Map caps-lock to control on Ubuntu 17.10

Question

The settings that allowed to change caps-lock to control seem to have gone in the latest Ubuntu. How can this behavior can be changed now?

Solution 1

You probably want to install the gnome-tweak-tool package

sudo apt install gnome-tweak-tool

and start Tweaks.

Then: Keyboard & Mouse -> Additional Layout Options -> Caps Lock behavior

Solution 2

On Ubuntu 18.04 there's no way to save or exit from the Additional Layout Options, I had to kill the process. gnome-tweak-tool is worthless, but setxkbmap -option ctrl:nocaps worked perfect.

Comments

[chepyle]

Gnome tweak is mind blowing; this is the cleanest way to knock out caps lock; thanks!

[nealmcb]

This doesn't seem to work in Bionic - no "Keyboard & Mouse", just "Keyboard" in the settings tool, and the "Keyboard" setting only have shortcuts, no "additional layout options". And I'm astonished that what I've considered the most basic remapping of all for decades (matching classic Unix keyboard layouts, and putting the very important ctrl modifer in an easy-to-use spot while getting rid of a stupid caps-lock key) requires installing software from universe!

[Gunnar Hjalmarsson]

@nealmcb: Yes, it works in 18.04 too. You need to start the Tweaks application - I just clarified my answer with that.

[nealmcb]

This works for me from the command line or in a shell script using only fully supported core Ubuntu software: setxkbmap -option ctrl:nocaps

[waffl]

@nealmcb I too was surprised not to find this config in the Tweaks tool in 18.04, but it's now buried under Keyboard & Mouse, then 'Additional Layout Options' which pops open a small window with the ability to set the Caps key accordingly.

[Gunnar Hjalmarsson]

An option is saved once selected. Tweaks works just fine on 18.04 too.