Why are some setxkbmap options ignored?

Question

in share/X11/xkb/rules/evdev/lst, I find this set of options for ctrl

  ctrl                 Ctrl key position
  ctrl:nocaps          Caps Lock as Ctrl
  ctrl:lctrl_meta      Left Ctrl as Meta
  ctrl:swapcaps        Swap Ctrl and Caps Lock
  ctrl:ac_ctrl         At left of 'A'
  ctrl:aa_ctrl         At bottom left
  ctrl:rctrl_ralt      Right Ctrl as Right Alt
  ctrl:menu_rctrl      Menu as Right Ctrl
  ctrl:ctrl_ralt       Right Alt as Right Ctrl
  ctrl:swap_lalt_lctl  Swap Left Alt key with Left Ctrl key
  ctrl:swap_lwin_lctl  Swap Left Win key with Left Ctrl key
  ctrl:swap_lalt_lctl_lwin Left Alt as Ctrl, Left Ctrl as Win, Left Win as Alt

Some of them work - if I run setxkbmap -option -option 'ctrl:nocaps', I get the correct behavior. However, some of the others are ignored, for example setxkbmap -option -option 'ctrl:swap_lalt_lctl_lwin'.

One observation I've made is that the ignored options are displayed by setxkbmap -query, but not by setxkbmap -print. Here's a demonstration of this behavior.

$ setxkbmap -option -option ctrl:nocaps
$ setxkbmap -query
rules:      evdev
model:      pc104
layout:     us
variant:    colemak
options:    ctrl:nocaps
$ setxkbmap -print
xkb_keymap {
    xkb_keycodes  { include "evdev+aliases(qwerty)" };
    xkb_types     { include "complete"  };
    xkb_compat    { include "complete"  };
    xkb_symbols   { include "pc+us(colemak)+inet(evdev)+ctrl(nocaps)"   };
    xkb_geometry  { include "pc(pc104)" };
};
$ setxkbmap -option -option ctrl:swap_lalt_lctl_lwin
$ setxkbmap -query                                  
rules:      evdev
model:      pc104
layout:     us
variant:    colemak
options:    ctrl:swap_lalt_lctl_lwin
$ setxkbmap -print                                  
xkb_keymap {
    xkb_keycodes  { include "evdev+aliases(qwerty)" };
    xkb_types     { include "complete"  };
    xkb_compat    { include "complete"  };
    xkb_symbols   { include "pc+us(colemak)+inet(evdev)"    };
    xkb_geometry  { include "pc(pc104)" };
};

I don't know how to dig into this any deeper. Some further environment information is

linux distribution is NixOs
window manager is XMonad, display manager is SLiM, no desktop manager
keyboard layout is colemak (problem persists if I switch to qwerty)
setxkbmap version is 1.3.0 according to the man page

score 2 · Accepted Answer · edited May 23 '17 at 11:53

2

this appears to be because not all of the options listed in the file evdev.lst are also in the neighboring file evdev. I've asked a follow question as to why this is the case at why does the file evdev in /usr/share/X11/xkb/rules not match with evdev.lst?

edited May 23 '17 at 11:53

Community

1
1

answered Oct 30 '14 at 20:16

ajp

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score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Sep 30 '18 at 00:49

Perhaps it happens because some options seem to not be compatible with others.

For example, if I set up shift key to unlock the caps lock (-option shift:breaks_caps), and at the same time set up alt-shift to switch between keyboard layouts, then shift no longer unlocks the caps lock. As soon as I change the layout switching combination from alt-shift to say, alt-ctrl, the option shift:breaks_caps reactivates.

Looks like a bug to me.

Why are some setxkbmap options ignored?

2 Answers2

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