Ubuntu - console screen and kb settings

Question

As I get deeper into Ubuntu, and start to appreciate the smoothess of its Gnome integration, I'm also pulling out a bit of hair over the changes to inifile locations, where's-Waldo config files, and other "just different" stuff. Warning: my xxNIX experience is LONG ago. This is my first modern Linux desktop distro. And I do not want U-server. This is a dual-boot with XP on an old box under Ubuntu Studio Meerkat, and I want those audio apps, and actually enjoy the Gnome-minimalist feel of the GUI.

My current console annoyances are:

1. using anything-nVidia gives me dogmeat 6x4 text in the Alt-Fx terminals. SVGA and nouveau drivers give me a nice 1xx-wide fullscreen terminal, automagically. The box, of course, staggers without accelerated video.

2. with any drivers, the ctrl-capslock swap I've bound into Gnome does not apply to the terminals, or startx Gnomes from the terminals. It does inherit in GUI desktops 2-4.

3. returning to Gnome with Alt-F7 is extremely flakey. I'm likely to hang at the "one red dot of four" nVidia/Gnome loading screen. Or I get text echo, but no prompt, and no reaction to any hotkeys, except CAD, which reboots, sometimes to the rescue menu. Yes I'm fsck-ing, and no, there's no damage. EXT4 seems very solid.

4. No fullscreen terminal has an operable capslock light, even though Ctrl-capslock is NOT swapped. Numlock works. This is a vanilla USB 104 kb. I've tried the weird "set US keyboard, us type" thing in Gnome, gleaned from an old post here (seems to stroke Ubuntu somehow, or once did). No effect in console. Several other tips here helped with Grub's bootup and recovery consoles, but not the Alt-Fx ones.

Hints on where I can get up to speed on Ubuntu idiosyncracies? Yah, I know, wrong distro. "Load BBC linux and really enjoy the commandline."

Answer 1

1. Nvidia sucks. For now, you're stuck between free drivers (nice console, no acceleration) and proprietary drivers (accelerated X, kernel has no idea what to do with the hardware on its own). Support the nouveau developers, stop buying Nvidia, or just wait.
2. Edit /etc/default/console-setup to contain XKBOPTIONS="ctrl:swapcaps" or XKBOPTIONS="ctrl:nocaps", then run dpkg-reconfigure -phigh console-setup and restart (or run sudo setupcon).
3. See 1.
4. Not a clue. Does the light show up in xkbvleds?

Answer 2

1. Wow, that comment window is worse than useless, so I think I'll be a dork and talk to myself and you, ephemient.

2. Thanks, but no joy with any of these.

3. You bet these drivers suck. I've finally got acceleration with a trial PPA (broken for legacy nVidia in the repository under Maverick). I am thankful for this much. Here I was, all naive, thinking that nVidia was the only graphics adapter vendor with any accelerated support under Linux. Is this out of date?

4. Did you know that some of the standard fiddles with grub2's inifiles can keep the GUI from loading? I didn't. I got a nice 12x10 screen showing my eff-up though. Whoopee. Backed out with simple backup. Now I know that works.

5. Ctrl-caps swap works fine in Gnome, and that util shows the LED under the proper, swapped key. That's not the problem. It's that the console (and presumably an SSH login, ouch) doesn't honor that.

6. I give up. I think I want to image the partition and my grandmother's genome before I try any more of this stuff (g). Gnome console, I love thee. I'm going to get with the program. Wipin' it off, boss.