How to permanently switch Caps Lock and Esc

Solution 1:

Another way to do this is through the dconf-editor. This method has a few extra steps from gnome-tweak-tool, but is useful if you don't want to pull in the dependencies from the tweak tool.

This will allow you to use the caps:swapescape syntax and automatically make the change permanent.

sudo apt-get install dconf-tools

After starting the dconf-editor, navigate to org >> gnome >> desktop >> input-sources

Add the options that you need in xkb-options. The option strings are surrounded by single quotes and separated by commas. Be careful not to delete the brackets on the ends.

You can use this method to enter most of the traditional xkb options that are no longer available in System Settings >> Text Entry. The exception are the settings for switching the keyboard layouts, which currently do not work because of a bug.

For a list of the options and the syntax, use man 7 xkeyboard-config in a terminal.

Another common option that could be used is terminate:ctrl_alt_bksp to allow ctrl+alt+backspace to end the X-session.

Solution 2:

A solution that should work for most linux distros:

setxkbmap -option caps:swapescape

Other options are possible:

• caps:none to deactivate
• caps:escape to make it an additional escape
• caps:super to make it an additional super (windows) key.

To make this work at startup, you can put it in ~/.profile as this will only run after the interactive login.

If the switch does not persist between logins (e.g. when suspending your machine) you can also create a .xinitrc file in your home directory and put it there. Linux mint 20 on a laptop works impeccable with this option.

Solution 3:

Okay, found a way to do this using gnome-tweak-tool.

From a terminal, run

sudo apt-get install gnome-tweak-tool -y && gnome-tweak-tool

You can find an option to swap Caps Lock and Esc in "Typing -> Caps Lock key behavior".

Update: In Ubuntu 18.04 and 20.04 it can be found in Keyboard & Mouse > Additional Layout Options > Caps Lock Behavior (Thanks to Adracus's comment below)

Solution 4:

You can use xmodmap in terminal to swap Caps Lock with Esc:

xmodmap -e "keycode 9 = Caps_Lock NoSymbol Caps_Lock"   #this will make Esc to act as Caps Lock
xmodmap -e "keycode 66 = Escape NoSymbol Escape"        #this will make Caps Lock to act as Esc

To get this change for every session, after you have run the ​​previous commands create a file called .xmodmap with the new keymaps, using the following command:

xmodmap -pke > ~/.xmodmap

Then, create a file called .xinitrc in your home directory, containing the following line/command:

xmodmap .xmodmap

Solution 5:

Similar to @Radu's answer, but compatible with 14.04 (see also this answer).

xmodmap -e "remove Lock = Caps_Lock"
xmodmap -e "keycode 9 = Caps_Lock NoSymbol Caps_Lock"
xmodmap -e "keycode 66 = Escape NoSymbol Escape"
xmodmap -pke > ~/.xmodmap

If it does not work, replace:

xmodmap -e "remove Lock = Caps_Lock"

with:

xmodmap -e "clear Lock"