Keyboard Config

I usually don’t make too many changes to my keyboards, but swapping the left-control key and caps has become a must. It is very annoying for the first few days, your mind has to physically remap itself to reflect the change. However the long term you won’t regret it.

This command swaps the left-control into the left caps, your normal left-control still works.
```
   setxkbmap -option ctrl:nocaps
```
This command swaps the left-control into the left-caps, and left-caps into left control. Im preference
```
   setxkbmap -option ctrl:swapcaps
```

A simple mnemonic to remember these commands is:

   set x keyboard map with -option ctrl: is swap to caps
   --- - -  -     ---      ------- ------    ----    ----

I also use the following alias to reset the keyboard if any funny happens:
```
  alias rkb="/bin/bash -c 'setxkbmap -layout us -option ctrl:nocaps'"
```
rsb stands for Reset Key Board
When things are not going well and you need a full reconfiguration you can use:
```
  dpkg-reconfigure keyboard-configuration
```

Reading List & Source

The plain idea

This page is about remapping keys in Linux, chiefly the classic move of swapping Caps Lock with Control. On Linux the quick, session-level tool is setxkbmap (under X11), which can turn Caps Lock into another Control key with a single option. It is one of those tiny changes that pays back for years.

Why it matters

Control is one of the most-pressed keys for anyone who lives in Emacs, vim or a shell, and on most keyboards it sits awkwardly in the bottom corner, straining your little finger. Caps Lock, meanwhile, occupies prime home-row real estate and does almost nothing useful. Swapping them is the single best ergonomic tweak for a keyboard-driven workflow.

An everyday analogy

It is like moving the most-used tool in your workshop from a high back shelf to the bench right in front of you, and putting the dust-collecting gadget up on the shelf instead. A few days of reaching to the wrong place, then it feels obvious forever.

A 2026 note

setxkbmap works under X11. If you are on a Wayland desktop (now the default on Ubuntu, Fedora and others), setxkbmap may not apply; use your desktop’s keyboard settings, or a tool like keyd or a localectl XKB option, to make the Caps-to-Ctrl swap. The idea and the key names are identical; only the mechanism differs. For a permanent, display-server-independent remap, keyd is the modern favourite.

A note on the counter-argument

I link “Don’t Swap Ctrl and Caps!” above on purpose. Some people prefer remapping Caps to Escape (handy in vim) or to a dual-role key (Escape when tapped, Control when held). There is no universal right answer; the point is that Caps Lock is wasted space you can reclaim for whatever you press most.

How it connects

Emacs and vim: the editors that make this swap worthwhile.
Linux and Bash: where the aliases live.

The truth revealed: the keyboard is the one tool you touch every single minute at a computer, and spending ten minutes to move your most-used key under a resting finger is among the highest-return tweaks you will ever make.