Remapping arrow keys to alt+j/k/l/i

Question

I've just spent a good while trying to make this happen, but I'm just stuck on the basic hello world example.

I've navigated to /usr/share/X11/xkb/symbols and edited the us file (since I use a standard us keyboard) and changed the first instance of

key <AC08> { [ k, K ] };

into

key <AC08> { [ k, K, A ] };

I also deleted the .xkm files in /var/lib/xkb and rebooted. According to

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Custom%20keyboard%20layout%20definitions?action=show&redirect=Howto%3A+Custom+keyboard+layout+definitions

I should now expect to see a capital A upon rightalt+k, but I get nothing.

Possible duplicate of How can I change what keys on my keyboard do? (How can I create custom keyboard commands/shortcuts?) — Fabby, Apr 12 '17 at 22:30
I have the same problem and no progress. It is fascinating how difficult such a simple thing is. — user3496846, May 19 '17 at 18:14
@user3496846 quiet late, but I posted a solution that should work and tested it some time before. — user.dz, Sep 22 '21 at 17:11

user.dz · Answer 1 · 2021-09-22T17:16:03.570

Short answer: You need to set/activate 3rd level shift (Default is: AltGr / Right Alt)

So use my answer here as reference which also explains it.

Declare either 2, 4, 8, i don't know if it will work otherwise
```
key <AC08> {   [     k,    K,    a,    A]   };
```
Add this line at the end, to activate RAlt as 3rd level shift
```
level3(ralt_switch)
```
Reload XKB data
```
sudo dpkg-reconfigure xkb-data
```

1 Answers1