When I start up X I include commands to swap two pairs of keys, so that the ones
I use most are closest to the finger that uses them (little finger on left).
I swap
CTRL and CAPSLOCK
ESC and Grave/etc (below ESC on UK keyboards)
I frequently use CTRL and ESC sequences in my programmable text editor, which I
use for most of my work as I am not a fan of mouse+menu interfaces.
I use 64-bit Fedora 19 on my desktop with XFCE, starting with the CD version. I
replace the xfce manager with OpenBox (my second favourite window manager after
ctwm) while doing final upgrades. Once everything is installed and working in
the default configuration. I install ctwm, alter /boot/grub2/grub.cfg by adding
'3' at the end of the 'linux /vmlinuz .....' line.
That makes it boot up in level 3, without graphics, so I can login and when
appropriate do any maintenance, or check for upgrades.
I alter my ~/.xinitrc to start up some xterm windows, a clock, xload,
pulseaudio --start
run xmodmap to do the key swaps, and some other key bindings, then
ctwm &
and a final command for an exit mechanism. (Not making ctwm the final
command allows me to kill and restart ctwm while retaining my windows,
e.g. after a ctwm upgrade.)
For me that works very well.
However, recently -- I can't be sure exactly when, I have started finding that
those key swaps are undone, and I have to use a ctwm menu command to reset them.
I think this has only been happening in the last six months or so. I have not
found any pattern of events that seems to trigger it, though perhaps the most
common is use of firefox (which I leave running with multiple windows and tabs
in a ctwm workspace). It may happen when viewing a video.
It's very hard to pin down, since the symptom can occur some time after the keys
have been re-set. Most commonly the evidence is that my use of CTRL+Left or
CTRL+Right no longer switches workspace, though sometimes it turns up as a
failure of CTRL or ESC in the editor.
Does anyone know if there is anything in ctwm that tries to re-set key bindings
to some default specified somewhere in the system? If so, is there anything I
can do to disable that?
Or is it more likely to be a bug in the X server?
Or perhaps a bug in my brain: I am using ancient mechanisms instead of finding a
better, more up to date, way to set key functions.
One of the reasons I hate most linux window managers I have tried is that they
make it so difficult to alter key bindings, and mouse button and function key
actions to meet my needs, whereas the commands in CTWM are simple, general, and
elegant, though as far as I know there's nothing that can be used directly
in .ctwmrc to swap key bindings.
Thanks.
Aaron
http://www.cs.bham.ac.uk/~axs
