How do I switch Super and Ctrl?

Question

I'm on a MBP coming from OSX. I'd like to switch Super and Ctrl in all scenarios. I know it's very easy and requires installing nothing because I did it last night while trying out this distro, but now I can't find the like I had followed that explained how to do it.

How can I switch Super and Ctrl permanently?

Answer 1

You will need to install the Gnome tweaks tool, not the Elementary tweaks.

sudo apt-get install gnome-tweak-tool

Run the tweaks tool from the apps menu

Keyboard and mouse > Additional Layout options > Alt/win key behaviour.

Usually i use the option Ctrl is mapped to Alt/Alt is mapped to win

Answer 2

I don't like the options involving Autokey and others. For me, I found the best solution in Tweak Tool. You can install Tweak Tool in eOS's AppCenter. Under the Typing section of TweakTool you can choose Alt/Win key behavior -> Alt is swapped with Win.

You can also do Ctrl key position -> Swap Left Win key with Left Ctrl key.

I have an operating system agnostic keyboard where I swapped the Super key (aka the ⌘ key or Win key) with the Alt key to look like the Mac keyboard. So far this solution has worked ~ok~ for me, but I would definitely prefer a real solution from eOS since it is advertised as a Mac replacement.

Answer 3

sudo nano /usr/share/X11/xkb/symbols/pc

Switch Control and Super, it'll look something like this

...key <NMLK> {        [ Num_Lock              ]       };

key <LFSH> {        [ Shift_L               ]       };
key <LCTL> {        [ Super_L               ]       };
key <LWIN> {        [ Control_L             ]       };

key <RTSH> {        [ Shift_R               ]       };
key <RCTL> {        [ Super_R               ]       };
key <RWIN> {        [ Control_R             ]       };
key <MENU> {        [ Menu ..... 

Found it here https://askubuntu.com/questions/131900/how-do-i-switch-the-command-key-and-control-key-on-a-macbook-pro#158014

Answer 4

Kinto swaps the keys the way you want, and I am the author of it. https://github.com/rbreaves/kinto

On this example below it is from when I was mapping the Cmd location to Super while under the terminal - and to avoid writing custom xkb files. Kinto actually does use Ctrl+Shift in the Cmd key location for the terminals now.. but I use some custom symbols and types files for setxkbmap and xkbcomp to accomplish it.. again too much to post here and have it all make sense, because you'd still need the rest of my code to have it run right any ways.

# permanent apple keyboard keyswap
echo "options hid_apple swap_opt_cmd=1" | sudo tee -a /etc/modprobe.d/hid_apple.conf
update-initramfs -u -k all

# Temporary & instant apple keyboard keyswap
echo '1' | sudo tee -a /sys/module/hid_apple/parameters/swap_opt_cmd

# Windows and Mac keyboards - GUI (Physical Alt is Ctrl, Physical Super is Alt, Physical Ctrl is Super)
setxkbmap -option;setxkbmap -option altwin:ctrl_alt_win

# Windows and Mac keyboards - Terminal Apps (Physical Alt is Super, Physical Super is Alt, Physical Ctrl is Ctrl)
setxkbmap -option;setxkbmap -option altwin:swap_alt_win

# If the hid_apple driver is not loaded for Apple keyboards, which can be found out
# by the lsmod command then the above setxkbmap commands will not work
# Use the following commands for Apple style keyboards without an hid_apple driver
#
# Note: this could also apply to hid_apple driver as well 
# if this option is set to 0 inside swap_opt_cmd
#
lsmod | grep hid_apple

# Apple keyboard without hid_apple - GUI
setxkbmap -option;setxkbmap -option ctrl:swap_lwin_lctl,ctrl:swap_rwin_rctl

# Apple keyboard without hid_apple - Terminal
setxkbmap -option;setxkbmap -option altwin:alt_super_win

#
# If you want a systemd service and bash script to help toggle between
# GUI and Terminal applications then look at project Kinto.
# https://github.com/rbreaves/kinto
#
# Note: The above may not work for Chromebooks running Linux, please look
# at project Kinto for that.
#
# If anyone would like to contribute to the project then please do!
#