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I am on archlinux and trying to swap the left Alt key with the left Ctrl key for my convenience in emacs as well as bash command line editing. I use the following ~/.xmodmap:

remove mod1 = Alt_L
remove control = Control_L
keycode 37 = Alt_L
keycode 64 = Control_L
add mod1 = Control_L
add control = Alt_L

For some unclear reason to me, although xev output shows that indeed the two keys are swapped, no application actually uses the new bindings. Can someone enlighten me?

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    I removed lines 3 and 4 and the problem is solved. All I needed to do is just remove the key from its original modifier and rebind it to the desired one. By swapping the keycodes I effectively rebound the each key to its original modifier. How silly of me! – stk Apr 29 '11 at 21:37
  • @stk, you can mark this question answered, if you post the above comment as answer and mark it as correct. – Mirzhan Irkegulov Oct 26 '11 at 7:47
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You are switching it twice so it returns to the origin.

Instead you should have changed modifier:

remove mod1 = Alt_L
remove control = Control_L
add mod1 = Control_L
add control = Alt_L

or keycode:

remove mod1 = Alt_L
remove control = Control_L
keycode 37 = Alt_L
keycode 64 = Control_L
add mod1 = Alt_L
add control = Control_L

Check out xmodmap(1) example, they add to the same modifier they removed from:

remove Lock = Caps_Lock
remove Control = Control_L
keysym Control_L = Caps_Lock
keysym Caps_Lock = Control_L
add Lock = Caps_Lock
add Control = Control_L
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