Linux, Ubuntu & Apple Aluminium keyboard: remap greater/less with tilde

Question

I have an Apple Aluminium keyboard. To the left of 1 key I have the less/greater (< >) key, not grave/tilde (` ~).

xmodmap does not work for me: layout switching (done with setxkbmap) resets my xmodmap changes. .Xmodmap file does not help either.

How do I remap the tilde key?

Answer 1

xmodmap Way

First, check this out.

Here's my version of .xsession:

#! /usr/bin/env sh
GTK_IM_MODULE=xim
QT_IM_MODULE=xim
xmodmap ~/.Xmodmap-Apple

and the corresponding ~/.Xmodmap-Apple (for the Russian version):

keycode 94 = grave asciitilde Cyrillic_io Cyrillic_IO
keycode 191 = Print Sys_Req Print Sys_Req Print Sys_Req
keycode 192 = Scroll_Lock NoSymbol Scroll_Lock NoSymbol Scroll_Lock
keycode 193 = Pause Break Pause Break Pause Break
keycode 49 = less greater less greater
keycode 108 = Multi_key Alt_L Multi_key Alt_L

setxkbmap way

In Linux, setxkbmap is used to switch keyboard layouts. Alas, setxkbmap & xmodmap can't work together: they reset each other's changes :( You'll have to pick one of:

• Just don't switch layouts
• Invoke xmodmap after every layout switching (or make a script replacing setxkbmap)
• modify xkb key mappings for your keyboard.

We'll use the latter. First, check which layout you're using:

$ setxkbmap -print
xkb_keymap {
        xkb_keycodes  { include "evdev+aliases(qwerty)" };
        xkb_types     { include "complete+caps(internal)"       };
        xkb_compat    { include "complete"      };
        xkb_symbols   { include "pc+us+ru:2+inet(evdev)+altwin(meta_win)+group(alt_shift_toggle)+compose(ralt)+eurosign(e)+terminate(ctrl_alt_bksp)+macintosh_vndr/apple(alupckeys)"    };
        xkb_geometry  { include "pc(pc104)"     };
};

Here's your symbols map: xkb_symbols ... macintosh_vndr/apple(alupckeys)

In Ubuntu, we have a mapping for apple keyboards here: '/usr/share/X11/xkb/symbols/macintosh_vndr/apple'. First, backup this file. This file has several sections, each starts like this:

xkb_symbols "extended" {
xkb_symbols "laptop" {
xkb_symbols "laptop_bad_switch" {
xkb_symbols "alukbd" {
xkb_symbols "alupckeys" {

The latter mapping, "alupckeys", replaces F13-F15 with PrintScreen, ScrollLock, Pause. Use it if you lack these keys :)

Choose the section you've got from the command output above, and append the following, before the final } of the section:

    key <LSGT> { [ grave, asciitilde, grave, asciitilde ] };
};

Now, restart X. Yeehaw, enjoy having the tilde key on the correct place :)

This command can also help:

$ setxkbmap -option "apple:alupckeys" -print | xkbcomp - $DISPLAY

Answer 2

On the Official Ubuntu Documentation there is a page dedicated to this topic: Apple Keyboard

Here are listed several fixes according to your Ubuntu version.