$HOME/.Xmodmap is applied twice

[johannesb]

Binary package hint: gdm

It seems that $HOME/.Xmodmap is applied twice in Ubuntu 10.10. This might cause problems for some users - in my case, for example, I use Xmodmap to swap the Escape and CapsLock key - so when applied twice, nothing is essentially swapped. FYI, here's my .Xmodmap:

    ! Swap caps lock and escape
    remove Lock = Caps_Lock
    keysym Escape = Caps_Lock
    keysym Caps_Lock = Escape
    add Lock = Caps_Lock

I verified this by commenting out the line in /etc/gdm/Xsession which applies my ".Xmodmap". After that, everything works as expected. It seems that some other component applies .Xmodmap, too - I guess it's some part of Gnome, as sometimes when logging in I get asked which .Xmodmap I want to load.

[Pedro Villavicencio (pedro)]

Thanks for the report, it has been some time without any response or feedback in this bug report and we are wondering if this is still an issue for you with the latest release of Ubuntu the Natty Narwhal, May you please test with that version and comment back if you're still having or not the issue? Please have a look at http://www.ubuntu.com/download to know how to install that version.Thanks in advance and sorry for the late response.

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

[Expired for gdm (Ubuntu) because there has been no activity for 60 days.]

[Trond Melen (trond-melen)]

$HOME/.Xmodmap is applied twice in Xubuntu 12.04 LTS, I'm afraid. The error messages I find in $HOME/.xsession-errors are the same I get when running xmodmap twice on the command line (without any $HOME/.Xmodmap present at login). By the same test, it is applied once in Ubuntu 14.04 LTS, both for 2D end 3D xsessions. My test:

tme@thinkpad-t43:~$ uname -a
Linux thinkpad-t43 3.2.0-27-generic #43-Ubuntu SMP Fri Jul 6 14:46:35 UTC 2012 i686 i686 i386 GNU/Linux

tme@thinkpad-t43:~$ grep xmodmap .xsession-errors
[no matches]

tme@thinkpad-t43:~$ cat .Xmodmap
cat: .Xmodmap: No such file or directory

tme@thinkpad-t43:~$ cat .Xmodmap-backup
!
!
! Make the right ctrl key behave as the windows key
!
remove control = Control_R
add Mod4 = Control_R
!
!
! Make the caps lock key behave as the shift key
!
remove lock = Caps_Lock
keysym Caps_Lock = Shift_L

tme@thinkpad-t43:~$ xmodmap .Xmodmap-backup
[no errors]

tme@thinkpad-t43:~$ xmodmap .Xmodmap-backup
xmodmap: .Xmodmap-backup:11: bad keysym in remove modifier list 'Caps_Lock', no corresponding keycodes
xmodmap: .Xmodmap-backup:12: bad keysym target keysym 'Caps_Lock', no corresponding keycodes
xmodmap: 2 errors encountered, aborting.

tme@thinkpad-t43:~$ mv .Xmodmap-backup .Xmodmap

tme@thinkpad-t43:~$
[logout and login again]

tme@thinkpad-t43:~$ grep xmodmap .xsession-errors
xmodmap: /home/tme/.Xmodmap:11: bad keysym in remove modifier list 'Caps_Lock', no corresponding keycodes
xmodmap: /home/tme/.Xmodmap:12: bad keysym target keysym 'Caps_Lock', no corresponding keycodes
xmodmap: 2 errors encountered, aborting.

tme@thinkpad-t43:~$