11.5.3. Helpful Hints and Tips

First, open up two xterminals. Use one to edit a new .Xmodmap file and run xkeycaps from the other. Using xkeycaps, remap your keyboard the way you want it. There's a button in xkeycaps to output the new keymap. Once you hit it, xkeycaps will spit a bunch of stuff on the xterm you executed it from. Just copy and paste all of that into your .Xmodmap file, and you're done.[1]

Also, there are some things you can do to help you get oriented. Try executing the command xmodmap -v -pm. This will show you all of the currently active modifiers. Also try xmodmap -v -pke | more to see which keycode numbers are mapped to which symbolic names. It will also give you some idea of the syntax of the .Xmodmap file.

There's one thing you'll need to check. Make sure that your Delete and BackSpace keys are not defined as the same key symbol by X! Note that giving these two keys unique symbol names will not necessarily alter the behavior of your programs. Some programs bind Delete and BackSpace to the same operation. Emacs is one. Other programs, however, use Delete and BackSpace for different operations. LyX is one of these programs, and if you have Delete and BackSpace labeled with the same key symbol name, you'll have trouble using LyX.