i3 FAQ - Individual question feed

Remapping both caps lock and windows key

Wed, 12 Aug 2015 02:45:00 +0000

I want to use both my caps lock key and windows key in my i3 config. In particular, I want caps lock to take the place of $mod in the config and I also want to be able to reference the windows key in bindsym. How would I do this? Currently, my .Xmodmap is clear Lock clear mod4 keycode 66 = Hyper_L add mod4 = Hyper_L and my i3 config has a line set $mod Mod4 With this configuration, my windows key behaves like the mod4 key, but I don't want this. I want to be able to press Windows+a and have it behave differently than Capslock+a.

Comment by zetanot for

Currently, my .Xmodmap is

clear Lock 
clear mod4

keycode 66 = Hyper_L
add mod4 = Hyper_L

and my i3 config has a line

set $mod Mod4

With this configuration, my windows key behaves like the mod4 key, but I don't want this. I want to be able to press Windows+a and have it behave differently than Capslock+a.

Fri, 14 Aug 2015 04:47:30 +0000

I updated it.

Comment by Adaephon for

Currently, my .Xmodmap is

clear Lock 
clear mod4

keycode 66 = Hyper_L
add mod4 = Hyper_L

and my i3 config has a line

set $mod Mod4

With this configuration, my windows key behaves like the mod4 key, but I don't want this. I want to be able to press Windows+a and have it behave differently than Capslock+a.

Thu, 13 Aug 2015 12:46:12 +0000

Could you edit the question to show how you got Caps Lock to work as modifier? It is not something i3 can do by default, so I assume you remapped it (with xmodmap?) to some other key. Then would be the question if you want the Windows key to be the same modifier as Caps Lock or a different one.

Comment by zetanot for

Currently, my .Xmodmap is

clear Lock 
clear mod4

keycode 66 = Hyper_L
add mod4 = Hyper_L

and my i3 config has a line

set $mod Mod4

With this configuration, my windows key behaves like the mod4 key, but I don't want this. I want to be able to press Windows+a and have it behave differently than Capslock+a.

Wed, 12 Aug 2015 17:56:50 +0000

the modifier

Comment by Adaephon for

Currently, my .Xmodmap is

clear Lock 
clear mod4

keycode 66 = Hyper_L
add mod4 = Hyper_L

and my i3 config has a line

set $mod Mod4

With this configuration, my windows key behaves like the mod4 key, but I don't want this. I want to be able to press Windows+a and have it behave differently than Capslock+a.

Wed, 12 Aug 2015 09:41:34 +0000

Do you want to use the windows key as Modifier or as (the last) key?

Answer by Adaephon for

Currently, my .Xmodmap is

clear Lock 
clear mod4

keycode 66 = Hyper_L
add mod4 = Hyper_L

and my i3 config has a line

set $mod Mod4

With this configuration, my windows key behaves like the mod4 key, but I don't want this. I want to be able to press Windows+a and have it behave differently than Capslock+a.

Fri, 14 Aug 2015 08:57:00 +0000

The issue here is that you are essentially removing the *Windows keys* from the modifier list with `clear mod4`. In order to have *Caps Lock* available as an additional modifier instead as a replacement of the *Window keys*, you would have to set it to a different modifier. You can use modifiers `Mod1` through `Mod5` in addition to `Control`, `Shift` and `Mode_switch` with *i3*. First check, if any modifiers are unused in the the layout you are using (without applying your `.Xmodmap`). You can get a list of the modifier settings with `xmodmap -pm`. For the `us` layout this returns (on my machine):

xmodmap:  up to 4 keys per modifier, (keycodes in parentheses):

shift       Shift_L (0x32),  Shift_R (0x3e)
lock        Caps_Lock (0x42)
control     Control_L (0x25),  Control_R (0x69)
mod1        Alt_L (0x40),  Alt_R (0x6c),  Meta_L (0xcd)
mod2        Num_Lock (0x4d)
mod3      
mod4        Super_L (0x85),  Super_R (0x86),  Super_L (0xce),  Hyper_L (0xcf)
mod5        ISO_Level3_Shift (0x5c),  Mode_switch (0xcb)

As you can see `mod3` is currently unused. In order to use it you just have to put the following into your `.Xmodmap`:

clear lock
keycode 66 = Hyper_R
add mod3 = Hyper_R

**Note:** In this case I used `Hyper_R` because `Hyper_L` was already bound to `mod4`. And 66 is the key code of *Caps Lock*. This may be different on your machine. Now you can use this modifier with your *i3* keybindings. If you want to keep using the `$mod` variable with your configuration just set it to either `Mod3` or `Mod4` depending on if you want to use *Caps Lock* or the *Windows keys* for that. But There is no real need to actually use it (It is mainly convenience to ease up first time setup when choosing between *Alt* (`Mod1`) and *Windows keys* (`Mod4`). Using the new Modifier is as simple as: bindsym Mod3+s exec something binysym Mod3+Mod4+s exec something_else

Answer by i3convert for

Currently, my .Xmodmap is

clear Lock 
clear mod4

keycode 66 = Hyper_L
add mod4 = Hyper_L

and my i3 config has a line

set $mod Mod4

With this configuration, my windows key behaves like the mod4 key, but I don't want this. I want to be able to press Windows+a and have it behave differently than Capslock+a.

Thu, 13 Aug 2015 17:21:48 +0000

You can run the following commands to make caps lock act like the windows key. (I'm assuming that $mod in your configuration is the windows key, i.e., Mod4.) xmodmap -e "remove lock = Caps_Lock" xmodmap -e "keycode 66 = Super_L"

Comment by zetanot for

You can run the following commands to make caps lock act like the windows key. (I'm assuming that $mod in your configuration is the windows key, i.e., Mod4.)

xmodmap -e "remove lock = Caps_Lock"
xmodmap -e "keycode 66 = Super_L"

Fri, 14 Aug 2015 04:53:21 +0000

I can already do that. I've updated my question to clarify.

i3 FAQ - Individual question feed

Remapping both caps lock and windows key

Comment by zetanot for You can run the following commands to make caps lock act like the windows key. (I'm assuming that $mod in your configuration is the windows key, i.e., Mod4.) xmodmap -e "remove lock = Caps_Lock" xmodmap -e "keycode 66 = Super_L"

Comment by zetanot for
You can run the following commands to make caps lock act like the windows key. (I'm assuming that $mod in your configuration is the windows key, i.e., Mod4.)

`xmodmap -e "remove lock = Caps_Lock" xmodmap -e "keycode 66 = Super_L"`