How do I setup a keyboard mapping compatible with a Chromebook?

Question

Google's Chromebooks do not have standard keyboards. Ubuntu has a Mac layout, but no Chromebook layout. Help!

Keys that do no function correctly:

• All the F keys after F5
• All the "Media" keys below the F5 (back/forward/refresh)
• The every important "Search" key
• All the home/page down keys that should work with the arrow keys

Tested in Ubuntu 14.10 (Chrubuntu, not Crouton) on Intel HP Chromebook 14.

I hear the official package xkb has layouts you can edit in a complicated manner, but it is not clear how to map the new keys such as the "search" key.

Solution

Common Solution

The best way to do this is with xmodmap Use xev to find which keycode, and xmodmap to find which modifier, then add this to ~/.Xmodmap and add the line sleep 4 && xmodmap ~/.Xmodmap & to your .bash_profile to make sure it is ran on startup.

Add this to your ~/.Xmodmap

clear mod4

!Make right alt to look like Super_R
!I'm assuming your search key has keycode 225, you can check using xev
keycode 225 = Super_R NoSymbol Super_R

!Add the Super_L and Super_R keys to the modifier mod4
add mod4 = Super_L Super_R

Alternate Solution

sudo apt-get install xbindkeys-config xbindkeys xdotool
xbindkeys-config

Add this command to your xbindkeys-config when the search button is pressed:

xdotool key Super

When done, `~/.xbindkeyssrc should look something like this:

"xdotool key Super" 
    XF86Search 

I don't know why you have to logout/log back in after doing this, but you do...

A bunch of other keys you can add are here: http://www.reddit.com/r/chrubuntu/comments/1crefd/how_to_get_shortcut_keys_to_work_on_chrubuntu/

And here: http://www.reddit.com/r/chrubuntu/comments/1rsxkd/list_of_fixes_for_xubuntu_1310_on_the_acer_c720/ce2ej5y

This may not work for many of the Window Handling commands (such as snap the window left, or view an overview of all your open windows (Super+W))

To set those, you'll need to go to Compiz Config Manager (ccsm) and change the Bindings there. Look in Grid and in Scale and in Expo

Comments

[Jonathan]

Couldn't get this script to work reddit.com/r/chrubuntu/comments/1rsxkd/…