Arch Linux remapping keys

Question

I was interested in installing Arch (or more specifically archbang) but could not figure out how to remap CAPSLOCK to ESC.

I tried loadkeys, but it had an error: could not get a file descriptor referring to the console

I'm used to using GNOME, where it is as easy as going into a menu and switching them. How do I do this on Arch?

Solution

I am using this in my ~/.Xmodmap:

! who needs CapsLock anyway
clear Lock
keycode 66 = Escape

It only disables CapsLock so basically [CapsLock] and [Esc] act the same way on my system.

I also have following line in ~/.xinitrc to load my customized keyboard map whenever X starts.

if [ -s ~/.Xmodmap ]; then
    xmodmap ~/.Xmodmap
fi

You will find more solutions on the arch-forum.

The following solutions are just copied from the above link for reference.

This should be put in ~/.Xmodmap to switch both Keys. You also have to load your modified .Xmodmap file from .xinitrc.

remove Lock = Caps_Lock
add Lock = Escape
keysym Caps_Lock = Escape
keysym Escape = Caps_Lock

Or if you prefer another program instead of xmodmap, add following line to ~/.xinitrc:

setxkbmap -option caps:escape

Comments

[prasanthv]

Yeah I think using the xmodmap utility approach is what you're looking for, though there are plenty of search results that crop with with loadkeys. I think xmodmap is more appropriate for your use-case -- as it's a utility for modifying keymaps vs. customizing keyboard for locale.