program only, I've just added this feature to hax11.

I'd like to change PgUp to Home or PgDown to End.

To do this with hax11, open the program's profile configuration file under ~/.config/hax11/profiles (e.g. ~/.config/hax11/profiles/usrlibfirefoxfirefox), and add:

Enable=1
MapK112=K110
MapK117=K115